Category: Fan Friday

Fan Friday: Barry Spears

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

One of my motivations behind #FanFriday is highlighting fans who also happen to work in the industry. Many who work in racing get their start in families already involved in the sport, but some begin their time in horse racing on the track apron, watching and wagering like the thousands of fans that attend the races from California to New York each year. That route into the sport brings with it valuable perspectives for the future of horse racing. For Fan Friday, I wanted to showcase one of those voices, Barry Spears.

Growing up in the Northeast, Barry’s grandparents exposed him to racing early, taking him to Aqueduct or Belmont each time he came to visit. Later, his family planned trips to Saratoga for big event weekends like the Travers Stakes. This early exposure to horse racing led Barry to go into handicapping, playing tournaments and writing about wagering and other racing-related topics. He regularly appears with Charles Simon on the Going in Circles podcast and had made appearances on TVG and other podcasts during his career.

In addition to being a fan and now a professional in the sport, Barry is also an advocate for expanding the sport’s reach into the diverse groups of fans seen at the racetrack, bringing more and more minority voices into the public sphere as broadcasters and handicappers, and into the next generation, regularly enjoying bringing his daughter with him to the racetrack.

On this Fan Friday, meet the Sniper, Barry Spears!

Name: Barry Spears

Role in racing: I’m The Sniper (Jack of All Trades which includes writing, handicapping, betting, handicapping tournaments, serial podcaster, breeding, historian, AND minorities in racing advocate).

Favorite memory at a racetrack: The 2009 Woodward at Saratoga. Probably the greatest race I have seen in person. Rachel Alexandra was unforgettable that day. It was also my last visit to Saratoga unfortunately.

Turf or dirt: Turf. Nothing like seeing a horse with a spectacular turn of foot on the lawn. Two of my all-time favorites were King Cugat and Megahertz

Favorite piece of racing memorabilia: My wide print picture of Bobby’s Kitten winning the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. One of my best betting days ever at the races. The race capped off an amazing pick 4 I had won in grand fashion.

Person you’d like to meet: Joel Rosario …. and it’s not even close.

Horse you’d like to meet: Heart to Heart. Just a magnificent animal.

Favorite race: 2014 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. The 2002 Test Stakes is a REALLY close second (You vs, Carson Hollow)

Finish this sentence: I wish I could ….. be a jockey. As a kid I would ride my parent’s couch arms and use a whip they bought me at Saratoga. Unfortunately, I grew to be a 6’4” basketball player so I never has a chance. I would definitely be a speed rider. I like to go fast!

How would you get new fans into racing? I would reach out to young, new, and untraditional demographics and get them to a racetrack for a day. People will have no choice to fall in love with the game like I did.

Thank you so much, Barry, for being a part of Fan Friday here on Foxes! You can follow Barry on Twitter (@UrbnHandicapper) and hear him weekly alongside Charles Simon on the Going in Circles podcast.

Fan Friday: Veronica Gizuk

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

Talk to anyone who works in horse racing, whether they work directly with the horses or in the other many jobs this industry supports, you will find that many were fans of the sport long before they became a part of its workforce. This is the goal behind Fan Friday: to feature fans, the people who make this sport.

Veronica with Skywire, Sovereign Award finalist & Casse trainee

Veronica Gizuk is one of those people. An Ontario native, she grew up with horses so her transition to working with Thoroughbreds comes as no surprise. In addition to working with the racing side, she also has her own OTTB, a filly named Roo. From cheering on the horses she works with to caring for her own OTTBs, she exudes the joy and commitment we need to continue to grow this historic sport.

On this Fan Friday, meet Veronica!

Name: Veronica Gizuk

Role in racing: I currently work for trainer Mark Casse at Woodbine. Over the past few years I’ve done a variety of roles within racing from hot-walking, grooming, vet assistant & worked at a couple different breeding farms with broodmares/foals/weanlings and yearlings. I’m also a writer and owner of Gate To Wire, a horse racing blog dedicated to telling the stories in racing we don’t always hear and getting more fans involved in our sport.

Favorite moment at a racetrack: Watching my favorite filly Souper Sensational break her maiden first time out.

Turf or dirt: Dirt is my favorite!

Favorite piece of racing memorabilia: I like to collect hats from tracks, trainers, owners etc. I’m usually always wearing one if you’ve seen me around the track.

Person you’d like to meet: Mike Smith, I was lucky enough to interview him over the phone. Would be nice to meet him in person.

Horse you’d like to meet: Afleet Alex. He’s the sire of my favorite horse Skywire.  

Favorite race: The Travers Stakes.

Finish this sentence: I wish I could travel the world and see all the biggest races.

How would you get new fans into racing? I’ve created a few new fans to racing by bringing friends to the track with me to watch races or to visit horses on the backside. Right now, I try to attract new fans through my writing on my blog (Gate To Wire). I try to tell peoples stories and how they first got involved in racing. I hope by people reading how others have become involved in our industry it will inspire them to join.

Fan Friday: Amanda Lee

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

For our first Fan Friday, I wanted to profile a fellow fan that I met via social media who has inspired many a conversation about the role of the fan in horse racing. Amanda Lee fell in love with racing as she watched Barbaro capture our hearts in 2006, and, in the last decade and a half, she has maintained that love through her education and transition into her career as a physical therapy assistant. Her passion for the sport and its champions has taken her all the way to Santa Anita for the Breeder’s Cup and inspired a series of gorgeous portraits of a number of champions, including this amazing portrait of Sir Barton that she did for yours truly.

Welcome Amanda to our first Fan Friday here on Foxes of Belair!

Name: Amanda Lee

Role in racing: I’m just a fan! However I’ve sort of become known on Twitter for my watercolor horse portraits, and a small handful of popular owners and trainers have paintings of mine hanging around.

Favorite moment at a racetrack: I’d dreamed of attending a race in person my whole life, but distance and being relentlessly busy with school made it difficult. I finally got to attend the 2019 Breeder’s Cup. It was a dream come true. The very first Breeder’s Cup race was the Filly and Mare Sprint, and I gotta watch Covfefe (a horse I’d fallen irrationally and completely in love with all year long) cross the wire first. It’s a moment I’ll cherish forever. I’ll also always remember the couple sitting next to me looking a bit glum as I jumped up screaming Covfefe down the final stretch. They must’ve had a losing bet.

Turf or dirt: Dirt is what I feel in love with first, so I’m definitely partial. But I love to watch a good turf battle!

Favorite piece of racing memorabilia: I’ve got a growing collection of hats that I’m quite fond of. Some I’ve purchased, some I’ve won in giveaways, and some have been sent to me by owners/trainers of my favorite horses! I’ve also got Breyer models of my top 3 favorite horses–Barbaro, Zenyatta, and Covfefe.

Person you’d like to meet: This is so hard to choose! I’ve interacted with many kind people in racing through Twitter and I’d love to meet any of them in person. My favorite horse running right now is Swiss Skydiver, so how about Kenny McPeek?

Horse you’d like to meet: Covfefe, Zenyatta, and Swiss Skydiver–I would probably cry if I met any of them in person! I’d also love to go to Coolmore or Lanes End to meet a few of my favorite stallions.

Favorite race: 2009 Breeder’s Cup Classic. Watching it always gives me the chills! The 2019 Test Stakes and 2020 Preakness also rank high up there.

Finish this sentence: I wish I could visit all of the big tracks and see some big races! I’ve got Santa Anita down, and hope to go to Del Mar next… after that, perhaps Saratoga or Belmont? Visiting more tracks is definitely on my bucket list for the next couple of years!

How would you get new fans into racing? All it takes is that one horse to fall in love with and you’re sold! Many people have “that one horse” that brought them into the game. For me it was Barbaro. I wanted to learn everything I could about him, and the books and articles that I read helped me to fall in love with the sport. A surefire way to get people invested is by sharing the stories of these individual horses and their connections, sharing the highs and lows and triumphs and challenges. That’s what horse racing is about and when you hear these stories, it’s not hard at all to fall in love.

Fan Friday!

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

As I continue working on Foxes of Belair, I wanted to look at both Belair champions and the contextual history of their pedigrees and their people, but I also wanted to draw on our own context. One of the great joys of my life has been these thirty-plus years of watching horse racing and falling in love with its champions over the years. With that in mind, I wanted to introduce a regular feature I’m calling #FanFriday.

The goal will be to interview a fan each week and share some thoughts on their favorite horses and moments from their time as part of this sport. This week, I wanted to kick things off with a look at the wonderful people who engaged with me early on and led to this lifetime love of horse racing.

Starting Young

Sure, my journey started with the Black Stallion books, and, according to my third-grade teacher, I was already sketching horses before I had even watched my first race on television. Growing up in the Birmingham area offered limited opportunities to interact with horses so imagine how grand a day it was when my aunt Betty took me to the racetrack for the first time! It was August 12, 1989 and this twelve-year-old fan was doing so well at the wagering game that I had some grizzled old gamblers asking my aunt who I liked in the next race. That’s where I met Missy Be Good, the filly that caught my eye and started my love for chestnuts. I’m still looking for a photo of her to have.

Writing Away

The late 1980s lacked the accessibility of tools like Twitter and Facebook and search engines like Google, so, if you want to reach out to your favorites, you had to write a letter. I cannot remember how many I wrote, but, as I had decided I wanted to be a jockey, I started writing letters. To the National Museum of Racing. To Churchill Downs. To the Kentucky Derby Museum. To Pimlico. Most of the time, I got lovely letters back, some even handwritten. I wrote a letter to Chris Antley after he won the Kentucky Derby on Strike the Gold and got that autographed photo in return. I got that photo of Pat Day. Kentucky Derby win photos from 1980-1990. Programs from the Triple Crown races. I relished checking the mail every day and still do. Now, though, with Twitter and Facebook and more, I can reach out more easily, but I will never forget how special I felt opening the mailbox and finding envelopes from these cathedrals to the sport.

Thirty years later, I had the great fortune to take that teenage love of racing into the work I do now. I love every second of it. For all of the days when racing is hard, when negatives pile up and threaten to overwhelm the positives, I remember how I felt when Sunday Silence and Easy Goer dueled down the stretch in the 1989 Preakness, when American Pharoah finally was the one, and all of the winning moments in between, and I smile, thinking of how much younger me loved it all. I am grateful to every person who answered my letters and my tweets, who took the time to share their love of the sport with this fan and many others.

Now, each week, I hope to feature other fans and talk about those same moments that brought them to racing and then keep them in the sport. If you would like to be a part of #FanFriday, let me know! I’d love to showcase fans from across the county and the world if possible.