By Bill Finley

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.

Larry Collmus, racecaller
It really started for me at Timonium, where my father put in the sound system. I would work for him in the summers, monitoring the sound in the grandstand while he was monitoring all the fair exhibits and things like that. I quickly became more interested in the horse racing than monitoring the sound. I was more fascinated by the characters, especially up in the press box, and the people I met there. I knew I fit in there at the racetrack and that I wanted to be there, and that’s how it all it stated.

My first full time job was at Birmingham when they first opened in 1987. Before that I was a backup on the Maryland circuit for a few years. Calling my first Kentucky Derby really solidified my love for the sport. Especially when it’s over, its an ‘oh oy God’ moment. Here I was the guy who wanted to call races since he was 18 years old and just got to call the Kentucky Derby. That was in 2011.

Ned Toffey, General Manager, Spendthrift Farm

Ned Toffey | Spendthrift

It probably started with me with my parents. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio and I was four years old when my parents made a family trip with all of us to Kentucky. They brought us to Spendthrift Farm, where was saw Nashua. I don’t remember any of it, but that was what planted the seed for me. My parents weren’t huge racing fans, but were casual racing fans. I think they just wanted to get out of town for a while. I know we visited Fort Knox and did some of the other touristy things there are to do in Kentucky.

From as early a time as I can remember, I was a huge fan of horses and horse racing. Maybe what set the hook would be when I was 10 years old my dad took me to Saratoga and it happened to be the day they were inducting Secretariat into the Hall of Fame. I got my picture taken with Penny Chenery. We went over to the track and bet on a Meadow Stables horse that won at 10-1. Doing all that with my dad was a great experience.

My first job was at a place called Kinderhill Farm in New York State. I took it when I finished college. I thought I could enjoy this for a while while I looked for a real job. A year later, I moved to Kentucky, and it became my real job.

I kind of grew away from the sport for a little while in high school. I went to the University of Massachusetts and made the football team as a walk-on. I ended up getting a scholarship to play football. One of my teammates who I wound up sharing an apartment with was Paul Manganaro, whose family was in the breeding business, and they boarded horses at Spendthrift at the time. I didn’t know him that well. That was because he played defense and I played offense and it’s like they are almost two separate teams. I’m sitting in the apartment and Paul is talking on the phone to his father about what stallions they are going to breed to. I’d think, ‘I remember that horse.’ Being around Paul reminded me how much I liked the sport and that there was a whole another aspect to it in the breeding and farm side of the sport.

To share your own story of how you got hooked on racing, email suefinley@thetdn.com.

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This story was posted in Shared News and tagged Larry Collmus, Ned Toffey, Paul Manganaro hooked on racing, Spendthrift Farm, Timonium.