Hooked On Horse Racing: Liz Crow

Tired of all the bad news? So were we. So, in our new series, we focus on the positive, asking people from non-horse racing families two questions: how they get hooked, and how they'll hook someone else on horse racing this year.

LIZ CROW, BSW BLOODSTOCK & ELITE SALES

What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing?

I grew up in Washington, D.C. where both my parents worked in politics. Horse racing was far from anything I ran into on a day-to-day basis. My mom was the D.C representative for the mayor of Louisville, Jerry Abramson. So she went to the Kentucky Derby each year, but other than knowing my mom was away the first weekend in May every year, I really had no grasp of what racing was all about.

My mom's parents lived in Shreveport, Louisiana and when I was 8-years-old I went down to visit them for a few weeks in the summer. They were big racing fans, often driving up to Oaklawn for the Rebel and Arkansas Derby and going to the Kentucky Derby every year with my mom. They took me to Louisiana Downs and we sat upstairs in the clubhouse. My grandad bought me an ice cream sundae and a booklet on how to bet. He ran my bets up to the window each race and I started winning money. He took me down to the paddock to see the horses up close. I was taking riding lessons at the time. Combining horses, which I already loved and money/gambling seemed like the greatest combo. I was hooked. I begged to go to the Kentucky Derby each year with my mom and grandparents. I didn't get to go until my junior year of high school when Giacomo won (my Grandma had him to WPS) while there I toured the University of Louisville that same weekend and ultimately decided to attempt to make this great sport my career.

Would you commit to creating one new fan this year and, if so, what would be the experience you use to introduce them to the sport?

I think the Breeders Cup is the greatest weekend our sport has to offer. I would take this person to the backside in the morning to meet some of the horses competing that afternoon. I would walk them through the barns and show them all the hard work that goes into getting these athletes ready to run. How well they are treated and how our entire world revolves around whether they are happy, fed, watered, exercised and loved. I'd then take them to an outdoor box at the races that afternoon. My go-to bet for new people is a show parlay: everyone in the box puts in $1 or $5 and each race one person in the box picks a horse to show. Hopefully you win and get to keep it rolling throughout the day. One Breeders Cup we made $478 and paid for dinner doing this. Betting is what creates a rooting interest. I'd take them down to the paddock to see the best horses in the country get ready to compete. I think it'd be hard for anyone not to have fun in an energetic environment like Breeders Cup weekend. Any weekend at Saratoga or Keeneland is a close second.