HOT SPRINGS -- Lynn Chleborad is a lot happier these days, and her contentment seems unrelated to her success as a racehorse trainer.
A regular throughout the Midwest since her training start in 1987, Chleborad, 67, is stabled for her 27th full season at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. It is clear from her steady laughter, uncharacteristically lacking last season, Chleborad's joy has returned full of its former force.
It has come in place of the extreme pain that marred most of Chleborad's last meet at Oaklawn.
"I almost died, but I'm just like bad breath," Chleborad said. "I keep coming back. I don't know, but actually one day I prayed, and I said, 'I may not be the nicest person, but a lot of people depend on me.' Anyway, I'm doing good now."
Horsemen would be imprisoned if they allowed their horses to go through what Chleborad willingly endured for her stable last season. One day late last February, she held the paddock railing as she discussed her discomfort. She spoke of bone-on-bone pain in both knees. Between involuntary winces, Chleborad said she was hopeful surgery would turn things around.
It did, and Chleborad's delight is evident in the return of her often self-deprecating laughter.
"I should have done it five years earlier, but I just kept kicking the can," Chleborad said.
She fully credited Hot Springs surgeon Chris Young, who replaced her knees on Feb. 28.
"He's a great, great, great guy and a great surgeon," Chleborad said.
As Chleborad rehabilitated her knees, abdominal pain from diverticulitis took front row in her internal theatre of discomfort. Though it had been there all along, Chleborad said the pain from her knees overwhelmed that from the inflamed diverticula in her gut.
"When you have so much pain in your knees and you try to ignore it, you don't notice anything else," she said.
With both ailments at last squelched, Chleborad said she has remained relatively pain-free for the last month. However, through her infirmity last season, Chleborad was helped by trainer Gene Jacquot, her long-time partner, and her barn's foreman Augustine Espinoza to her best Oaklawn season since 2017 with 6 wins and earnings of $266,163.
"It's like this," Chleborad said. "You're only as good as the people you have under you, and it doesn't matter what kind of business you're in."
Ingrid Mason surpassed Chleborad last season to become the winningest career trainer among women at Oaklawn. Mason took a one-win lead with her 127th at the track on March 18. Nevertheless, a late surge by horses from Chleborad's barn enabled the then-disabled trainer to complete the meet with a 132-127 lead.
Chleborad's and Mason's is a sort of rivalry common among trainers worldwide. Their mutual respect and admiration are obvious.
"I love Lynn Chleborad," Mason said Thursday. "I wish her nothing but good. She's one of the people that I respect a lot on the racetrack."
Chleborad said whereas her Oaklawn wins total is meaningful to her, she hopes she and Mason both train many winners this season.
"I wish Ingrid the best," Chleborad said. "She works hard. I see her out here every day, too. I just don't think about records. I just try to do my job the best I can. At the end of the day, everybody has to win races. I just hope I can win my share."
Chleborad said she is confident in her 23-horse contingent this season, including stakes-placed Hartley, a 3-year-old daughter of Cairo Prince and maternal granddaughter of Into Mischief.
"I have some maidens and Hartley's doing good," Chleborad said. "I have some horses that will work well here. We've just been here a little while, and some horses relish this racetrack and some horses don't care for it. It's a different surface, but so far, the track has been really good. I have some high hopes for my horses."