Earlier this year, on a cold January morning on the backstretch at Laurel, exercise rider Chelsey Keiser asked agent Kevin Witte the best time to try to start a career as a jockey. She’d been told, she said, to start in January, to leave herself as much time as possible to get wins, in the hope of competing for an Eclipse Award as an apprentice.

Witte had different advice. “Start,” he told her, “when you feel ready.”

She didn’t feel ready, she said, and she said that she didn’t care about an Eclipse Award. Six weeks later, Witte heard from Keiser again.

“I’m ready,” she said. “I want to try it.”

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