Race trackers nicknames

Rokeby Forever · Postby **Rokeby Forever** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:23 pm

I forgot about Lefty Nickerson and Marvelous Marv Cohn, the softball champ. "Fireman" Joe Aquilino, too.

TJ · Postby TJ » Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:45 pm

dray33 wrote:I'll always remember "Marty the Clocker".

Hi Dray,
Marty the Clocker, he sure was one of the good ones. Do you remember Louie and Jules too? All three were sharp as they come and made a good living at the windows. TJ

louis finochio · Postby **louis finochio** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:15 pm

My customers have been calling me Lou the boot for many years as I am a vendor. Snake, fast Eddie, the carrot man, the tin Man and thin man, ab Lincoln, Larry the legend, and louie the legend.

Tucumcari · Postby **Tucumcari** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:25 pm

I know you as " Louis The Boot!" LOL

dray33 · Postby **dray33** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:32 pm

TJ wrote:Hi Dray,
Marty the Clocker, he sure was one of the good ones. Do you remember Louie and Jules too? All three were sharp as they come and made a good living at the windows. TJ

My friend Howie is good pals with that whole crew. Met Marty and got to know him the 2 years before he passed. What a great guy. I loved having the "inside track" on how my horses were doing. Not to be selfish, but there was nothing better than a call at 10 saying: "Junior, he finished like a real race horse"... He was always right on. He liked Brushed Bayou, which meant a lot to me.

I waited for those special arbitrage moments: Horse A and B would breeze together, every morning. Horse A was always 1-2 lengths slower. Horse A wins his maiden. We would bet the house on horse B.

Other great story I was told, missed it unfortunately: Marty watches a horse breeze and train. One day, two, three. Loves the horse, breezes well, and gets better. Horse goes into a maiden, Marty and crew bet OUT. Maidens are for the clockers. That horse, SEATTLE SLEW. They bet him the whole ride.

I really miss that guy, TJ...

TJ · Postby TJ » Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:41 pm

dray33 wrote:
TJ wrote:Hi Dray,
Marty the Clocker, he sure was one of the good ones. Do you remember Louie and Jules too? All three were sharp as they come and made a good living at the windows. TJ

My friend Howie is good pals with that whole crew. Met Marty and got to know him the 2 years before he passed. What a great guy. I loved having the "inside track" on how my horses were doing. Not to be selfish, but there was nothing better than a call at 10 saying: "Junior, he finished like a real race horse"... He was always right on. He liked Brushed Bayou, which meant a lot to me.

I waited for those special arbitrage moments: Horse A and B would breeze together, every morning. Horse A was always 1-2 lengths slower. Horse A wins his maiden. We would bet the house on horse B.

Other great story I was told, missed it unfortunately: Marty watches a horse breeze and train. One day, two, three. Loves the horse, breezes well, and gets better. Horse goes into a maiden, Marty and crew bet OUT. Maidens are for the clockers. That horse, SEATTLE SLEW. They bet him the whole ride.

I really miss that guy, TJ...

Hi Dray,
That was Marty alright. Although he pretty much stayed to himself, if you were his friend he'd never leave you out in the cold. Louie the clocker is also gone. I did see Jules a couple years ago at Gulfstream, but not recently.
Marty passed way to young. Thanks for the Marty stories and bringing back fond memories of a good man. I miss him too :>) TJ

SCandproud · Postby **SCandproud** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:00 pm

Let's not forget "Oscar Drive" and "52&2 Lou"

Rokeby Forever · Postby **Rokeby Forever** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:05 pm

dray33 wrote:My friend Howie is good pals with that whole crew.

That's "Howie the Bagelman," right? LOL!

dray33 · Postby **dray33** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:59 pm

Rokeby Forever wrote:
dray33 wrote:My friend Howie is good pals with that whole crew.

That's "Howie the Bagelman," right? LOL!

It is. Was with him today talking about the ol crew. He worked for Louie at his pizza joint way back when... great stories.

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:53 pm

dray33 wrote:Other great story I was told, missed it unfortunately: Marty watches a horse breeze and train. One day, two, three. Loves the horse, breezes well, and gets better. Horse goes into a maiden, Marty and crew bet OUT. Maidens are for the clockers. That horse, SEATTLE SLEW. They bet him the whole ride.

Not only that, but they logged him down as Seattle SUE the first three or four times he worked. There was a correction printed, but I'm sure that helped the odds a little, although I think he was still odds-on in his debut, wasn't he? The word got out to the wise guys...

Rokeby Forever · Postby **Rokeby Forever** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:16 pm

Before he ran at Belmont in his debut, Seattle Slew worked on the turf at Saratoga in 1:10 3/5 and that work was NEVER published.

dray33 · Postby **dray33** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:46 pm

Back in the day when maidens were clocked and the times posted were "hazy", gaving the clockers a chance to cash in. Some trainers didn't mind, others minded and some even hid the good ones and sent the clockers back to find the markings on the registration papers, match up the markings.

imnumberjuan · Postby **imnumberjuan** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:24 pm

Hazy works ... this spring I noticed my trainer posting some "bizarre" works ... turned out the track had a new clocker who was painfully honest was posting the actual time and distance. No more 1/2 mile works but "start the work after a 1/4" so there were a lot of 6 and 7 furlong works reported :lol:

Rokeby Forever · Postby **Rokeby Forever** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:59 pm

Tommy Gullo was the BEST at hiding works. He'd get to the backstretch at 3:30AM and it would be so dark, the exercise rider would wear a miner's helmet with a flashlight. He made some tremendous scores off his layoffs in his heyday.

imnumberjuan · Postby **imnumberjuan** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:31 pm

Rokeby,

the DRF trainer line sure comes in handy now with the 61-180 days, routes, sprint to route etc. (as opposed to tracking these trends myself) to catch some of those "trends".