How I Got Hooked On Racing: Richard Migliore, Sol Kumin

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.

Richard Migliore

My first memories of racing were watching the Channel 9 show every Saturday at 6 o'clock on WOR with Frank Wright, Charlsie Cantey, and Dave Johnson. I just got enamored with that show. No matter what I was doing, maybe playing stickball out in the street or running around, when it was 6 o'clock on Saturdays I was going to be in front of the TV to watch. They always showed the eighth race, which was the feature, they had a feature in between, and then the ninth race triple.

That was my introduction. I knew that I wanted to learn more about it and get involved. I started riding ponies and got involved with pony racing. I was doing this on a farm in Long Island and they were telling me I should be a jockey.

But If you want one singular moment that absolutely galvanized it in my mind it was the 1976 Marlboro Cup. Forego caught Honest Pleasure right on the money. The last jump.  Honest Pleasure was a good horse and he was loose, 3 ½ in front at the eighth-pole and here comes that big train Forego on the outside and he nailed him in the last jump.

I was with friends of mine, Carlos and David Figueroa, and I told them at that moment that I'm going to be a jockey, I'm going to do what Shoemaker just did. That sealed my fate, that I was going to be a part of this industry.

For the next two years, I worked on farms on Long Island. I was a groom and then I worked my way up to being an exercise rider at a place called Lakeview Farm. A man named Bill Church gave me an opportunity there. I also worked at the Quarter Horse track, Parr Meadows, that had a brief run on Long Island. Dennis and Julia Brida, they opened their home to me and David Figueroa. We moved in with them for the summer. I worked with horses all summer. I went back to school and the following year when school was out I got the job with Steve DiMauro at Belmont. I was 15 and I started galloping horses for him. A year later I started riding races. My first mount was in September, 1980. Give or take a week, it was four years from that Marlboro Cup when I knew what I wanted to do and then was able to do it professionally.

Sol Kumin | Sue Finley

Sol Kumin

For me, it was Lady Eli that got me hooked. It was the ups and downs of that racehorse after she developed laminitis in both front feet.  She was in the first group of horses that we ever owned. We got to have the feeling of being 6-0 and winning the Breeders' Cup when we barely knew what the Breeders' Cup was.

Then the lows, showing up at the barn while she's having her legs soaked in ice buckets and everyone wondering if she was going to live. Maybe she could make it back, and that would have been a win. But we never thought she'd make it back and race at a high level.  It was so great to be a part of her courageous comeback and to watch her win another Grade I, getting named a champion at five and being one of only a few fillies in history to win Grade I races at 2, 3, 4 and 5. That was it for me. That feeling of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. She was the first horse I ever owned where I really understood her personality and spent time with her.

She was in the first group of horses we ever owned. My buddy Jay Hanley introduced me to racing and introduced me to Chad Brown. We ended up buying some horses together with Chad. That's where it started. We did pretty well with the first group and because of that I wanted to spend a little bit more and get more involved, so we ended up buying more horses.

I always wonder if we didn't have that experience the first time would we be where we are today? You never know. l I know people who have come in and not had a good experience at the beginning and they just disappear. With her, it wasn't just the winning. That was part of it, but so was the journey.

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