Pound for pound, jockeys are among the many world’s most elite athletes. Aboard thousand-pound animals, they hover over a tiny saddle, balancing their weight on their toes whereas additionally navigating via a collective of equine locomotives guided by equally sized pilots. These women and men put their lives on the road day by day, typically preventing their very own our bodies to remain each small and powerful sufficient to get the job accomplished. Generally that battle asks an excessive amount of and the rider should discover a new outlet for his or her bodily items.
For actor and dancer Bobby Montano, his time within the saddle might have been minimize brief by his genetic future, however that transformational expertise gifted him a chance he may by no means have anticipated in a present referred to as “SMALL.”
Bitten by the Bug
Bobby Montano grew up inside shouting distance of Belmont Park. Born in Bayside Queens, he spent his youth in Hempstead, Lengthy Island, together with his mother and father: Gloria, a jewellery salesperson, and Salvatore, a professor of artwork on the Pratt Institute. As a baby, Montano “needed to be a baseball participant. I used to be an enormous fan and nonetheless am. I used to be such an enormous fan of Buddy Harrelson, who was the shortstop for the New York Mets. I used to be decided to play for them and take over the shortstop place. That was my purpose.”
His main league aspirations glided by the wayside, although, after a day on the races. Gloria took her son to Belmont Park in the summertime of 1973, after Secretariat had dominated that 12 months’s Triple Crown. On the time, the pre-teen Montano was smaller than his friends, underneath 5 toes tall at age 12, his measurement making him a goal for bullies. There within the Belmont paddock, although, Montano realized that being small could possibly be a bonus. When the jockeys entered the paddock, the gathered crowd quieted: “I didn’t know their names, however I simply knew when she stated the jockeys had been coming and to see these little males, and I used to be little and being crushed up in class. Then for her to say, ‘that’s referred to as respect,’ that these little males, abruptly, that everybody was taking a look at them.”
“I used to be so taken by them getting on these monster animals after which having management over them and the [crowd’s] reverence for that,” Montano recalled.
The pair had been at Belmont that day to go to jockey Roberto Pineda, certainly one of Gloria’s common clients. A local of Mexico, Pineda was from a household with deep ties to the game, his brother Alvaro a prime jockey earlier than his demise in a 1975 beginning gate accident, and caught the youthful Montano’s eye because the jockeys entered the historic paddock: “After I noticed the jockeys popping out, all of them, they got here out in a clump aside from him. He was by himself. And he was positively his personal man. And I used to be like, whoa, I simply was blown away. There was one thing about him that was so magnetic.”
That second ignited one thing in Montano: he had caught the bug. Gloria resisted introducing her son to Pineda, figuring out what she did about life within the saddle. However the younger man was decided. He then found that NYRA starter Bob Duncan and his spouse, Sue, an train rider, had been amongst his clients on his paper route and talked his method into early morning journeys to the bottom, a lot to his mother and father’ chagrin.
“I skipped out my window, jumped off my roof, and met her [Sue Duncan] at her home at 4:30 within the morning,” Montano recalled. “And my mom and father are like, ‘The place the hell have you ever gone to? You may’t do this.’ So I stated, ‘I need to work on the racetrack. There’s nothing you are able to do to cease me.’ ”
Finally, his mother and father relented with the caveat that he should keep in class whereas pursuing his purpose. Pineda took the younger man underneath his wing and have become Montano’s mentor earlier than his personal premature demise in a Pimlico spill in Might 1978.
A couple of weeks earlier than Montano’s 17th birthday, he made his debut as an apprentice at Aqueduct on March 2, 1977. That milestone got here with a complication, although: he had damaged three ribs in a coaching incident that morning. Decided to comprehend his dream, he ignored the ache to information a gelding named Winter Stroll to a sixth-place end in a six-furlong claiming race. Montano rode six extra occasions over the following six months, his greatest finishes a fourth at Atlantic Metropolis after which at Delaware Park.
The once-undersized preteen was operating into an sudden obstacle: he was rising. Montano was quick dropping his battle with weight and top regardless of his efforts to remain small. An opportunity encounter at Hialeah Park would encourage a brand new path for this athlete.
From Saddle to Stage
Montano was working horses on the south Florida observe when he noticed a movie crew engaged on scenes from the 1979 film “The Champ,” starring Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, and Ricky Schroder. Requested to experience a horse within the background of a shot, the fledgling jockey discovered the method intriguing. As he grew nearer to the conclusion that his time within the saddle can be short-lived, Montano started to think about his subsequent profession.
“I used to be combating my weight and making an attempt to make a comeback, however clearly I couldn’t lose the burden,” the actor remembered. After watching that temporary filming course of, “I referred to as my father up, and I stated, ‘Hey, Pop, I believe I need to go to varsity.’ And my sister obtained on the opposite aspect of the telephone again and was like, ‘Bobby, you bought to bounce. You’re going to go to varsity, go and dance.’ ”
A pure athlete his entire life, Montano utilized to Adelphi College in New York and pursued a Bachelor of Advantageous Arts diploma in dance, quickly incomes a spot within the solid of “Cats” on Broadway. From there, Bobby Montano, the Lengthy Island child who as soon as dreamed of a life within the saddle, discovered himself on stage with the late Chita Rivera in “Kiss of the Spider Girl,” on the massive display dancing with Catherine Zeta-Jones within the 2002 movie model of “Chicago,” and on the small display in visitor appearances on “Intercourse and the Metropolis,” “Legislation and Order: Particular Victims Unit,” “One Life to Stay,” and extra.
One factor Montano has by no means forgotten is his time on the bottom.
“One of the best place for me to develop up,” Montano stated. “It taught me so many issues. There, I used to be accepted and revered, and I didn’t get that acceptance and respect after I was going to high school [as a kid].”
Although his profession was measured in months fairly than years, this former jock’s time on the observe was no mere footnote in his life. Slightly, these seven mounts impressed one thing sudden for even this veteran performer: a one-man present referred to as “SMALL.”
‘SMALL’ Has a Huge Influence
In 1996, Montano appeared in “East of Eden” on the Actors Theatre of Louisville. When director Jon Jory heard concerning the actor’s stint within the saddle, he identified the story on the coronary heart of Montano’s seven mounts: “[Jon asked] ‘What had been you doing in between all that point?’ I stated, ‘I pleaded with God to maintain me small and for me to maintain my weight down.’ And he stated, ‘That’s your story. It’s about perseverance. Folks need to root for the underdog.’ He put it in my head to jot down my story.”
Premiering at New York’s Penguin Rep Theater in 2022, “SMALL” began out as a screenplay referred to as “Underneath the Wire,” however later advanced right into a one-man present, with the rider-turned-actor on stage diving into the lifetime of a jockey in ways in which few inventive endeavors have.
“It’s concerning the underdog. It’s about preventing to be seen. It’s the little prepare that might, it’s ‘Rocky,’ nevertheless it’s on the racetrack,” the actor shared.
For these outdoors of the game, “SMALL” conjures up audiences to tackle challenges which may scare them. For these inside racing, this one-man present takes on the truths of the bottom, “how your ardour drives you to issues that you’d by no means imagine that you’d do, to need one thing so badly that you simply’re keen to place your life on the road,” the actor shared.
After a 2023 efficiency in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., at Anthony Melfi’s GMP Farm, former jockeys like Corridor of Famer Gary Stevens embraced Montano and stated, “Bro, you stated it prefer it was. You stated the actual deal. Go on, preach.”
In 2024, “SMALL” performed Off-Broadway and earned nominations for the Drama Desk, the very best award an Off-Broadway present can obtain, in addition to an Outer Critics Circle Award. Montano’s ‘Rocky’ on the racetrack story continues to resonate with audiences as he crisscrosses the nation honoring those that put their lives on the road every time they’re boosted into the saddle.
For Bobby Montano, “SMALL” retains him linked to this long-gone section of his life, a spot the place he has “some unfinished enterprise. I by no means obtained to win a race, however I really feel like a winner now by having written ‘SMALL’ and having folks like Johnny [Velazquez] and Richie Migliore and Gary Stevens placing their stamp of approval on it.”
“SMALL” shall be enjoying on the George Avenue Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey from Jan. 14-Feb. 2.
