When did you.....
 

..... become a racing fan? Were you taken to the track as a kid or did you fall in love with a certain horse, ie the post-9/11 we-need-a-hero-and-his-name-is-Smarty-Jones mentality? Were you taken to the track by friends or did you just kinda stumble into it, or did you grow up around horses and have a natural interest?

Tell me your story. :)

i've always been a complete horse nut. so it just came naturally to me. i remember the days of the slew crew, and i wanted alydar to beat affirmed. and then spectacular bid came along (i liked general assembly myself...i detect a pattern!)...but then, in '80, that big beautiful chestnut filly with a blazed face came along. oh man, that was it. you see, i'm a tomboy, always have been. and there she was duking it out with the boys, and she beat them. it was great. she was also my first derby horse to win...i love seattle slew, but didn't see him run til after the t.c. he was almost before my time....
i've got a tony leonard print of risk. she had tremendous heart, she was a tough gal on the track and now she's our senior derby winner.

2002 started paying attention.....
2003 became a fan...
2004 became addicted.

Point Given 2001

This is my first post. I've been reading posts for about a year and a half now, first at ESPN, now here. This site is much better. I really admire the involvement most of you have in the sport.
As to the topic, I've been following racing since the late 50's when my family watched any sport on TV and horse racing was popular. The names of famous racehorses, jockeys, owners, and trainers were household words. I remember the newspaper stories when Nashua's owner was shot, when Tim Tam broke down in the Belmont, and when Eddie Arcaro retired. I was hooked and really followed the sport the year that Kelso won the "Handicappers Triple Crown", when Carry Back made his triple crown bid. My favorites at that time were Kelso, Bowl of Flowers, and Jaipur.

For me it was when I was 5 or 6. I used to go to the track with me dad

For me it started in 1989 at age 12 when I watched the greatest horse race ever in that year's Preakness Stakes. I was (and remain) a HUGE Sunday Silence fan. I was a Triple Crown/Breeders' Cup fan for the next decade or so.
Then after I moved to NYC a few years back, the quality of the racing there hooked me as a year-round fan. And though I have sense left the greatest city in the world, I doubt I'll ever stop being a fan of the greatest sport in the world.

thanks for stepping up with your first post. looking forward to hearing more from you either on the "good old days" when the sport was much more popular, or your thoughts on the current scene.

well, welcome! what took ya so long?

lucky you to have seen all those fabulous horses, many of which most of us have only seen in pictures or the occasional grainy black and white film footage. kelso was an amazing horse.

Same story for me... although I rooted for Easy Goer. :)

I was hooked for life after Secretariat's Belmont. "He is moving like a tremendous machine." It still gives me chills.

I loved Easy Goer. My alltime favorite is Secretariat. I waited so long to join because I did feel a little intimidated by the inside knowledge that a lot of you seem to have, but tonight I figured what the heck. It's nice to be a part of a group that shares the same love and interest.

Welcome to the board! :D

I remember being very upset by Swale's death, but the first horse I ever followed from beginning to retirement was Gulch. Man, I loved that horse; he was so classy and even when he ran at distances beyond his best, he never quit. I was lucky to have him as my first horse.

Speaking of Easy Goer... one of his granddaughter's is being auctioned right now at Fasig Tipton.

My older sister never liked Secretariat, or rather never really respected him until that Belmont. During the running of the Preakness that year, I got to her house right after the field entered the backstretch and she said to me that it was Sham's race. When I saw the replay, I realized why she said that; if it had been any other horse making that move around the clubhouse turn, she would have been right. That race, as much as the Belmont, marked Secretariat as truly something special. After the Belmont, she called me up and said that he was a wonder horse, but she still didn't like him. Her favorite was Seattle Slew and before that Nashua. She won't hear of any case for Swaps maybe being the better racehorse.

oh man, i loved swale. a lot like his dad, which was my first reason for liking him. that was awful and so sudden to lose him that way.
gulch, i remember him. champ sprinter the same year that personal ensign beat him in the whitney. now she was something! but i think most remember gulch these days because he's thunder gulchs pop--but you could certainly be remembered for worse things!!

Two Words:
My Father
sat me down at age 2 and literally forced me to watch the 1973 Belmont

Two More Words:
Fred Hooper
a true champion of the sport, who I had the pleasure of knowing
attend Hooper Academy named for the Hall-of-fame owner & co-founder
of Gulfstream Park

Two More Words:
Mike Pawluk
his love from the sport is contageous and also unequaled
have learned a lot about the sport and also made a great friend

Two More Words:
Real Quiet
was down after graduating collegeand had no Mrs. Robinson to cheer me up
the colt was my Mrs. Robinson

special thanks also go to Pat Day, Jim McKay, The Miller's, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Byk, Personal Ensign, and Wil Harbut's pal "The Mostest"

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Hooper while touring his farm down here (when it was around) as a child. He was a gentleman.

I hope this is the first of many posts. :)

Welcome.

lol about swaps. they were both good. really good. swaps had an amazing year at four. records set everywhere. but nashua....hell, i wouldn't want to have to separate those two. east vs west came to life with those two.
as for their derby, that was a pure jocks race. run it ten more times, maybe nashua comes out on top those next ten. maybe...

Mine is similar.....

2004 - all three of the above. Thank you, Smarty Jones. I'm hooked.

That is my sister's take on the Derby. But it seems that the match race was also a pure jocks race. Also, Swaps may have been sore. As a 4 year old, he may have been unbeatable.

I'd like to think Gulch would be remembered more for his racehorse days (he was truly special) than for siring Thunder Gulch (who I LOVED), but you're probably right. TG gave me my first fan Derby win and I'll always remember him for that anyway (by "fan Derby win" I mean that he was my first favorite horse to win that race). I loved Personal Ensign, but I was not happy that she beat Gulch....lol. Well, when he won the BC Sprint, I was through the moon. Winning the Met Mile back to back was awfully sweet, too.

I vaguely remember Slew o'Gold - I was 12 but not quite into racing yet, so I didn't follow him. I just remember always loving horses by Seattle Slew and I don't know why; it's not like I saw him race. I know Swale's death was a crushing blow for Woody and for Claiborne.......until Pulpit came along, they could never get a Seattle Slew -line stallion (besides which, Swale was a homebred).

swale was claibornes first ky derby winner. amazing it took that farm so long...even more amazing that arthur han****, the black sheep son, won a derby first...

yeah, gulch was a hell of a racehorse. but it just seems to me that his career on the track has been overlooked...i guess maybe that happens to derby sires.

personal ensign is another fave of mine, how can anyone not appreciate a horse like that?!

supposedly had it been any race but the match race with all the attention, swaps would have been scratched because of his notoriously bad foot. swaps had a lot of talent, and a lot of guts.

I agree with that Danzig.

Used to go watch the big gray Captain Condo at old Longacres with my dad when i was just a wee lad. I knew i wanted to call races though when i heard Vic Stauffer call the 2005 American Oaks. "Melhor Ainda might get into second, but NO WAY does she catch the winner, the Japanese Superstar, CESARIO!!!" I get chills down the back of my neck everytime i hear that call.

oh cesario....classy all the way...looked so much like sunday silence it was almost surreal watching her run. shame that we didn't get to see her again after that tho.

Indeed, she ran off in the post parade, was washing out and still romped. And Both Melhor Ainda and Singhalese both came back and won stakes later in the year.

My mom made the mistake of taking me to see The Black Stallion when I was a little girl. She laughs to this day stating that she "created a monster!" in my love for horses and wanting my own black stallion to race.

But the first race horse I remember ever loving and who made me addicted to watching the races was the 1985 derby. I will always remember the announcer (sorry, I don't know his name) "It's Spend A Buck with a five length lead". I have watched the races ever since.

Speaking of Smarty, I just re-watched that despicable tag team effort on him on the backside by Eddington and Rock Hard Ten. Some guys just can't let others have the glory. I second whomever said last week that Smarty Jones showed us as much in defeat that day that he ever showed us in any of his victories.

Welcome aboard:D

Yeah there are a lot of people on here with inside information, but there are also a lot of people on here (like me for example) who have no inside information at all. I am simply a fan of the sport and a small-time and part-time handicapper. This site is great!! It allows us fans to talk about the non-betting side of the game AND to pick the brains of people in the know when we want to place some bets. Glad you made your first post MLC. All true fans of the sport are welcomed here.

Welcome MLC.

To answer the question, I got hooked when I was a kid watching the battles between Affirmed and Alydar. I always rooted for Alydar.
Now, after many years, I own four horses that have Alydar in their blood.
I also have four others with Swaps.
For me, it's a dream come true.

DTS

I think it was in '91 or '92 when Oaktown Stable (MC Hammer) had a horse entered in a stakes race at Ellis Park. I didn't like Hammer at all, in fact I was keen to the song The Gas Face by 3rd Bass which dissed hammer. I was hoping to see Hammer in the paddock area and yell out "Hammer gets the gas face!"

Well Hammer didn't show. Instead it was his entourage that was there, you know, the guys that took every penny from him. If I recall his horse ran last and I cashed a $2 across the board ticket on the second place horse. I was hooked.

I really think I'm going to name a horse Listerfiend. Classic story on Hammer and 3rd Base, PP.

First remember watching Spectacular Bid in 1979. My grandfather was a racing fan and owned a few greyhounds, but he died when I was only 5. My grandmother remained interested, so we would watch the Derby together. I watched Triple Crown races through 1990, but that was about the extent of it.
The first big event I attended was the 1991 Derby. I got hooked on that event and have been to every Derby since. I made major scores in 1993, 1995, 1996, and 1997 which only fueled the fire (haven' hit since:rolleyes: ). In 1998 I took the next step by going to the Breeders Cup. Then I caught the fall meet at Keenland in 1999.