* Originally from New Jersey
* Now lives in Vermont
* Has been a chiropractor since 1976
Does your medical work extend to the horse industry at all?
When Saratoga is open I work on the backstretch workers. There's this thing called the "Backstretch Employee Service Team". I volunteer when I'm over there a couple days a week. I just give adjustments to the backstretch workers for free for a couple hours, and then I go to the track.
When did you first become interested in horseracing?
When I was 14 or 15 we went up to Monmouth Park. It was the first time I ever went up to the horse races and really from the first race I saw, I was hooked. Ever since then it was sort of any chance I could go to any track anywhere at anytime, I would do so.
When did you get into the horse business?
The late 80's. I bought a 10% interest in a horse, just to kind of see how it worked. I wanted to raise my own horses, own the mares and plan the breeding and all that. Back in that time frame I was trying to learn about breeding. I had taken genetics, so I was kind of interested in all that but I didn't know much about horses. I ended up talking to Jack Brothers and he was exceedingly helpful, just answering questions. We'd be on the phone for 20-30 minutes, which probably seemed like 3 hours to him [laughs]. But he was very helpful. I helped educate myself by reading some books and used to go to the sales at Saratoga to learn about value and all that, and was finally ready to buy my first horse, and actually, Jack picked her out for me. 1990 or 1991 was when I bought the first mare. And then about 5 years ago I started Bloodlines Racing Partnership, so I bought a Distorted Humor mare in 2009 at the January Keeneland Sale and bred her to Invasor a couple times.
Those two full sisters-Invading Humor and Distorted Beauty--recently finished 1st and 2nd in the Ticonderoga Stakes, correct?
Yes, and the Hidden Brook filly Neck of the Moon finished 3rd. Those two horses are the first two horses I put into the partnership, and they have been really successful so far. I still own the mom and they're still going to come back this year. Invading Humor will be 6, Distorted Beauty will be 5.
Take us through your experience during and after that race.
At the race were a number of partners and my family and probably 4 or 5 of our friends. It was a full field, 12 horses, so we thought we would put Invading Humor on the lead and see if she could win it that way, and Distorted Beauty sort of mid-back and let her close. Invading Humor got the lead without too much trouble and was out by a length or two most of the race. They came to her at the top of the stretch and she dug in and pulled back out by a couple lengths. I'm watching through binoculars and I'm trying to look at both horses, and they weren't very close to each other for most of the race. Once Invading Humor started opening up again down the stretch, I'm looking to see where Distorted Beauty was and she was closing, and then all of a sudden there was some commotion and I lost her. I didn't know where she was, because she was close to the rail with other horses covering her up. And when they went across the finish line, I thought I saw the sleeve of our silks on the horse that looked like it got second by a head or so. And I was thinking, "Could it possibly be that we got first and second?" That seemed impossible to happen, but it did. When you win a race and you're at the track, it doesn't really matter what kind of race it is. It could be a claiming race and you still feel like you're on top of the world. The drive home from New York that night felt like it was 45 minutes instead of 5 hours. It was the most beautiful traffic I'd ever seen.
What was another exciting moment in the business for you?
The first one was when I claimed a mare. I've only claimed two horses in my life, but I claimed one where I thought I could maybe race her a few times and then breed her. She had a pretty good pedigree and I remember selling her in foal and it brought $105,000. I remember telling my wife, "It should bring around $100,000", and she was like, "Sure, sure, sure," and that was a big moment to have a horse I claimed sell for that price. That was quite awhile ago. But any time you win a race it's exciting, particularly if your friends and family are around. I've been fortunate enough to win maybe 10 or a dozen races at Saratoga out of maybe 30, so I have a very high strike rate there. I wish I had it like that everywhere.
What have been some of your favorite horses to watch during your life?
Growing up, one of the ones I really liked was way back in the 1960s, a famous grass horse named Fort Marcy. I remember going to Atlantic City a lot in the summer and it seemed like 7 out of 9 races a day were won by either Jacinto Vasquez or Jorge Velasquez. Later on, Easy Goer was one of my favorite horses. I just loved that horse. I saw Awesome Again run at Saratoga, and I think it was the Jim Dandy if I remember correctly, in the mud. And he came from the back and he just flew by horses and looked like he was playing and I remember just saying what an unbelievable horse he was.
Thank you, Dr. Randy McGlinn, for giving us a few minutes of your time Inside the Winner's Circle...
