Hooked on Horse Racing

For the past few weeks, we have been telling you how some of racing's biggest names fell in love with the sport. Now it's our turn. Here are some of the stories behind the bylines you see every day in the TDN. I grew up in Salem, New Hampshire, which decades ago was the home of Rockingham Park. My parents were schoolteachers, and my dad, Paul, was the high school baseball and basketball coach. Everyone in town seemed to have some sort of connection to the track, and my father...

How did we get hooked on this sport? We all have stories about how our love affair developed and blossomed. The TDN reached out to numerous notable people in the industry to get their stories to find out how they got hooked and stayed hooked on the sport. Michael Dubb, owner My introduction to racing really occurred as an accident as horses were not on my radar when I was a 16-year-old kid mowing lawns after school and on weekends. At one particular house where I cut the grass I...

Without a doubt, I did not have the most conventional entry into horseracing. Growing up in Montreal, Canada, I was much more likely to have ventured into the world of harness racing rather than its Thoroughbred counterpart. Courtesy of Blue Bonnets (later re-named Hippodrome de Montreal), Montreal's racing landscape hadn't seen Thoroughbred racing since 1973, an era in which racetrack attendance in the province was at its zenith. One of three daughters of Greek immigrant parents, I simply did not have the access to horses or racing like many others...

For the past two weeks, we have been telling you how some of racing's biggest names fell in love with the sport. Now it's our turn. Here are some of the stories behind the bylines you see every day in the TDN. Sue Finley, Publisher My parents both loved to go to the racetrack, and they would drag me and my brother when we were young. I was completely bored by it. But when I was 15, they told me that an 18-year-old jockey was going for the Triple Crown...

How did we get hooked on this sport? We all have stories about how our love affair developed and blossomed. The TDN will be reaching out to numerous notable people in the industry to get their stories to find out how they got hooked and stayed hooked on the sport. Brian Spearman, Chairman, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners Growing up in Saratoga, it's pretty inevitable that you're going to fall in love with horse racing if you love horses and you love the whole atmosphere. As a young adult, I went to...

Tired of all the bad news? So were we. So, in our new series, we focus on the positive, asking people from non-horse racing families two questions: how they get hooked, and how they'll hook someone else on horse racing this year. MICHAEL BEHRENS, CEO OF MYRACEHORSE.COM What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing? I'm kind of typical of those people who are exposed to racing early on. I had a friend whose dad was into racing. When I was 16, they invited me...

Tired of all the bad news? So were we. So, in our new series, we focus on the positive, asking people from non-horse racing families two questions: how they get hooked, and how they'll hook someone else on horse racing this year. KERI BRION, ASSISTANT TO JONATHAN SHEPPARD What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing? I grew up down the road from a horse racing training and breeding farm and I used to walk down the road and feed the mares and foals carrots....

Tired of all the bad news? So were we. So, in our new series, we focus on the positive, asking people from non-horse racing families two questions: how they get hooked, and how they'll hook someone else on horse racing this year. MIKE REPOLE What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing? Growing up in Queens, I would cut out of high school early to spend the day at "the beautiful Aqueduct Racetrack" to place a $2 bet and watch these amazing Thoroughbreds compete at...

SANDY HATFIELD, STALLION MANAGER, THREE CHIMNEYS What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing? I'm originally from Oklahoma. My family raised Quarter Horses, so I was familiar with the track in many ways. I was going to college at Oklahoma State University when the equine department at Murray State University was just getting started. They offered me a scholastic scholarship to join their program, so I moved to Kentucky as a junior in college. Between my junior and senior years of college, I had a...

Tired of all the bad news? So were we. So, in our new series, we focus on the positive, asking people from non-horse racing families two questions: how they get hooked, and how they'll hook someone else on horse racing this year. JON GREEN, GENERAL MANAGER, DJ STABLES What was the experience that hooked you on the sport? I grew up in a family of accountants, and, in 1989, I attended my first auction "unchaperoned" by my parents--it was the New Sire Showcase portion of the Fasig-Tipton July sale. Back...