Where and when did your horse racing Interest start?

kingoftherapid

Someone on a college football board brought up something that made me wonder where all of you guys started with your love of horse racing.

Here is my story.

first of all born in 1987 in hot springs. as a youngin my grandfather always wanted to take me to preschool so my parents would let him since it was easier for them... well he we didnt quite just go straight to preschool. we would go over to the backstretch fence and watch the horses work until 10:30 then he would take me. I didnt know any different so i never said anything to anyone. he waited until i was 15 to tell my parents hahaha! but back then there was a height requirement to get in to the track, so i never saw a race live until i was older. EXCEPT from that same fence in the afternoon. years went on and i started actual school, and we only got to go to that fence in the afternoon on fridays after school and saturdays. when i was 8 he took me up there one saturday morning early and said we were there to see a really good horse named cigar workout. the next saturday we went back to see him win the handicap. that was when i fell in love with the sport. i had a few stagnant years in between cigar and smarty, but my first love of the sport will always be from cigar.

if you have never experienced the sound of the horses from the backside fence, i encourage you to do so. you hear jockeys shouting at eachother, and the horses sound like thunder as they run by. you dont have people screaming, you barely hear the announcer, and there is a peace that makes you fall deeper in love with those animals.

DiscreetCat

I started going to Sam Houston Race Park shortly after they opened their doors, and i just kind of took to it. I suppose because i've always liked animals and i've always liked gambling. Actually had an interview there once to be their Fan Education Director. An older guy there who was kind of my mentor at the track and taught me a few things about handicapping was friendly with some of the execs at the track, and he thought that i would be good in that position. Unfortunately they decided hire someone else; some guy with a degree in equine science from Louisiana Tech. Last i heard, he was still there. Must've been a pretty sweet gig.

Funny part of it is though, i very rarely handicapped (or wagered on) any races from Sam Houston. The whole simulcasting thing was starting up right around that time, and i gravitated towards the races @ Santa Anita, Hollywood, and Del Mar. Probably because i enjoyed pace handicapping, and the surfaces out there were much more uniform than the circuits on the Eats Coast or the Midwest.

dirtyshirt

I never really had any affiliation with horses, but I grew up in the SA infield with family and friends. Then once I could drive, it became too easy. So I've been wagering since probably 12, but spent my whole life at the track.

jjohns7777

1991 I was in the Air Force stationed in Utah. My Dad was also still in the Air Force, stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, so I went down there a lot on weekends and holidays. I was never very interested in casino gambling, but one weekend while I was in Vegas, I picked up a book on handicapping and read it. I tried my luck at OTB at Caesar's Palace and won a few bucks the first day. I was hooked. After that, I spent a lot of weekends in Caesar's or Sams Town watching the horses, or sometimes I would drive up to Wyoming to Wyoming Downs. I created two checklists (one for routes and one for sprints) that I used for handicapping, strictly following my rules, and I always did OK. But I left the Air Force in 1995 and hadn't been to a race in many years, until my job took me to Irving, Texas in 2010. Lone Star Park was right there, so I started getting back into racing, and, even though I'm now living in Georgia where betting illegal even online, I still follow the horses as much as possible.

Docwatson

jjohns7777 wrote: »

1991 I was in the Air Force stationed in Utah. My Dad was also still in the Air Force, stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, so I went down there a lot on weekends and holidays. I was never very interested in casino gambling, but one weekend while I was in Vegas, I picked up a book on handicapping and read it. I tried my luck at OTB at Caesar's Palace and won a few bucks the first day. I was hooked. After that, I spent a lot of weekends in Caesar's or Sams Town watching the horses, or sometimes I would drive up to Wyoming to Wyoming Downs. I created two checklists (one for routes and one for sprints) that I used for handicapping, strictly following my rules, and I always did OK. But I left the Air Force in 1995 and hadn't been to a race in many years, until my job took me to Irving, Texas in 2010. Lone Star Park was right there, so I started getting back into racing, and, even though I'm now living in Georgia where betting illegal even online, I still follow the horses as much as possible.

I've been there when horse racing was illegal in Virginia. My Uncles started taking me to Charlestown when I was 18 and there is where I started gaining interest in handicapping the Sport of Kings. I was so happy when the State legalized it and I've been going at it off and on for about 17 years now.

rayphil

I was like 12 or 13 and my dad and grandmother always went to pimlico on the weekends and sometimes rosecroft. I always went to play with my cousin who was there sometimes. Then I started looking at the program and starting picking horses. Been hooked ever since. Largest and best horse race I ever been to was the blind luck vs havre de grace in the delaware handicap.

Mikenyce

I could go on and on and probably write a book. Honestly when I was young I hated the track. My father and uncles owned and trained horses at Narragansett and Philly Park. Then my parents would bring be to Rockingham Park and I hated it and it was always so hot there. I was young so I use to pick up the programs off the ground and resell them for .25 cause I was so bored. When I was 10 I became good friends with someone whose father was a jockey (God rest his soul) at Suffolk/Rockingham. So as I got a bit older I began spending even more time at the track and I started to become more interested in it and that was it. Never been to a Breeders Cup but since 1991 I've bet them and watched them on TV with my father, haven't missed a year. And also I've made it a point for the past 18 years to visit Saratoga at least once with my father. I also go with my wife and friends. Now all these years later I can honestly say I love it not just the gambling part the whole Horse racing thing! The thing that sparked me to write this my oldest son who is 12 just called me and said he was reading something online and CC isn't going to win tomorrow it's going to be Social Inclusion cause he breaks track records. Lol not sure about that

InTheFog

In Toledo, Ohio 1969 (Raceway Park) RA Cowboy Jones & Mary Bacon rode there then, I picked up a racing form off the floor & took it home & learned how to read it- I been hooked ever since-- I'm still learning how to read it Ha.

SARATOGATE

1970 at greenmountain park in pownal vt. was the first track to have sunday racing i think won my first bet on a horse calle sinduda grande

cinfront

It's was 1983, when I got interested in horse racing. I've just gotten out of the Army and notice that my Dad's new hangout was a local OTB. In NYC they had sprung up everywhere. That winter I went to Aqueduct with him and my Mom. He'd buy a program and my Mom would take the picks from the Daily News. Lol she had her own Formula on who to bet from the consensus. When she hit she'd make up for loses and then some.
Pops and his Boys, at the Track would lose their shirts betting for a program and playing Boards. I said to my self, that's not going to be me. There has to be a better way to figure this out. I noticed other people at the Track had these big newspapers they were reading and I had ask some old dude what it was. He replayed, are you kidding me this is THe Bible of Racing. The Daily Racing Form. So he explained to me what it was and I said that's it I'll learn how to read it, like those guys on Wall Street and their Wall Street Journals and I would be investing not gambling my money away. Up this Day I say That I'm Investing when I put my money down and not Gambling.
Now, how do I learn to read this paper. There was a Horse Magazine that I started buying, American Turf Monthly.
They have all these angles every month. In there they sell Books and Calculators. One book in there caught my attention, it was called The Super Horse. It had how to read a Racing Form ding ding ding but also Horse Body Signs when they were fit and ready. And of course what they called The Super Horse. After a $200. investment I've been in the Game Thanks to The Super Horse. I can go on but it would be in my book "A Day at the Races". Lol just kidding. Horse I had that were going to win The Triple Crown for Me and loved were 1 AP Indy 2 Victory Gallop 3 Red Bullet. And of course who can forget The Queen of Racing Zenyatta... I know you guys can't after dealing with Draynay's rambles because she was from The West Coast. I'll leave you with that one.

May The Horse Be With You.

fbwinners

My journey in this game started in 1996 when I was 26 years old. It wasn't any family member's that introduced me to the game, but my MAILMAN (Steely)!! I'm a football handicapper first and used to purchase different type of magazines and newsletters looking for nuggets of information. Steely happen to know my older sister from their younger days in high school where they worked at a IHOP!! He asked me one day, you ever been to the horse track. I said NO!! He then came back said you want to go one day. I replied YES!! A few days later he took me over to the OTB in Slidell, La, the place was a dump, but to me I was in heaven soon as I walked through the door and paid my $3 admission fee. I was staring at all the monitors and was asking him 100 ?'s where is this track located and how to you bet on these races. He purchased me a FORM and I opened that thing and was amazed at it, all the information was MIND BOGGLING well he said you ready to make a bet and I YES!!! He said come with me to the window. I walked up and made my 1st wager on a horse running at Evangeline Downs name High Noon Poppa and of course he had to win to gut hook me for LIFE!!!!

When I got back home that night I couldn't believe how exhilarating i felt watching and betting on horses. I didn't know anything and my personality is I have to LEARN this game. So I had the DRF form from that night and I noticed a ad in there from Philly Park that stated you open up an ADW account and they will provide you with the DRF form. So the next morning I woke up called the 800# and wired them over 1k to open my account and went straight to Office Depot from the Western Union office and purchased a fax machine. I called Philly Park and told them I have my fax machine and now how can I get a form for Belmont Park. The lady on the other end of the phone told me should would fax me over the track sheet and instructions. The instructions came through and I was on my way to getting forms faxed to me everyday. I was in HOG HEAVEN. I never left my house on weekends for sometime and my BOYS were what the hell you doing. I told them I'm trying to learn on to handicapp these races, they said your SICK. Well to make things worst my 1st Kentucky Derby was coming up and I was jacked up in a big way. I was all in on Bob Bafferts Cavonnier and we all that outcome a BRUTAL loss on the line to Grindstone!! Too make things worst the Crown Royal Turf race right before the Kentucky Derby I was on Petit Poucet and he was nailed on the line by Mecke, so back to back races I was nailed from a huge payday to a small profit. That day was one of the most exciting days of my life and I told myself that Football is awesome to wager on but this is a DIFFERENT BEAST!!!

So know 18 years later I cannot believe how much the Sport of Kings have changed my life and I love this game like you cannot imagine. I'm so fortunate to have a out standing wife that supports my passion to the fullest. I also have meet so many great people through this game. I will always be endebuted to this game till the farther above takes me from this earth. My family knows to cremate me and take some of my ashes to Churchill Downs and my home track The Fairgrounds.


Let'em Roll from the 1/4 Pole!!!

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