Here is how Andrea Sachs describes her preparation for a challenging assignment—interviewing a jockey:

That night, I bought a copy of The Daily Racing Form and two track magazines at a newsstand. I asked the man behind the counter if he knew anything about racing. He suggested that I talk to the customer standing next to me.

The customer was able to give me the names of the top jockeys at the track, and he explained a little about racing.

Before I went to the track, I read the racing section of the newspaper. I discovered that a race was being televised that Saturday and bought another Racing Form and watched the race. That provided me with background knowledge and some conversation openers for my interviews.

Sachs left early for the track to watch the horses being exercised. She wandered around the track, chatting with jockeys and trainers. At the coffee stand, she asked a man to explain the betting system. Finally, it was time to interview her jockey, Robbie Davis, a youngster from Pocatello, Idaho, who had just won his first race at the track.

"He was amazingly open and willing to answer any questions. I spoke to him several times during the afternoon."

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New York Racing Authority

Track Talk

Jockey Robbie Davis grew up on horses in Idaho, he told Andrea Sachs. His interest in horses took him to small county fair tracks where he worked out horses and then was given a chance to ride them in races. His success led him to bigger tracks, and finally to his big chance in New York. Sachs interviews Davis after he had won his first race at the track on a 20-1 long shot. Sachs, who had never been to a race track, prepared for the interview by reading racing newspapers and interviewing racing fans.

Her article for her class assignment began:

Robbie Davis' first race at Belmont was a young jockey's dream.

The shy 21-year-old apprentice jockey from Pocatello, Idaho, had driven to New York a week earlier from Louisiana Downs, where he had been riding since May. After exercising horses for a few days at Aqueduct, Davis went to Belmont in early September for the first time.

He was to ride Comanche Brave in a mile-and-an-eighth claiming race with experienced jockeys such as Angel Cordero and George Martens.

Davis recalls his feelings: "I didn't know the track al all... It was the biggest track I'd ever seen."

Comanche Brave went off at 20-1 odds, on a muddy track. Davis, who was used to shorter tracks, said that he watched "real close, trying to save as much horse as I could, because I knew it was a long straightaway."

The strategy worked. The next thing he knew, Davis was sitting in the winner's circle. "I couldn't believe it," he said.

Encouraged by her instructor, Sachs sold the article to Davis' hometown newspaper, The Idaho Journal.