Training at cheap tracks in the 1970's

[Calzone Lord]

I talked with my father some more about his training experiences. Here are some questions I've asked him before, with answers, about training at cheap tracks in the 70s. I know he'd be very unhappy that I'm sharing this with anyone, but it's an interesting subject.

Why did you want to train?

I thought it would be fun. I was in my 20's and had two used car dealerships. I was making a lot of money, but I got sick of that business. I owned horses for a year or two and visited the backside before. So I knew it would be fun to try. I did talk to my trainer and others trainers for advice.


Was it fun?

Once I got licensed it was. They wanted me to pass all these tests before they'd give me a trainers license. I had never spent 2 minutes with a horse before in my life. I had to give the guy a cash bribe just to get a license. But once I got going and figured things out a little, it was the most fun I've ever had working in my life.


Stats show you won at 15% your first year with 108 total starts...

When I started. I paid a little extra to get a good groom. If you have good help, common sense, and are willing to put horses in races where they can be competitive, you'll do fine on any track or circuit. Even at the highest level.

But, I never cared about win percentage. I don't think anyone did in those days. The field sizes were a bit larger. We always had 8, 9, 10 horses in every race. I'd try and enter them every single week if I could.


Did you have good stock?

No. I had a few nice horses like Perfect Penny and GJ From Ioway. But for the most part, I had horses I paid $250, $500, $750, or a grand for. The rock bottom claiming level was $1,500.

In those days, the killers would come right on the track and try to buy. I had to outbid them for a few of the ones I trained. I won with a filly named Piece of Jo that I bought for $250. She was real small. Not much meat on her. She won at 30/1 odds for me the same month I bought her for $250.






Why were the purses so lousy in those days?

The cost of living was cheap in the mid 70's. You could buy a nice brand new 3-bedroom house for under $30,000. The minimum wage had just spiked to $2.00 an hour for the first time. A 4-year college education cost like $5,000. Prices for everything have gone way, way up.

This was also way before simulcast wagering. Slot machines and everything else. The purses still were poor but fields always filled and most people got by. I made money every year, even after helping out some of the good people who were struggling to get by


Did you cheat?

I went into the used car business straight out of college. I came with a mindset that I'd rather cheat the world than let the world cheat me.

But I didn't hop horses with any real consistency. Just on occasion. Usually off the layoff or right after I claimed or bought one. I wasn't the only one doing it either. Far from it. The squares would never do it. People like your mother.

As much as I liked to win, I didn't want to push it and break down a horse or get a jockey hurt. I wasn't in it for that.


What was the best juice?

Depends on the horse. Ritalin got the best results for me. It works on the head of the horse. Cheap old-horses always have issues. Eventually they start to protect themselves. Ritalin takes all their worries and troubles away and get the mind right. It doesn't work as well on a slow horse that can't run. It really hops up a fresh older horse with back class.


Did you have any good betting coups?

Nat's Thunder and Boyarin.

Boyarin was like a broken down umbrella. I figured him out and got his mind right and he won by 10 lengths at a huge price off the layoff.



I was getting destroyed betting baseball with several bookmakers that year. I stalled some of them off the best I could. Boyarin was freshened up for Finger Lakes, where they'd take more action in those days. He had his mind right that day and won easy at 65/1 odds. It was like a get out of jail free card. Some of the bookies stiffed me. Refused to pay. Insisted on capping the odds at 20/1. All kinds of BS. They were hot.

Of all the horses I trained, my biggest betting score was with Nat's Thunder.



The bet failed the first time he ran in Cleveland. I felt sure he'd win that day, but everything went wrong. Before I ran him at Thistle again, I stiffed him in a race at Commodore. When I took him back to Cleveland the second time, it was on a Saturday in the summer and they had exotics in the race. Huge crowd. It was beautiful. I made almost $20,000 at the windows on that race.


Any bad luck with shenanigans?

One time, I was involved in a race where two other trainers and I had all agreed to pull our horse. We were the 3 favorites. My horse was pulled, my buddies horse was pulled, but the other horse won easy. We were played.

The other trainer who stiffed his horse with me got so mad, he went straight for the parking lot and destroyed the truck of the winning trainer.

One time, a jockey named Jerry Stein asked me to make him a $100 win bet on a horse he said "can't lose." -- he rode like a 20/1 shot in the same race. He ended winning real easy on the horse he rode, and beat the chalk that he bet.


Why did you stop training?

I had a bad test for Ritalin. They gave me a year suspension. I bought Clancy's Tavern, got married, had you, went into the bar business. Which was basically just a cover for bookmaking.


Do you think the sport is clean now? Even at low level tracks?

The purses are great. There's no reason at all to stiff a horse anymore. Everyone is trying to win. The only cheating that I think is going on is doping with the intent to win. And I think the guys who are doing it now are way more consistent about their methods. The sharp bettor gets it. I don't think anyone is being fooled. The sports has never been and will never be clean. But, it's probably a more honest sport than it has ever been. Doping to win has probably gone on in horse racing since whenever dope was invented. You know that.

[TheSpyder]

Grew up at the Big T from the early 70's. Great stories Doug.

[GenuineRisk]

That was a great way to start off the week. Very entertaining read. Thanks!

[Benny]

Good read, DS, kinda reminds me of betting Pimlico sunday.

[Alabama Stakes]

I remember when Larry Antus had his bug. Great stories.Tell us more.

[Kasept]

Doug.. So great.

"Squares.. like your mother" !!!

[3kings]

Great read Doug. Interesting perspective on how the game is really played even by the honest guys. The Ritalin story is particularly noteworthy.

[Danzig]

great stuff, doug.

[tiggerv]

Nice read

[fantini33]

I could read your stuff for hours....

[ninetoone]

Great post!

[Left Bank]

Fabulous! But I'm still waiting for the sequel to the "trip to Mountaineer"

[Sightseek]

Did your parents meet at the track?

[philcski]

I love stories like this, Doug. Real guido sh1t. A conversation I had with my dad a long time ago about betting horses (he doesn't talk about his childhood much, so this was opening up quite a bit for him):

"So dad, when did you get interested in the track?"

"Well you know, my mother was gone early and my dad was gone when I was 15. So it was just me and your aunt, broke, homeless, nowhere to go. One day in high school I was at the deli and some guy offered me $5 to run a paper bag down to the bar on my way . He says don't look in there. The guy at the other side paid off. He tells me come back tomorrow and do it again for another $5. Naturally, after a few weeks of doing this I got curious about what it was, so I looked in the bag and it was the daily double at Aqueduct. So I started watching which guys [numbers] were winning and would take my lunch stipend and bet it with them. I started hitting $15, $20 doubles a few times a week and thought I was rich. I didn't even know what I was betting or even where to get the results. I just would ask around at school and some of the wiseguys there would get the results on the radio and we'd all either eat well or not at all. That was a lot of money in those days."

FYI he still has no idea how to read a racing form, 50 years later. Rarely bets but really enjoys watching the races.

[outofthebox]

Fantastic read. Things like that were also going on at the big tracks in So Cal in the late 70's too. Your dad was spot on about todays racing too.

[jms62]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

When did you meet Mom?

She got her trainers license right away and actually won a few races at age 18. She was smart and very handy around horses, but too much of a know-it-all to work for anyone for long. She thought she was Woody Stephens. She knows everything about horses and medicine, just ask her.

I got to know her better because of Viagtoni. The horse was a complete dog-biscuit. My buddy Mike Trivigno had the horse at Tampa and couldn't get it to run. In those days, Tampa was a junky track. Nothing like today.



I got the horse off of Mike and couldn't do anything with it either. I didn't like anything about the horse. I called him Macaroni. The horse was nuts and had no ability at all. I figured the horse would be a perfect match for your mother, so I recommend her "as a great fit for this horse" to the guy who owned him.


Tell me about Vigatoni's race for mom on July 4th? Geezers at Presque Isle Downs still occasionally talk about that race...

There was a huge crowd that day. She stretched the horse out to two-turns. The last time that horse ran two-turns, it tried to bolt at Tampa. It was eased and Mike wanted nothing more to do with the horse.

Commodore Downs was a bull-ring like Charles Town. Much tighter-turns than Tampa and your mother had a bug up that could barely stay on a professional horse.

Vigatoni was about 5 or 10 in front on the far turn at like 20/1 odds. He looked like he couldn't lose, but suddenly he bolted. He dumped the rider, ran around until he jumped over a fence, and ran straight back into his stall. By the time your mother got back to the barn, all she had to do was fasten the latch. I got back there before she did and said "Wow! Now that is impressive training!" He knew exactly which stall was his and went right in, unassisted.


Mike Trivigno, of Vigatoni fame, trained eventual Kentucky Derby winner Lil E Tee as a 2-year-old. Did you ever ask him anything about Lil E Tee?



They paid just $25,000 for Lil E Tee as an April 2-year-old at OBS. Mike knew he was probably going to lose the horse after he broke his maiden like a future superstar. The offer came fast.

Lil E Tee debuted in a hot maiden race at Calder. The top four finisher all won back next-time out. And the horse who finished 5th in that Calder debut race, was a Kentucky Derby starter the following year. When he improved big-time in his second start, the vultures had a perfect target.

The same year that Lil E Tee won the Kentucky Derby, Glenn Wismer won the Kentucky Oaks with Luv Me Luvmenot. He upset Mineshaft's dam, who was undefeated. And he beat the horse who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile fillies as well. It was neat, two of my best friends from Commodore Downs, and one of them trained the Oaks winner and the other had the Derby winner, and all in the same year.





Any other trainers from Commodore still around?

Quite a few that I recall. Steve Klesaris was at Commodore. Loren Cox. Gerald Bennett. Dale Baird ran there a lot and everywhere else. I can't believe some people say he belongs in the Hall of Fame, he ran a Livery stable. What a joke that would be.

Wismer came to Commodore from Canada. He had nothing at the time. I let him stay with your Grandma and Grandpa. He slept in the upstairs bedroom that used to be my bedroom. Your grandparents really liked him a lot, he was a hard worker and a good guy. He wasn't a cheater either.

Great all-around horsemen. Unfortunately, he's not very clever when it comes to all aspects of racing that involve common sense. Great guy. A+ horsemen, F- with everything that doesn't involve hands-on horsemenship.

You need to write a book. I will be in line when it comes out.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by jms62

You need to write a book. I will be in line when it comes out.

' a real know it all'

i love it!

[Alabama Stakes]

love the old jockeys in the PPs. Charlie Feagin....a blast from the past

[dellinger63]

Awesome stuff and I'd buy the book for sure.

Only story I have is when I went to the track with my Grandpa and he'd drop me back at home he'd say, "Tell your mom you went to the zoo. You're not lying, you saw animals." Must have been in deep shiat with my Grandma and why we went to the backside to see goats and ducks.

[pmayjr]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Any other trainers from Commodore still around?

Quite a few that I recall. Steve Klesaris was at Commodore. Loren Cox. Gerald Bennett. Dale Baird ran there a lot and everywhere else. I can't believe some people say he belongs in the Hall of Fame, he ran a Livery stable. What a joke that would be.

what is a Livery Stable?