Marion E. Altieri - June, 2010. 

I happen to be a female, and I love horses. Thoroughbreds, in particular.  I’ve been a fan for 50 years, since my Grandma and Mother first took me to Green Mountain Park, a now-defunct race track in Pownal, Vermont.  Sometime around age 11 I found my way to the rail at Saratoga.  I’ve never left.

Many women and girls feel the way I do about horses.  Women have an intuitive connection to the equine species.  To quote the brilliant Hall of Fame trainer, Leroy Jolley, “Who loves a horse more than a 13-year-old girl?”

Precisely.

It’s because females have this natural relationship that I am often confounded by the misogyny that still lurks in certain sectors of horse racing.  When I realized my vocation as a racing writer only seven years ago, three very nice—but very misled—male turf writers told me that I’d never make it because…I write like a girl.

Like, Oh, my God. Does that mean that I dot my letter i’s with daisies or hearts?  That I gush when talking about horses, and how they touch my heart?

That I write with passion, about a species that, by its very nature, evokes passion?

If horse racing is not about passion then, pray tell, what is the appropriate response.

Here’s the irony.  The Sporting Goods Manufacturers’ Association conducted two separate surveys in the early 2000s, and reported that Thoroughbred racing is the only American sport for which females are the majority of the fan base.  Women pay the bulk of admissions at Thoroughbred tracks (between 51% and 62%, depending on the track and the season0, yet only 5% of the professional positions in this industry are held by women.

Don’t believe me?  Please research the Boards of the racing associations, then do the math.

Many people are striving to undo this imbalance.  NYRA (the New York Racing Association) is one such entity.  God bless NYRA.  For the past five years or so, NYRA has hosted a Women’s Day at the Saratoga Race Course.  A local radio station sponsors the event, and all kinds of goodies are given out under a big tent near the Big Red Spring.

Last year, NYRA teamed with my humble self and several other women-professionals of various walks in the sport, and gave us a Racing Vocations booth at the Women’s Day event.  They promised to do it again this year. (Last year’s event was August 19th: I’ll tell you the moment I know the date for 2010.)

Maylan Studart. Photo courtesy of NYRA/Adam Coglianese

Among the women who came by to encourage women and girls to find their careers in racing were up-and-coming jockey, the brilliant and talented Maylan Studart.  I love Maylan…I can see ‘Hall of Fame’ in her future.  She knows horses, and she speaks to them in such an intimate manner that it almost feels like a sacred moment.

Maylan was discovered in her native Brasil by John DaSilva, who’s been the lead handicapper at The New York Post for longer than I can remember.  He’s one of my favorite people - a genius of some kind - and he obviously knows a gifted jock when he sees her.

Hopefully Maylan will be at our Racing Vocations booth this August, and many other women in the sport, too. The lively exchange of ideas, information and encouragement will be a blessing to all who participate from both sides of the table.

Speaking of men who believe in women…and of being blessed.  I am so happy to be associated with Paul Rothfuss and the All Play Stable team.  It’s a dream come true for me: I get to hang out with horsepeople and horses, and to write things that (hopefully!) will encourage others to join our merry band of horseloonies.  Paul loves and respects women.  He has to—he’s surrounded!  His beautiful wife, Barbie, has been his bulwark for 50 years.  His two Partners in All Play Stable are females, Robin Fiester and Sara Dunham, and I’m the Communications Manager.  If Paul didn’t like women you’d have to consider him a masochist to surround himself with four smart, strong babes like these.

One of the things I love the most about All Play Stable and Paul is that everyone is encouraged to join in the fun.  I want to see an LLC of all women—think, “Sweet Potato Queens” - who use racing programs instead of utensils as weapons.  I would so love to see a group of smart, strong, thinking females get together with us under the All Play Stable aegis to make an LLC of women, by women, for women.

Right now we have an LLC of yearling fillies, Miss Waterford and Twylight Cocktails.  Both girls are sharp and shapely. Miss Waterford is the strong, not-so-silent type, and Twylight Cocktails is - well, if she was a woman she’d be the one with whom any man would like enjoy twilight cocktails.

Rachel Alexandra. Photo courtesy of NYRA/Susie Raisher

As they go into the breaking and training period of their lives, they’ll grow and morph into formidable race-chicks, ready to kick serious equine butt.  You can see it in their eyes.  Our two divas will be stepping into the spotlight just as Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta are hanging up their halters.  Hey – you never know. If I sound confident in our critters’ ability it’s because I know the man who made them, and who works with Phenomenal Women (think, Maya Angelou) to develop them into real, live race horses.  I know the power of horses to transform the human soul—and I, as a woman, know the cosmic storm that’s created whenever two or more females put our heads and hearts together, adding up to far more than a mere two.

Women + Thoroughbreds = Power.  This is my mantra.  This is the system under which I strive.  This is why I am the Communications Manager at All Play Stable, and why I am blessed to work in the job.  The man who created this company believes in the power of females to transform the world, and—being no dope, himself—has filled his life, his work and his heart with women-types of two species who will find our power and take that to the track.

If you’re a woman — or a man! — and you want to become part of this tremendous family of people and horses who will give their all—give us a call.  Drop me a line.  Whatever you do, seize the moment.

Your Mother would be proud.