Racing in her blood Rookie rider knows she has ‘big shoes to fill’ as she follows in jockey dad’s footsteps By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 6:00 AM CDT Friday, Jun. 20, 2025

Ciera Pruitt had pictured the scene since she was a little girl running wild on the grounds of Assiniboia Downs — her backyard, really — while her parents were hard at work nearby.

Back then, she was the wide-eyed Winnipeg kid peering over the paddock railing, watching the colourful parade of jockeys from faraway places like Bermuda, Venezuela and Mexico leading majestic thoroughbreds toward the track while the bugle call to the post played over the loudspeakers.

A few minutes later, she’d be sprinting towards the finish line as the horses made the final turn, the roar of the crowd building with every powerful stride, as bettors clinging to tiny slips of paper screamed for their picks to prevail.

Now, at the age of 22, Pruitt’s time as a sideline spectator was over. She was one of the diminutive figures in the saddle under the bright lights — a rookie jockey ready to take on the racing world.

And she was going to relish every single thrilling second of it.

“I don’t understand when people say they just zone out and they can’t hear the crowd or the horses when they’re racing. I hear everything,” Pruitt says of the sensory rush.

It’s 8:30 a.m. on a smoky, late-spring day as she’s preparing to go through her typical morning routine that involves exercise, training and pre-race gallops with as many as 15 horses.

“From the bell ringing at the starting gate to the horses breathing to the feet stomping to the crowd and everything. I can’t block any of it out. I hear everything that goes on,” she adds.

That includes the voices in her own head, which she admits were starting to get rather noisy after the first nine trips around her hometown track this spring had produced the following results: Fourth, fifth, fourth, sixth, fourth, third, sixth, sixth and seventh.

“I was pretty discouraged and starting to kind of kick myself,” she says. “And the more I thought about it, the more I messed things up or kind of got myself into trouble and made the wrong move.”

Family, friends and colleagues preached patience — something Pruitt admits she doesn’t always have in abundance. Turns out, she wouldn’t have to wait much longer.

“I don’t understand when people say they just zone out and they can’t hear the crowd or the horses when they’re racing. I hear everything.”–Ciera Pruitt

On May 27, on board a four-year-old filly named Mineral Rights — one largely dismissed by bettors — Pruitt had the ride of her young life. Breaking quickly from the outside No. 9 position, she seized the early lead.

“I tried to get myself in the best position to get it,” she says. “We hit the final stretch and that’s when our hearts grew, that’s for sure.”

She held off a hard-charging pack that included a curveball — a horse named Dirty Flirt had tossed her first-year rider, Dibaggio Payne, just out of the starting gate. No amount of training could have prepared her for that.

“A bit of an ‘Oh crap’ moment,” she says with a laugh.

“I was like, ‘OK, focus here, don’t get dropped.’ I kept looking over at her and was pretty sure she was a pretty game horse and would come with us. I stayed behind her at the turn to see what she did, and when she (continued to run) I got up beside her.”

Pruitt crossed the finish line first — then faced another anxious moment, waiting to see if the race would be nullified due to an inquiry or objection related to the gate incident, though she wasn’t directly involved and both human and loose horse were ultimately unscathed. A quick review by track stewards confirmed everything was in order. The results stood.

“It was nothing like what I thought it would be,” Pruitt says of her first career win, which paid a robust $41.60 on a $2 bet.

“You’re so filled with emotions. It just felt surreal. It was a feeling like no other.”

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Family ties

Jerry Pruitt remembers his first victory like it was yesterday — even though it occurred in 1972.

He rode four different horses to the winner’s circle on that magical night in Yakima, Wash., where the San Diego native had been sent by his agent at the age of 21 to kickstart his career.

“Campaign Made was the first,” he says, standing at the railing of the track he knows like the back of his hand as Ciera does her morning laps.

“I wasn’t that excited. I figured I just got lucky. But then I went out and won the next race, then the next race. What the hell? I didn’t understand — why were these horses winning?”

Turns out he was more than lucky. He was talented, too.

There would be plenty more victory laps over the next 45 years, including the final 17 at Assiniboia Downs where he eventually settled down, met his future wife and started a family. Pruitt would retire in 2017 at the age of 66, making him Canada’s oldest jockey and one of the most successful in Downs history.

He ultimately rode in 19,613 races, winning 2,557 of them and earning over $9 million in purses.

He is, in every sense, a legend of the sport. The tobacco-spitting, cowboy-hat-wearing character has likely forgotten more about horse racing than most people will ever know. He’s a walking, talking encyclopedia, known for his tales of rubbing shoulders with all-time jockey greats, including Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay Jr.

“The stories are legendary,” his wife Lise says.

Jerry might also deserve an honorary medical degree, given the sheer volume of injuries he suffered over the years — each one with a story as wild as the next. A broken bone here, a shattered hip there — ultimately, it was the latter that ended his career and gave him the limp he now lives with.

“This two-year-old bucked me off in a barn. They put a pin in my hip and a bar down my leg,” he says.

Pleas to keep racing were rejected by both his doctor and, more importantly, his wife. The risk was too great, especially with the danger of rupturing an artery — a potentially fatal outcome.

“I come and watch Ciera and I think I’ve got to come back.”–Jerry Pruitt

“I looked at it this way — ‘You’re going to die someday, some way. If the Lord wants you, he’s taking you,’” he says.

It’s been eight years since his last race, but the fire hasn’t dimmed. Not with another Pruitt in the saddle.

“I come and watch Ciera and I think I’ve got to come back,” he says. “I guarantee I’d find a winner.”

All of which might explain why the young woman has felt a little extra pressure in the starting gate. Being known as “Jerry Pruitt’s daughter” can be a blessing and a burden. Her first win put her just 2,556 away from catching dear old dad.

“I definitely feel there’s a little bit more attention drawn to me,” she says, sitting beside her parents in the trailer park where many of the jockeys live during the race season.

“I think everybody is looking at me to prove a little bit more. I have pretty big shoes to fill.”

She’s also the only local product currently riding at the Downs — and one of just a handful in the track’s history — along with being the only female and also the youngest jockey.

“I grew up on the backside here. We were in this trailer park as kids. This is home,” she says, laughing about how she and her older sister, Lexie, used to be known to track staff as “double trouble” when they were young.

All those factors only magnify the spotlight on her.

“The story unfolding in the saddle now is amazing. To see a generational transition at our track is incredibly rare and maybe unprecedented,” ASD president and CEO Darren Dunn says.

Dunn, who was the track announcer during Jerry’s winning days, believes the Pruitt family legacy may be on the verge of repeating itself.

“Ciera shows all of the natural talent that her DNA indicates she should have,” he says.

“Her father was a top-shelf jockey in his prime and if you had to handicap her chances, you would rate them very high for future career success that should have nothing but blue skies ahead.”

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Big bet

If ever there was a place to take a swing at a long shot, the racetrack would certainly be it.

Lise Cayer, who grew up in La Salle, admits she wasn’t sure what kind of response she’d get when she finally worked up the nerve to ask Jerry out for a date in 1998. She had slowly gotten to know him, having dropped out of high school in 1990 — the same year he arrived in town — to take a job as a groom at Assiniboia Downs.

“As we were heading out towards the track, (I asked him) ‘Are you seeing somebody?’ He said ‘No.’…  I said ‘Well, maybe we should do something about that.’”–Lise Pruitt

“I didn’t grow up around horses. But ever since I could walk it was always horse this and horse that. Decorations in my room, projects at school about horses — you name it,” she recalls.

“I decided school wasn’t that interesting anymore and came to work here. My parents were disappointed — although they eventually saw that it worked out in the end.”

She and Jerry had crossed paths plenty of times, especially when he was riding one of the horses from the owner’s barn for which she worked.

“We were both with different partners initially,” she says. “He was still kind of wild.”

But one fateful night, having previously broken up with her boyfriend and hearing Jerry — the father of a three-year-old boy named Brady — might also be single, she struck up a conversation as they walked toward the track before a race.

“It was my horse he was riding. As we were heading out towards the track, I ended up asking him what was going on. ‘Are you seeing somebody?’ He said ‘No.’”

She decided to take her bold pitch right to the wire.

“As I was about to let the horse go, I said ‘Well, maybe we should do something about that.’”

It worked. The following morning Jerry wandered over to her barn with a proposal — a dinner date at Applebee’s — and off they went that night.

The wedding came three years later, shortly after Lise had given birth to Lexie. It had to be held on a Wednesday, though, because Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays were already booked — those were race days after all.

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Growing pains

Ciera’s childhood dream was temporarily interrupted by what she can only describe as teenage angst.

Rejection. Rebellion. Resentment. There were some tough years as her parents toiled away in a demanding, unpredictable industry, filled with early mornings, late nights, and no guaranteed income.

“I think everybody is looking at me to prove a little bit more. I have pretty big shoes to fill.”–Ciera Pruitt

It’s not for everyone — and at one point, she wondered if it might not be for her.

“I was a bit more reckless and didn’t really want to focus on any one thing,” says Ciera, who attended Sturgeon Heights Collegiate and Shaftesbury High School, eventually graduating from the latter.

A dose of tough love was a turning point.

“I was 18 and Mom basically said get a job or get out.” Fortunately, Lise, who obtained her trainer’s licence in 1995 and currently works with top owner Barry Arnason, had just the offer — a groom position in her barn at the Downs.

“That’s kind of when my heart started to get back into it and I realized how much I missed it. And how much I love being around my Mom and Dad and back with the horses. It just took off from there.”

Grooming meant only getting in rides occasionally and nothing competitive. That was fine — at first. But Ciera was thinking about her next move.

“When I was grooming I wanted to gallop. When I was galloping I wanted to be a jockey. It always had to be something more. I was never satisfied,” she says.

Racing was the ultimate goal — and neither of her parents was surprised.

“She always wanted to be on top of the horse instead of on the ground,” Lise says as the family strolls around the Arnason ranch in Rosser, where they’ve now lived for several years.

“It got to the point where, OK, I can’t fight it anymore. Not that I didn’t want her to do it, but it’s a tough business. Especially being a female. I know she’s tough. But there’s a point in time where I said ‘OK, we’ve got to go for this.’”

Jerry remembers getting Ciera a two-year-old pony when she was just six or seven — and how she hopped on without hesitation.

“I was like, ‘If he throws you in the dirt don’t be crying to me’ and she was like ‘No, I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine.’ And she was,” he says. “From that day on she just never got off a horse and she just kept going and going and going.”

While her stepbrother, Brady, went on to become a carpenter and Lexie now owns her own small business, Ciera is ensuring the family business stays up and running for at least another generation.

“It’s been a sacrifice. I’ve missed a lot of things, a lot of events. A lot of relationships with people. It can get lonely,” Ciera says.

“But I wouldn’t change it. It’s the life I chose. It’s the life I want.”

The list of challenges is long, including maintaining a body weight in the range of 109 to 114 pounds on a regular basis. Jockeys must pass a breathalyzer test before every race, with zero tolerance for any alcohol. There are also random drug tests.

And the pay? If you don’t finish in the top three and earn a share of the purse, it’s just $85 per ride. Her first win brought in just under $800.

There’s plenty of responsibility outside of work, too. Lise quite literally takes her work home, managing more than a dozen broodmares and foals at the Arnason ranch, plus about 16 racehorses stabled at the track.

Ciera helps out when she can, often squeezing in a quick nap on race days, which begin with 6 a.m. morning rides and usually don’t end until close to midnight.

At the centre of everything — at work, at home and in her heart — is the animal.

“It’s always about the horses. They’ve probably been the most consistent thing in my life since I can remember,” she says, looking around the sprawling property which serves as home base.

It’s peaceful here. A two-month old foal nuzzles up to her protective mother in one corner. Four tiny kittens run over to Ciera — stopping at times to try and catch their own shadows in the dirt — as she scoops one up in her arms.

“The older I got, the more I started to get into my emotions. Any time I’m not having a great day, it’s about the horse. They always ask for your fullest. You have to be at your best. You can’t be sad on them, you can’t think about other things when they’re pulling you and you’re pulling back. They always make your day better.

“As soon as I sit on that horse and put my feet in the stirrups, everything else just floats out.”

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Basic training

She had the pedigree. She had the passion. Now Ciera needed the proper training — and the paperwork — to make it official.

Enter Kayla Pizarro, who shares a similar backstretch-to-racetrack story.

The Winnipeg-born jockey began her career at the Downs in 2015 and spent six years there before heading to Ontario. She’s now at Woodbine, following the path of her brother, Tyler, and father, Jorge, both jockeys, and her mother, Brigitte, a trainer.

“It’s in our blood. Literally,” she says. Just like the Pruitts.

Pizarro was galloping horses for female trainer and Canadian Hall of Famer Josie Carroll and mentioned Ciera, whom she’d known for years having raced alongside Jerry for a couple seasons.

“She was always there in the morning when I was riding, helping out. That was literally what I did. I knew she wanted to be a rider, too,” Pizarro says.

At Carroll’s behest, she invited Ciera to spend last summer in Toronto with them. That led to an even bigger door opening this past winter when Carroll took her to Florida to train at the prestigious Palm Meadows facility.

“This was a grand opportunity to come and work for someone big. And you learn so fast. It was a great opportunity for someone that was just as ambitious as I was when I was younger,” Pizarro says.

“Even though she’s kind of been in this industry, she doesn’t come across as thinking she knows everything. She’s very open to learning.”

Ciera calls the hands-on experience with Pizarro and Carroll “the best thing I could have ever done for myself” and credits both for shaping her into the rider she is today.

“It changed everything,” she says. “Kayla, every time I was down she picked me back up. She was there for me every time.”

Pizarro, who has 1,248 races and 178 wins on her resume, believes Ciera is destined for success: “If you watch her on a horse, you can see she’s in love with the horse. And when you connect with the horse, that’s already half the battle of being good.”

Among the biggest lessons she passed along: Always watch your back.

“You definitely have to in this industry,” says Ciera, who officially obtained her jockey licence just prior to the start of the Downs season.

It helps that she’s not coming in green. And having Lise at the track every day — and Jerry in a supporting, more spectator-based role — makes a difference.

“For a woman it’s definitely different than a man. You have to keep your head on a swivel and you have to have a backbone,” Ciera says.

“If you’re going to let somebody push you around, you really shouldn’t be doing this. It’s a hard life. I’ve broken down, I’ve been in the lowest of lows. I’ve always just tried to pull myself back up and get back on the horse.”

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Winning strategy

Riding a longshot to victory in just her 10th career race opened some immediate — and important — doors for Ciera. Her agent, Robert Smith, saw the shift up close.

Smith, who began “hustling book” in 2024, currently represents four riders. Rookies like Ciera typically sit at the bottom of the pecking order, a last resort for owners and trainers to turn to if a more accomplished and experienced rider isn’t available.

Mounts can be scarce. There have been nights so far this spring where Ciera has just one ride while more experienced colleagues are in five or six races. Opportunities to ride a favourite? Almost unheard of.

“Anyone who knows me knows I’m an emotional person. I’m not afraid to admit I cried when Ciera won her first race. It was one of the proudest moments of my life,” Smith says.

Her parents experienced similar emotions.

“I see her coming around the turn and I’m thinking ‘Holy!’ I can’t stand still, I never do, so I start running, I’m screaming ‘C’mon baby girl!’” says Lise, who describes a strange feeling — call it mother’s intuition — that compelled her to drop what she was doing in her trainer’s barn and make sure to get up close to watch the race.

“It was just pure happiness. And then after that it was kind of a blur.”

Jerry had been watching from the grandstand but said he jumped out of his seat and began running toward the winner’s circle.

“It was more exciting than me winning my first race,” he says.

“I told her ‘See, it’ll come. What you did here is better than winning on a favourite. Winning on a longshot like that really makes people look at you. It’s going to help her a lot.”

It already has.

“It’s been a lot easier acquiring mounts for her than it has been at times for other jockeys,” says Smith, crediting veteran trainers like Jason Homer (who works with Mineral Rights), Wendy Anderson and Tom Gardipy Jr. for giving her a chance.

“Even though she’s kind of been in this industry, she doesn’t come across as thinking she knows everything. She’s very open to learning.”–Jockey Kayla Pizarro

“Winning one that early as an apprentice (rookie) is a huge deal. It shows the owners and trainers that she has what it takes. She already had a lot of business for a jockey with her experience level, and now it’s soaring. People start to take more notice and want to ride her more.”

Smith said the evolution of Ciera from “the Pruitt Kid” — whom he describes as a strong-headed “horsey girl” — to a rising star has been like something out of a movie.

“She has such a strong work ethic, and a great way of getting horses to relax in the mornings and at night while on the track. Horses want to run for her when she asks,” he says.

Turns out the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“Jerry was obviously a fantastic jock. Lise is a fantastic horseperson and a wonderful human being. And Ciera — no matter where she goes, she’s always going to have that Manitoba pride with her and is going to be sure to let people know where she came from. It’s been a wild ride and it’s just starting.”

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The encore

Ciera said some of “the boys” — a.k.a. the other 18 or so jockeys currently working at the Downs — gave her a bit of a hard time after her first win.

“A few of them were saying like I didn’t really deserve it because there was that loose one. They said they stopped riding, that they thought the race was going to get (disqualified),” she says.

What followed was another tough stretch: 10 races between May 28 and early June that saw her finish sixth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fifth, fourth, third, fifth, third and third.

The self-doubt was starting to creep in again. Those dreaded voices in her head again.

She tried to quiet them with film study, often with her parents at her side, going frame-by-frame over every detail of her races. Jerry insisted he was seeing progress, even if it wasn’t always translating on the track.

“There’s things I can see that she doesn’t see or feel herself,” he says.

Then came June 10 — Jerry’s 74th birthday — and a perfect gift: Ciera rode a 10-year-old gelding named Dragon Drew to victory in the seventh and final race. It was also her career-high fourth mount of the night, a sure sign business is picking up.

This time, a $2 bet paid a whopping $43.10. The queen of the longshots had struck again.

“I like being the underdog more than the favourite, that’s for sure,” Ciera says with a smirk.

“He broke really good. I thought he was going to burn himself out because the way he was starting to run right out of the gate. I was like ‘Buddy, I hope you know what you’re doing.’ I just kind of sat back on him and let him pull me. We took a breath on the backside to kind of chill out but around the turn we opened up on him. He pulled away and I knew we had it.”

This time, there were no chirps in the jockey room, where she has her own private dressing quarters and typically holes up to watch the races she’s not involved in on her television monitor. The “boys” were impressed.

“We’re like a big family here. Everybody tries to look after each other. But it can be hard once those gates open,” Ciera says.

“You have to look after yourself. It’s not so much a family anymore, but more of a competition. At the end of the day, you have to do what’s best for you.”

And that may mean a tough decision in the not-too-distant future, one that could at least temporarily separate the tight-knit Pruitt family.

“I like being the underdog more than the favourite, that’s for sure.”–Ciera Pruitt

Ciera has Woodbine on her mind. Only this time, she hopes to return as a rider working under Carroll and Pizarro.

“Once I get my feet underneath me here I’d love to go back there,” she says, sitting in her jockey room suite as she waits for the seventh race, which will be her only mount on a recent Wednesday night.

That horse — another significant longshot named Flintlock — went on to finish third. It was a close finish, with the winner being one of Lise’s horses out of the Arnason barn, Just A Pose.

Ciera had the lead for the first three-quarters of the race but couldn’t close it out. There will be more late-night film study to come, now 26 races and counting into a career that certainly seems to be going places, and fast.

Heading south to continue riding over the winter is also on the radar. Carroll sets up shop at Palm Meadows in Florida and Keeneland in Kentucky, and Ciera hopes to earn another look from someone considered a legend in the industry.

“I’m hoping she still might have a soft spot for me,” she says.

In the meantime, Ciera hopes to get a few mounts this summer in bigger-money stakes races at the Downs while continuing to gain valuable experience and confidence.

Workouts at the crack of dawn, hell-bent rides for glory late into the night — there’s no slowing down now.

“Once you get that adrenalin,” she says, “there’s nothing stopping you.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg