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.
ROBB LEVINSKY, KENWOOD RACING
What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing?
I was first introduced to horse racing at age 14 when I was living with my aunt and uncle for the summer in Lincoln, Nebraska and I went with my aunt to Ak-Sar-Ben Racecourse in Omaha on their President's Cup day. Nobody in my family had the slightest interest in racing; it was just something to do for an afternoon. The beauty and power of the animals, the roar of the huge crowd as they came down the stretch, winning my first ever bet–$2 to show on Jujan (paying $5.60!), instantly captivated me. I returned to my home in Newton, Massachusetts, and showed up at Suffolk Downs. A young, up-and-coming trainer named J.J. Burke III let me walk a few horses around his shedrow on weekends. Almost immediately, I told him my goal was to own a stable of racehorses. A few years later, still a teenager, Kenwood Stables began with $100,000 in seed capital from family and friends (including $15,000 of my own money saved from working odds jobs during high school). When we won our first race with Judged Lucky at Suffolk Downs, the screams were so loud that someone told my trainer J.J. Burke they thought either someone had died or someone was having a baby.
When people have asked me over the years what got me interested in racing, I tell them it finds you. Few things let you combine a love of animals, sports, outdoors with the intellectual challenge of handicapping races and analyzing pedigrees and statistics at a sale. There's an old saying that remains true today: most people who say they don't like horse racing have never been to a horse race.
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?
Our goal as an industry must be to transmit all the positive things our sport offers to a new generation of racing fans in the very different world we live in today. It's been a lifelong commitment of mine to bring new people into the game. In 2010, I created a program called “Taste of Thoroughbred Ownership” specifically to allow people to experience the thrill of thoroughbred ownership for just a few thousand dollars. Many syndicates currently in existence do a great job of introducing new people to the sport, a major change from when I began, and the shared ownership model didn't exist. We need to come together collectively to address our problems and repair our public image, by putting the horses and owners first. If we do that, I won't be the last young person to be captivated by this great sport.
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