Page 48 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

AGE IS
JUST A
NUMBER
MEET TEEN RIDING SENSATION PARKER HENDRIKS.
BY EILEEN SMITH DALLABRIDA
In 2022, the day before his 19th birthday, Parker Hendriks locked up his first championship. It was only his third year on the National Steeplechase Association circuit. Coming into this
spring’s jump races, he’ll be more than six months shy of his 20th birthday. “I got hooked on racing when I was 13 and rode in pony races,” he says. “I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do.”
Hendriks was born to the saddle. His late grandfather, Louis “Paddy” Neilson, was a legendary jockey and trainer, the standard bearer for a family that’s been competing
in the saddle since 1875. His father, Ricky Hendriks, also a champion jump rider,
is a successful trainer. Parker’s mother, Sanna Neilson, and his aunt Katherine Neilson are both respected trainers who also have excelled as riders. Their brother, Stewart Strawbridge, rode to victory in the Maryland Hunt Cup in 2007 aboard The Bruce, a horse trained by Sanna. She
was just 22 when she first won the race, edging out her father.
As first-call rider for trainer Keri Brion, Hendriks rode 24 mounts across the finish line first in 92 rides for the year to become the youngest champion ever. He doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t ride. To him, it comes as naturally as walking. His mother recalls the day he first took the reins. “He was 3, and we put him on Willy, our tiny, sweet pony,” she says.
Juggling high school and a burgeoning career required a lot of discipline. Hendriks would ride out early in the morning at
Fair Hill, Maryland, then drive 50 minutes to Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania, before heading home to
his mother’s farm in Concordville, where he’d ride again. “He’s always been very organized—the kind of kid you don’t
have to remind to take his lunch or do his homework,” his mother says. “Parker is laser-focused.”
When he was 17, he rode for his dad
at Saratoga, “the pinnacle of jump racing, flat and fast.” Like his father before him, Hendriks turned professional at 18. The elder Hendriks is sometimes asked if he thinks his son is a better jockey than he was in his heyday. “I look at my son and say, ‘Yes, Parker is better than I was,’” he says. “His work ethic is unbelievable, and he handles pressure beautifully.”
The younger Hendriks and his mother talk race strategy in depth before each event. “If there’s a big card coming up, we’re on the phone for two hours,” he says. “My mom has so much experience and has been in the game so long. She’s critical to my development as a rider.”
That includes a commitment to fitness and conditioning. Hendriks weighs himself twice a day and keeps a close eye on the scales to maintain his ideal weight of 140 pounds on his 5-foot-10 frame. He drinks only water and runs daily to burn calories
12 STEEPLECHASE LOOKBOOK 2023 | todaymediainc.com
BOTH PHOTOS BY JIM GRAHAM