How I Got Hooked on Racing: Pat Day, and Terry Finley

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.

Pat Day:

I had no connection to horse racing when I was growing up. I wanted to be a bull rider. When I went to the rodeos, people would ask me did I ever think of becoming a jockey? I'm 4-11, weighed 100 pounds soaking wet. I was an adrenaline junkie and had no fear riding bulls. These people must have seen something in me that led them to believe I could be a jockey and be successful or maybe they recognized I had no ability whatsoever in the rodeo arena and so they were trying to get me out of there before I got seriously injured.

I had heard of the Kentucky Derby, but I had never watched it on TV. I had heard of Bill Shoemaker and Eddie Arcaro. That was the extent of my knowledge of horse racing. Through an acquaintance, I got a job on Thoroughbred farm in January of 1973. I told the people at the farm that I wanted to be a jockey and they said, `here is what you have to do: be at the farm for two-three years, learn the job from the ground up and at the end of that period of time we'll send you to a trainer at the racetrack. You will continue to hone your skills, you'll watch the races, study the films. Do that, they said, and within a year I'd be ready to ride.'

I didn't last a month. I enjoyed getting on the horses but I didn't care for the menial farm labor. I left. I wasn't going to do this for two, three years. When I left the farm, I had every intention of going back to being a bull rider. Race horses were non-existent to me.

I decided to go to Las Vegas over the winter to spend some time with friends. I was going to do whatever I could to feed myself and then when the rodeo season started in early summer, I was going to pursue that.

I went to Vegas and couldn't find a job. Back then they had a racetrack in Henderson called Las Vegas Downs. I don't believe they ever had any recognized racing there. But there were people using it for a winter training track and they were desperate to have someone gallop their horses. I went out there and met a fellow named Steve Talbot. He had three horses. He told me that I could gallop his horses for $2 a head. So I did that for a couple of months and I enjoyed that. Steve happened to be the clerk of scales on the fair circuit in Arizona. So when it came time for him to leave Las Vegas and go to Arizona, he asked me to come with him. He told me he'd introduce me to some people and help me get started. Even at that point, I wasn't really hooked.

So I made my way to Southern Arizona. The fair circuit, they ran two weekends at each town and then moved on to the next town.  So when I got there Steve introduced me to some people and I got on a few horses.  After the fairs, they moved to Prescott for summer. I went there with them. I was introduced to a fellow named Karl Pew and he had 30 head of horses. I think he gave me $50 a week to gallop horses for him. Karl was a rodeo hand. He had been a professional team roper before he became a horse trainer. We had a lot in common and hit it right off. Now, you couldn't drive me away from the barn. By mid-summer, I told Karl I want to ride. I was galloping horses, I was working horses, taking horses to the gate. I wanted to get in there. He told me I could ride a few horses for him. On July 29, 1973 I won my first race. That's when I was hooked. I couldn't get enough of it. I wanted to ride every race. I wanted to win every race.

Terry Finley:

Like a lot of other people, I went to the races with my dad. I grew up in Levittown, Pennsylvania and we went to Liberty Bell, Keystone, Delaware Park, Garden City, Atlantic City and sometimes to the trotters. I remember going to Delaware Park in the afternoon and then heading down the road to watch the trotters at Brandywine at night.

Terry Finley | Sarah Andrew

Then I started working on a farm while in my teens in Colts Neck, New Jersey. After that I started working on the racetrack when I was 15. That was, obviously, before I enrolled at West Point.

When in the Army, every once in a while I would think about getting into racing. I lived in Germany and I knew I wasn't going to stay in the Army. Ironically, every time I went to the Frankfurt Airport there was a big old racetrack right outside the airport. Just seeing that track got me thinking, 'wouldn't it cool to get back in the horse business?'

But I think what really got me hooked was the Affirmed-Alydar rivalry. I was at the Affirmed-Alydar Derby and Preakness, but not at the Belmont. That was such a great time for racing back then. Racing was at such a zenith back then. Then you had the Steve Cauthen phenomenon. Back then, in 1978 with Affirmed-Alydar and Cauthen, I knew what I wanted. I just had to figure out how to make a go of it in racing.

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