LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While Carlos Santamaria continues to get Oaks favorite Bellafina ready for the biggest race of her life, he is facing his own battle.
The assistant trainer for Simon Callaghan has been up early, working with the Kentucky-bred filly at Churchill Downs most mornings.
"This is what I love. This is what I like. This is my life," Santamaria said.
But Santamaria has dealt with a lot of difficulties along the way, knowing he needs a miracle to continue his journey. His kidney struggles began in 2015, growing worse about six months ago.
"I do eight hours of dialysis every night," Santamaria said. "I have to take 15 to 20 pills every day and change my diet."
His kidney complications could keep him down, but Santamaria said his passion pushes him forward. Coming to the United States at 16, he said horse racing has been his life since the day he arrived.
"I'm still working because this is a better treatment for me, being with the horses, than anything else," Santamaria said.
Luckily, Santamaria has an army of advocates he met through the industry doing as much as they can to help him find a donor.
"I'm convinced that we can find somebody to help Carlos," Erin Hogan said.
Hogan, who is involved in the horse racing industry, donated her kidney to a stranger in January 2018.
"Horse racing is obviously about the horses, but it's also about the people who take care of those horses," Hogan said.
Hogan is working with Leigh Ann Saylor of Mulligans Living Kidney Donors to help find Santamaria a match this Derby week.
Saylor started the support group for patients searching for a living kidney donor after her husband needed a transplant ten years ago.
"The journey was long, it was dark, there was no guidance," Saylor said.
When her husband finally received a transplant from an old friend, Saylor said she felt inspired to create a lifeline for patients.
"That really brought the goodness of humanity to me, and I realized there's other people out there like that who will do it," Saylor said.
Mulligans is now responsible for 36 kidney transplants, with about 20 coming from a living donor. Saylor said she hopes Derby week can bring them one more.
"You can't get any bigger in horse racing than the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks," Saylor said.
Saylor, Hogan and a herd of helpers will be out at the track, wearing shirts and asking questions, hoping to find someone willing to be a donor and get tested.
"We just kind of figured this is the place to be, you know the world is watching," Hogan said.
The group will be wearing shirts, asking crowds of people if they can help Santamaria, who Saylor said is one of the weakest kidney patients she's had. They said they know the donation process can be painful and uncomfortable, but the benefits fully outweigh the struggle.
"I think people think, 'That's terrible, can I donate money, can I make you a casserole, like what can I do to help you,'" Hogan said. "They don't realize that a healthy person can easily donate a kidney and go on and live a perfectly normal life."
The group will continue creating conversations so that Santamaria can continue his calling.
"I have a lot of plans — I have my fiancée and my girls, my daughters," Santamaria said. "All I hope and I ask is for is just a normal life."
Santamaria has an appointment with one of the field's best doctors in Cincinnati a few days after the Derby. If he's able to get a transplant in the region, he'll do his two month recovery here as well.
If you or someone you know may be interested in donating a kidney to Santamaria or any patient, visit uchealth.donorscreen.org. To donate to Santamaria's medical expenses, visit his National Foundation for Transplants campaign page.