Asking For Goggles

[AJanks]

So, a post not exactly relevant to I’m sure anything that was on anybody’s mind when they came here to talk horse racing, but I hope this at least interests a few of you. I’m a 19 year-old horse racing fan who was introduced to the sport by my father, who took me on many a trip to Finger Lakes. Being from Buffalo, the ride up there was a little over an hour and I always enjoyed going and spending time with him.

Obviously, when I was younger I had no idea of the gambling aspect of the sport. I did in a sense, but I was a kid & for the most part oblivious. My father pretty much let me have free reign and let me explore the track if I wanted to; I was a very independent kid & he knew I wouldn’t get into trouble if he let me go off on my own. My dad would buy me on of the in-house programs and with that I would follow along, although all I really knew how to read were the horse names, numbers and the jockeys, of which I developed my favorites and rooted for. As a side note — he taught me more as I got older though, and I knew how to read a form by the time I was 14 (ratios, odds and fractions were always easy in school, my teachers were always curious how they came so easy to me haha).

But anyways, I decided to try my best at collecting as many pairs of goggles as I could, with the information of the jockeys & their mounts every race. I’d rush down to the walkway where the jockeys went back to the jockey’s room and ask them for a pair as much as I could & generally I walked away with a decent amount of goggles, which I thought was the coolest thing ever as a kid. Whenever a jockey handed me a different color, or a shaded pair, or a cracked one that had seen one too many races, I got excited & it was a new pair to add to the collection.

Eventually, I outgrew this and stopped bugging the jockeys for their goggles. Years later though, looking back, I feel the need to acknowledge the jockeys that never minded talking with me for a few seconds, handing me a pair, and growing the sport. This isn’t something that is a big deal; I mean hell, I could’ve been a kid at the track once on vacation and never came back. But they still made the effort to acknowledge me, were nice enough to talk to me & hand out the goggles despite possibly struggling with weight that day, coming in last, not making a lot of mount fees, etc. A few of these guys are retired and this list is by no means a complete one, just the ones that I remember to this day & made an impression on me:

-Paul Nicol Jr - was always nice to me. He was older & a vet when I was younger.
-John Grabowski - the best. He was my favorite jockey growing up, hands down. He retired before I got into the gambling aspect of the game, but he made an impression on me as a nice person & I always rooted for him.
-John Davila Jr - as Grabowski’s main competitor, I always hated Davila. Mainly because my dad did, too. He saluted the camera after every race he won, always seemed to stop riding his horse at the wire & just came off as cocky. Regardless, he was a vet of the colony & was always very nice when I asked him.
-Jose Baez, Joel Sone, and Ronny Rideout - the first two guys still ride today. They were “little guys” in the jockey colony and the ones that still ride still are, although they do a great job with the mounts they get. Regardless of being the “little guys” they were always willing to give me new pairs of goggles, with different colors, tints, etc that I’m sure costed a lot for them to order, but they didn’t mind giving them out..
-Jose David Osorio - I stopped following Finger Lakes for a while because my dad took a break, and when I got back into following horse racing I heard the news that he tragically took his own life. He was nothing but nice to me & even stopped to explain races to me after he rode in them.

Only one jockey ever had a problem with me, that being Rick Knott, who told me to “go piss the **** off” after I asked him following a race. I was happy to recently learn that his career ended in 2012 with a dead-last finish.

Through a few years of asking & I’m sure getting on the nerves of quite a few jockeys, the entire Finger Lakes jockey colony for the most part was nice to me & they were always willing to give out a pair to build my collection. If you’ve made it this far in my post, thanks for following along. I have no means to contact the jockeys listed above, but I’m sure somebody here on the forums knows them from somewhere. I would really appreciate it if you passed along the link to this post & have them message me so I can thank them personally. They made a fan out of me & I still root for them to this day.

[Tom]

Cool story. Same way and place I got started, only from Canandaigua, 7 miles south of the thumb. My Dad would bet a $2 for me every Saturday. One day, I asked him to bet just one horse, Morganfield, to win. He won and paid $28.80. I was making 50 cents a week allowance at the time.
I think I didn't miss another Saturday for about 25 years.

Les Hulet, Warren Vedilago, ride of the great Mountain Man, Rudy Rincon, Kevin Whitely, the McKeevers, Billy Bobby, and Moe.......my guys at the time.
Eventually, as I grew older, I started seeing some of them at the Red Bull bar on 21 "really" got to know a few of them (Warren! for sure - wild man!)

Place has always been like a rather friendly track, everyone knows everyone and no one's talking!

Track announcer Tony posts here, maybe he will see this and know where to forward it.

Buy, boy your post makes me a little sad.....how I wish I was still going when Rick Knott was riding - I would have been hollering KNOTT-HEAD! every race!
Oh, the humanity.

Thanks for the story.....brings back some fond memories.

[TonyK@HSH]

Originally Posted by Tom

Cool story. Same way and place I got started, only from Canandaigua, 7 miles south of the thumb. My Dad would bet a $2 for me every Saturday. One day, I asked him to bet just one horse, Morganfield, to win. He won and paid $28.80. I was making 50 cents a week allowance at the time.
I think I didn't miss another Saturday for about 25 years.

Les Hulet, Warren Vedilago, ride of the great Mountain Man, Rudy Rincon, Kevin Whitely, the McKeevers, Billy Bobby, and Moe.......my guys at the time.
Eventually, as I grew older, I started seeing some of them at the Red Bull bar on 21 "really" got to know a few of them (Warren! for sure - wild man!)

Place has always been like a rather friendly track, everyone knows everyone and no one's talking!

Track announcer Tony posts here, maybe he will see this and know where to forward it.

Buy, boy your post makes me a little sad.....how I wish I was still going when Rick Knott was riding - I would have been hollering KNOTT-HEAD! every race!
Oh, the humanity.

Thanks for the story.....brings back some fond memories.

Tom- thought you might want to know that Warren Vedilago has settled into central PA and still works on the track at Penn National. Doesn't gallop anymore but walks hots and does some light grooming. What a great guy. He will excited to hear that his name came up on a racing site!!

Tony

[devilsbag]

Many years ago, I recall visiting Finger Lakes and seeing Ross Morton's assigned parking spot. There it was, his vehicle with Florida plates. Forget entering historic Saratoga or majestic Keeneland, I knew this moment would trump any other, and it did.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by TonyK@HSH

Tom- thought you might want to know that Warren Vedilago has settled into central PA and still works on the track at Penn National. Doesn't gallop anymore but walks hots and does some light grooming. What a great guy. He will excited to hear that his name came up on a racing site!!

Tony

Great to hear.
Warren was quite the rider!
Glad to hear is he is still in the game.

Never forget the greatest race ever run - the Rochester Cup, which he won on Mountain Man, beating the NY shippers! The place went bonkers!!!

[MJC922]

Sounds like Tom and I started there about the same time. I don't even remember anything other than snippets of memories from going out there as a young kid. I would run around the grandstand at 8 years old pretending to be a jockey, slapping the rolled up program on my leg for a whip. lol

Just snippets of memories remain with me now from way back, like Henry Villar on a horse named Dr. Dodd, mainly because the horse carried his head low to the ground while running. Probably cashed a ticket there.

Remember the lower grandstand where they had the pictures of dozens of jocks after running in the mud. Violet Smith etc.

As I got older my favorite horse was Banner of Victory, not many races for non NY bred claimer there at the time but he would reliably wire those 4-5k open claimers for fun.

Great track to grow up with. Those days are long gone now. It's a miracle they're still open with what goes on.

OP nevermind Davila's goggles, you should've asked for that glove.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by MJC922

Sounds like Tom and I started there about the same time. I don't even remember anything other than snippets of memories from going out there as a young kid. I would run around the grandstand at 8 years old pretending to be a jockey, slapping the rolled up program on my leg for a whip. lol

There used to be a whole group of kids doing that down along the fence by thre stretch.

We would sit up on the top level of the grandstand and BET on you guys!

[MJC922]

Originally Posted by Tom

There used to be a whole group of kids doing that down along the fence by thre stretch.

We would sit up on the top level of the grandstand and BET on you guys!

Pretty funny. If you were old enough to bet in the early 70s you must've seen all of those marathons they were running back then like 3 mile races. I always regretted those races being before my time. All that was left when I first set foot there in '75 were the track records. Remember along the wall of the upper club the track records were hanging up on placards over the escalator? 'Dauntless Pride'. I always wondered about those races.

[Tom]

Oh yes! Ran up to 4 miles and 1/8!
They had a picnic table in front of the tote board, and 4 playboy bunnies dancing on it. Each lap, one would hop off the table!

Dauntless Pride, Snoopy Knoop, Amber Dare, Victory Tour,

http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbT...?trk=FL&cy=USA

I bet a horse, Mil Reef, in the longest, and he got LAPPED!