In the first of a new series, New York breeding stalwart Robert D. Fierro recalls his first tentative steps into the industry – all thanks to Alydar
In a somewhat hesitant display of hubris, your correspondent sets forth herein the theory that if it wasn’t for a horse named Alydar winning a graded stake at Belmont Park in 1979 the changes that turned the New York State breeding program from somnambulant to sensational may never have occurred – or at least not in the way it happened.
That’s because I’d taken my family to Belmont on Father’s Day in June and what happened prompted me to write an article about it – titled Alydar’s Rainbow. I sent it off to the New Yorker, which had a regular racing column from 1926 through December 1978 by George F.T. Ryall, who used the pen name Audax Minor – I figured since he’d retired, they might be looking for freelancers.
They sent the article back without so much as a comment. I then sent it to the sports page of the New York Times, where my article on the demise of the Macon Whoopees hockey team was published in 1973 – I named them and was a very minor shareholder because of that. Rejected once again.
An absolute whim
Then on an absolute whim I submitted it blindly to the Times’ newly established Op-Ed Page where, miraculously, it landed on the desk of a recent hire by the name of Steven Crist. Yes, that Steve Crist, who promptly sent the article back in the mail with a plaintive letter inquiring how I knew that his computer password was Alydar.
He told me he loved the piece but the Times’ policy at the time prevented publication because Alydar was still racing – so why not have lunch? Which we did and bonded if only because I was the number one fan of his legendary mother, Judith Crist. She’d established a new standard for movie reviews when she was a columnist at the New York Herald-Tribune – the newspaper of choice for journalism students (my degree) in the 1960s (my era).
Steve said he’d try to get the article published when Alydar retired and the following month Alydar was injured and voila! There it was on the Op-Ed page. As it turned out I subsequently discovered that Steve, a recent Harvard graduate, was not only a bright young journalist but also an accomplished pianist.
Indeed, he’d been the first such musician to entertain the New Year’s Eve crowd at the legendary Round Table Room in the Algonquin Hotel since the great composer Cole Porter had passed away more than 50 years prior.
Dozens of articles
Getting to know Steve turned out not only to be catalytic but also serendipitous when it came to my involvement in the New York breeding program. Truth be told, however, neither of us realized it until after I spent some time reading the dozens of articles I wrote after meeting him, a path that eventually led me to become active in the state’s breeding and racing program.
How? Steve went from the Op-Ed page to the sports pages as a racing writer and picked up the gig as the Thoroughbred Record’s New York columnist in 1981. After the Belmont and Saratoga meetings he decided that he wanted to spend the winter in Florida and recommended that I take over as the Aqueduct columnist for the Record, which lasted several years.
That assignment expanded my growing interest in the New York program, interest which had begun intensively the previous year. That’s when I started to explore the potential to build a business around the program while continuing to write about racing in various consumer and business publications to pay the bills. This effort was supplemented by many articles I subsequently wrote in the Record that pointed out that at Aqueduct, at least, New York-breds were gaining notice by winning open-company stakes.
A promotional shambles
During that time I concluded that horse racing in general, and the New York program in particular, were a promotional shambles. Early in 1981 I formed a company that would create marketing programs for farms and organize racing and breeding partnerships restricted to the New York program. I named the company Old Empire Thoroughbreds – as a salute to the ‘Empire State’.
In subsequent articles I will recount how it came about that this serendipitous meeting clearly changed not only my life but eventually the New York program.
For example, in the early 1980s Steve threw a New Year’s Eve party (on New Year’s Day night) in his family’s Riverside Drive apartment on Manhattan’s Hudson River. In 1981 he invited my wife and I and there I met numerous individuals, one of whom wound up putting up $500 in 1985 for a 10% interest in the first horse I ever bred.
That horse’s name was Omar Khayyam, who subsequently because New York-bred champion sprinter in 1987. That 10-percenter is a gentleman named Charles Hayward.
Yes, that Charles Hayward, New York-bred owner among other things – including his current role as president of Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.
But wait, wait, the circle was not completed with that. As you well know, several years later Steve became president at the Daily Racing Form, where Charlie was his right-hand guy.
After retirement Steve began to dabble in horse ownership – with New York-breds. Indeed, one such purchase last year was a filly subsequently named Succulent, who ran creditably during this year’s Saratoga meeting.
Her breeder? Multiple New York breeder of the year Vivien Malloy, a client and friend of mine since 1982. The mating which produced Succulent was recommended by yours truly, who will sign off for now.
Until next time, ciao.
• Robert D. Fierro has 40 years’ experience of chronicling racing and breeding for leading US Thoroughbred publications – plus almost 20 years of managing two biomechanical enterprises. He played an integral role in establishing the successful New York state breeding program, as he outlines in his series for Thoroughbred Racing Commentary
• Visit the We Are NY Horse Racing website and the New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB) website
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