Category: Jennifer

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.

Tome Tuesday: The Kentucky Derby

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

tome: a book, especially a large or scholarly book.

The goal of #TomeTuesday is to highlight a noteworthy book about racing or its stars for your reading pleasure. In early April, the University Press of Kentucky, publisher of Sir Barton, will release another fantastic book on a historic moment in racing, Racing for America: the Horse Race of the Century and the Redemption of a Sport. Its author is Jamie Nicholson, who has written other books for UPK, including Never Say Die and the book I chose for this week’s #TomeTuesday, The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America’s Premier Sporting Event.

The iconic Twin Spires of Churchill Downs

Jamie’s exploration of the Derby is a tome for sure, an in-depth exploration of the history of our most popular and best known horse race. Sure, the horses are part of the picture, but Jamie dives in deeper, discussing the people and events that go beyond Derby Day. He profiles Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., the man who imagined an American version of the iconic Epsom Derby, but whose financial troubles led him to end his life early. From there, Jamie traces those uncertain years that followed Clark’s exit from Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby. He discusses how Matt Winn became the man who made the Derby the iconic event it is today and how the famous Twin Spires became part of our national fabric. With great patience and care, he traces the Derby’s evolution through war, social movements, and the evolution of the sport itself. If you were ever interested in just how the Derby became THE KENTUCKY DERBY, including how traditions like the blanket of roses came to be, this is the book for you.

Justify in the gate for the 2018 Kentucky Derby
(courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

As we look toward the 147th Kentucky Derby, a wide open field of three-year-olds presents their cases for wearing roses. While we watch the prep races and contemplate our choices, I hope you will pick up this tome and let us know what you learn from Jamie’s discussion of how the Run for the Roses went from one man’s dream to the grandest spectacle in American horse racing.

Maker Monday: Old Smoke Clothing Co.

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

One of my very favorite souvenirs from any sporting event is a t-shirt. I have shirts from the Triple Crown races I’ve attended, the racetracks I’ve visited, and more, enough to wear over a solid couple of weeks or so. Fans everywhere like to wear their joy for their favorite teams or horses, so much so that whole stores are devoted to the perfect jersey for a NFL football fan or the coolest hat to show off their love for their favorite NBA team. For horse racing fans to find that perfect shirt, they need to look no further than one name: Old Smoke. For #MakerMonday, here’s a look at this company’s wide variety of shirts and other gear for horse racing fans everywhere.

With a Little Help from My Friends

Kurt Rossner, Adrian Szamereta, and Kurt Hoover grew up in the Saratoga Springs area, so they were exposed to the track from their earliest years. From that grew an understanding of what fans of the sport like, especially when it comes to the gear they like to wear. They parlayed their love of the horses and the sport’s accompanying pastimes (tradition and pageantry with a side of betting and bourbon) into Old Smoke Clothing Co., based in Saratoga Springs.

Since 2018, they’ve been offering shirts, hats, outerwear, and more for fans everywhere. They’ve also partnered with America’s Best Racing, the Kentucky Derby, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, and more to offer a variety of designs, some of which give back to the charities involved. Old Smoke also offers custom options for those who would like to have a shirt or a line of clothing for their organization.

What to Wear?

I guess you can call me partial to Old Smoke: in 2019, we partnered to create a Sir Barton t-shirt in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Triple Crown. But, before that, I was already an Old Smoke fan, so much so that I now have a dozen of their shirts. These are well-made shirts that are soft and hold up well to washing. The colors stay vibrant and the designs are both contemporary and classic, playing off of many of the horses and places that permeate racing, like the Graveyard of Champions shirt, which is next on my list of must-haves. Horses from Secretariat to Knicks Go get their tributes as well as familiar names like Mike Smith and the Daily Racing Form.

In addition, you can find beanies and ball caps as well as hoodies and households items (coffee mugs and posters). Old Smoke has something for every racing fan, literally. My husband and I both have shirts that love wearing, and one day soon I’m going to get him a ball cap too. (This one is my favorite.)

While you’re exploring Old Smoke’s offering, consider looking for their Chari-TEE of the month. If you purchase the chosen t-shirt during that month, part of the proceeds goes to that charity. For February, the Chari-TEE is the Old Smoke logo t-shirt; buy one to benefit Racing for Home, Inc. I can’t wait to see what next month’s choice will be!

Want to know more? Follow Old Smoke on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

So Many Shirts, So Little Time

If you’re an Old Smoke fan, share your favorite shirts with us in the comments! Let us know what shirts you think they should make next. I am personally hoping for a Gallant Fox or Omaha shirt to go alongside my Sir Barton shirt. I know 2021 will bring us more fantastic designs from these fellow racing fans.

If you know of an artisan making horse racing related items, message me and let me know so I can feature them in an upcoming Maker Monday.

And, if you want to see more of what this racing fan has in her closet, here is a slideshow of all of our shirts!

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.