Think the jockey has the most important job at the racetrack? Not according to horse groomer Maria Lakes at Vancouver's Hastings Racecourse. 'The groom is the most important person down at the track because it is essentially the person most responsible for the actual horse. If the horse is not happy on a regular basis, it may not perform quite as good as you would like when it's racing.'
She loves working at the track and says being a groom 'is not a job, it's a lifestyle.'
"I was one of those very young kids that was a horse fanatic." Maria Lakes, horse groomer