The spotlight will be on Churchill Downs Nov. 15, shining over a different set of horses than usual. The eight-race Claiming Crown gives the 'everyday' horses, claiming horses, a chance to showcase their talents on an elevated stage.
For many of the horsemen and horsewomen participating, the event is a career milestone, and that was evident if you drove 45 minutes northeast of the track to HighPointe Farm and Training Center Nov. 12.
With the trunk of the car wide open, containing sandwiches and snacks that could have made you think you were tailgating at a football game, trainer Joe Roberts, his family—wife Natasha, father Jimmy, and stepmother Judy—and apprentice jockey Amanda Poston took some time to celebrate how far they have come in just a few years.
Both Roberts and Poston are new faces to Kentucky racing, but remain hopeful that they can become mainstays in one of racing's toughest circuits. Partnering on two horses in the Claiming Crown—Empire's Best in the Ready's Rocket Express for his dad and Shotshell in the Iron Horse Kent Stirling Memorial for owner Cecil Peters—is not a bad way to start.
"It's kind of every trainer's dream to end up in Kentucky and at Churchill," Roberts said. "We're appreciative that we get a chance to run in this type of race. They're not just two random entries to me. I put a lot of work into these horses."
Growing up in Texas, Roberts spent his youth around all types of horses: roping, rodeo, barrel, etc. His dad, who has owned racehorses since the 1980s, had a friend who was a Quarter Horse trainer and owned a farm where he learned how to gate-break and teach young horses how to become a racehorse.
Following in his father's footsteps, he joined the construction business as a teenager. After about 25 years, he was beginning to feel the physical toll it put on his health. Looking for a change, he decided to take the risk and begin training racehorses, saddling his first starter in 2015.
"It was something I was very passionate about, but I never had the opportunity to do as a profession," Roberts said. "Just like starting any business, you take a lot of hits the first couple years."
Roberts weathered those hits, gradually growing his operation and picking up a few winners in Texas. However, he kept aspiring for more and, in 2021, moved his string north to Minnesota's Canterbury Park for the summer. His gamble paid off as he won his first start with stable star Papa Rizzo.
"He's smart, a hard worker," said his father, Jimmy, who owns Empire's Best. "He knows what work is. Having a seven-day-a-week job, you have to be committed."
Wintering in Texas and summering in Minnesota led to continued improvements in the barn's stats. In 2025, he is posting his best year yet with 12 wins, 45 top-three finishes, $191,910 in purse earnings, and 103 starts, all career highs.
And Roberts continues to dream big. After several conversations with his wife, they decided to take another step forward by moving to Kentucky for the winter, with the goal of racing at Turfway Park.
"Especially in a business and a professional sport, you always have to be striving for more," Roberts said. "If you're not moving forward, you're backing up. I took a chance starting my career the way I did. At the time, it felt extremely daunting moving to Minnesota. But we made it work, worked hard, kept at it, and made it work. This is just another step. Where else would you rather be than Kentucky for a Thoroughbred horse trainer?"
On Sept. 22, Roberts arrived at HighPointe with five horses, two of which were pointing for the Claiming Crown.
"He's just worked so hard, and I'm proud of him," Natasha said. "We sacrifice a lot because I live back in Texas and he's gone most of the time. But I tell people all the time, when you're doing what you love and you're passionate about it and you continue to excel and do so well in such a short amount of time with what he's had to work with, you can't let somebody you love not do what they're passionate about."
That passion is also what led Poston, a former software engineer in Minneapolis, Minn., to the saddle. Having grown up with an interest in horses, she never got a chance to really dive into the lifestyle given she lived in a city. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it allowed her to spend more time with the horse she had bought when she graduated college.
"I was working in downtown Minneapolis, everything was shut down completely," Poston said. "The only thing I could go do was go see my horse. I was thinking about how I could be around horses more."
After working with her friend's off-track Thoroughbred, she reached out to Canterbury Park, inquiring if any trainers needed help. Tony Rengstorf did.
Poston would go out on the weekends to clean stalls, walk hots, and learn how to groom. A big fan of the movie Seabiscuit, she wanted to begin breezing horses. When she told Rengstorf she wanted to learn how to ride, he told her to move to Arkansas.
In Arkansas, Poston worked on a farm as a full-time groom and began riding horses. Her days would start early, and at noon she would head home and sign on to her software engineering job from 1-9 p.m.
"The first time I got on a horse and the first time I breezed one, that's when I knew I had to ride races," Poston said.
Once the winter ended and spring signaled the return of racing to Canterbury Park, Poston went back home and decided to pursue a career in racing, leaving behind software engineering.
"The job just wasn't fulfilling the way the horses were," Poston said. "(The paychecks from software engineering) is not worth trading all of this that I have in my life now."
As she continued her path to becoming a jockey, she moved to Kentucky and began working for Marissa Short, an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, at Ellis Park. She would remain with Short year-round as they bounced between Kentucky and Arkansas.
"My original plan was to go back to Canterbury, but (Short) was able to teach me so many things and I learned just about everything I know from her," Poston said. "I would not be where I am today without her."
Those lessons led to Poston's first race at Ellis Park Aug. 17, 2024. The 31-year-old earned her first win in February at Oaklawn Park and has won four more times since.
Continuing to stay based in Kentucky, the seven-pound apprentice is fighting for mounts against what has arguably become the toughest jockey colony in the country. Yet, she wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's tough, but I kept telling myself it might be a slow start, but it's still a start," Poston said. "The chance to get to ride with these guys out there, I learn something every single race. We'll be walking back up to the paddock, or they'll find me after, and they'll give me bits of advice. It's tough, but the chance to ride with them, watch them, and get advice from them, it makes it worth it."
Oddly enough, despite Canterbury Park having been an important step in both their careers, Roberts and Poston never crossed paths in Minnesota. But when Roberts was looking for a rider who would always give their maximum effort, Poston was recommended.
"Sometimes you get a little taxi ride (from riders) where you don't think the horse really got a chance to be successful. (Poston) puts out the effort," Jimmy Roberts said. "The effort is all that matters; you can be last as long as you tried. We don't expect to do something that can't be done, but just give us the effort and we're happy."
The team has already united once at Churchill Downs, Poston guiding Ride the Broom to a third-place finish, defeated just a length, as a 16-1 longshot. Some might question the decision of Roberts to put a seven-pound apprentice aboard for what will be the two biggest races so far in his career, but he said it wasn't even a question.
"I trust her, she's a good rider," Roberts said. "She's knowledgeable and knows her job. It could be perceived as a risk, but in my mind, it's not a risk at all. ... I put in a lot of effort every day in the barn, and my crew does, too. All we ask is the same from our rider."
That effort will be needed, with both Empire's Best and Shotshell 30-1 longshots. Yet, win or lose, just having starters on this stage is a sign of more to come.
"I'm blown away, it's hard to believe," Jimmy said of his son being in the Claiming Crown with two horses. "We know when you build a business, it's one brick at a time. You just keep building and building and try to get better. We worked our way up to here. I'm pretty proud of Joe."
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"I love the idea of the Claiming Crown to give horses that run in the claiming ranks a spotlight. They work just as hard as your grade 1 winners," Poston said. I feel very lucky, very fortunate to get to be a part of it."
Saturday is an important one on several different fronts for the family. Joe Simmons, Joe Roberts' grandfather, is being inducted into the Central Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame around the same time as the races.
"We went everywhere together, did all kinds of things together," Roberts said of his grandfather. "My mom, she understands, but she's upset I'm not going to be there."
Roberts' 18-year-old son, Joe McClinton Roberts, will be in attendance at the ceremony as his parents to add to the family legacy.
