For Gallyn Mitchell, horse racing is a family business

AUBURN — This is shaping up to be a big year for Emerald Downs jockey Gallyn Mitchell.

He's just 25 victories from becoming the first rider to win 1,000 races at the Auburn track that opened in 1996. He needs another $256,199 in purse money to become the first jockey at Emerald Downs to reach $10 million in winnings.

And he and his wife, Denise, are in the running to be on ABC's "Wife Swap," where women trade husbands and kids for 10 days, moving into situations way different from home sweet home.

That means the wife who would move into the Mitchells' Enumclaw home would likely be someone who detests animals, runs her family on a tight and well-planned schedule and lets her husband tend to his own business.

In other words, the exact opposite of how the Mitchells operate.

First, the animals. Wife X would have to tend to seven horses, one pony, eight dogs, three cats, three chickens, three rabbits, two chinchillas, two fish, a turtle, a parrot that squawks and a goat, who serves as the pony's playmate.

"This woman will have her hands full," said Denise, who takes care of the animals and shoes her own horses.

She also takes care of her husband's business as his jockey agent, trying to get him the best horses possible, hoping to keep him safe in an injury-prone sport and striving to keep happy the trainers who can guarantee the most rides in a season. It's a good arrangement for the Mitchell family because a jockey usually pays his agent 25 to 30 percent of his share of the purse, which is 10 percent.

Denise has been Gallyn's agent since 1995 when at Yakima Meadows, as she recalled, "His agent one day put him on a horse that took a left turn out of the gate and over the rail.

"I said, 'That's it. If you don't fire him, I'm going to.' And he said, 'Well, who's going to hustle my book?' and I said, 'Me.' "

She had never been an agent and "everybody laughed — all the other agents and even the riders."

But that year, Mitchell was the leading rider at Yakima and once won seven races in a day.

Such accomplishments have been standard fare for Mitchell, 45, who has been riding for 27 years. He's the leading all-time rider at Emerald Downs with 975 wins, has the most stakes victories of any jockey there (52), was the leading rider at Emerald Downs in 1999 and 2000 and has finished in the top five in jockey standings in all 12 seasons at the track.

Mitchell grew up in Southern California, where his parents kept stock for the movie industry and rodeos. But he latched onto Thoroughbred racing at an early age.

"People tell me that when I was 3 to 5 years old I saw it on TV and said that's what I wanted to do," he said.

When Mitchell was 15, a friend of his parents who worked for a Kentucky Thoroughbred owner took him on the road, following the racing circuit across the country. Within six months of his return to California, he began riding at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos, where trainer Frank Lucarelli noticed him.

Lucarelli said that young Mitchell "was one of those guys you see that horses run for 'em."

Lucarelli added, "I didn't have a big barn back then, so there was no huge reason for him to join me, but I really didn't have to twist his arm."

In 1981, Mitchell came north to ride at Longacres, and that's where he met Denise, who was exercising horses at the Renton track in the mornings. She also came from a family in which animals played a central role. Her parents, Jack and Glenda Bullock, trained horses at Longacres, and her brother Steve is now a trainer at Emerald Downs.

Gallyn and Denise, who have been married 21 years and have three children, carried on the practice of keeping horses front and center.

Gallyn said their children began riding before they were out of diapers, and Denise said they have been at the track "within hours of coming out of the hospital."

"I believe that being involved with the horses has made good kids out of them," Denise said. "And [Gallyn] has been supportive all the way."

That means weekends at barrel races, spending most of his offseason at home in Enumclaw and, as he says, "going with the flow" — which is where Wife X with her full BlackBerry calendar for the family might once again find herself a stranger in a strange land.

"We live day to day," Gallyn Mitchell said. "I don't know if you've seen the Ozzy Osbourne show, but they've got nothing on us."

Which brings up a couple of more things that might upset Mrs. X: She'll have to get used to calling Gallyn Mitchell "Booger," the nickname he has carried since his mother chose it for him.

"She had nicknames for all of her sons, Bugs, Vance, Slick — and Booger for me. I guess because I was such an ornery booger," Mitchell said.

And Mrs. X will have to get used to other riding pursuits Mitchell might take up, including rodeo-bull riding and movie-stunt riding, something he has done since working in "Little Big Man" when he was 5 years old.

He has also appeared in "Seabiscuit" and the 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes."

While the schedule at Emerald Downs might prove hectic for the potential Wife X — Mitchell exercises horses in the morning, Denise is at the track every day as an agent and then there are the races at night — both Gallyn and Denise agree that Thoroughbred racing has been very good to them.

"I've got my family, my health, children and everything — and that's what matters," Gallyn Mitchell said.

In return, Mitchell tries to help those less fortunate, doing at least one charity event a year, usually a golf tournament or a poker ride, either on horses or motorcycles.

The charity work got its start with Lucarelli, whose son Tony died of brain cancer in 2005 at age 16. The Mitchells raised $7,000 in one day to help the Lucarelli family.

Since then, the Mitchells have raised money for other families and causes. When Mitchell learns about someone in need, he organizes his own event to help out. "We're always looking for something," he said.

Mitchell is also looking to set "records as high as possible" this season and in future years, hoping to win the Longacres Mile again (he won in 2000 on Edneator) and to eventually make it into the state Thoroughbred racing hall of fame.

He'll get more help from Lucarelli, who said, "We've always had good luck together, and I've got a few horses for him to ride this year."

Ricky Frazier, the track's leading jockey in 2004, 2006 and 2007, called Mitchell "a great guy to compete against."

Frazier added, "You've got to outride him; he won't give you nothing. He's very knowledgeable, rides his heart out and makes you ride better to beat him. It's an honor to ride against him."

Kevin Radke, top rider in 2002 and 2003, said Mitchell is one of the hardest working riders he's seen.

"He's out there every morning galloping horses, and he's always on ticket in a race. He's a guy you want to keep your eye on, and he's not afraid to put a guy in tight."

Mitchell said it all comes down to the horse sense he has grown up with.

"Horses run for me," he said. "I get along with them — almost any kind of horse. I just go out there and try to make me and the horse as one."