Anyone involved in horse racing can predict anything. However, no one can expect the outcome.
John Perrotta can prove to that.
Starting as a hot walker, Perrotta’s five-decade thoroughbred racing career includes being a general manager of a racing stable, vice president of racing, a writer, a television producer and creator of a horse racing radio network, just to name a few.
At 70, Perrotta continues to work with different racing-based projects, whether it is on the track, on the farm or a media project.
“I have a lot of things to do that I like to do,” Perrotta said. “I like to write about these things. I also have horses in Ireland and race horses here and there. I have another venture in starting a Dublin racing club. Life is too short to do stuff that aggravates you. I want to enjoy it.”
It has been nearly five years since Perrotta has been at Saratoga, but he is making the trek during Travers week for a book signing at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Tuesday, Aug. 22 from 9:30-11 a.m. before meeting with legendary race caller Tom Durkin on their latest project.
Joining Perrotta is Jen Ferguson, who has played an integral part of Perrotta’s books with her illustrations. Perrotta had also worked with her sister Amanda during the writing of HBO’s Luck. Once Luck was cancelled, he followed with his book Out of Luck.
“Her [Jen] and I have been friends for a number of years,” Perrotta said. “We have been producing partners for a couple of years. We just put Out of Luck to showcase the art that she did for that little series.”
Perrotta, who has been living in Southern California since 2009, is no stranger to Saratoga and the Vermont region as a fan, writer and a member of the industry.
In his recent book Racetrackers: Life with Grifters and Gamblers, Perrotta, once a student at the University of Vermont, briefly shared his experiences of going to Green Mountain Park in Ponwal, Vt., and the importance of having those small racetracks throughout the country.
“We spent a lot of time in Vermont and I went to college there,” Perotta said. “Of course, there were two places to go racing: go north to Blue Bonnet [in Montreal] or south to Green Mountain Park, which was a sweet little track.”
“That’s what I talk about these days to do everything that we can to keep these tracks going because that’s where the fans come from,” he added. “If it’s a local track, and a guy can take his kids to the track. If they are put in front of a television to watch a race, that’s not going to engrain the child’s psyche. It’s not the same as standing near the rail and watching the horse swishing its tail and the jockey winking at the kids. That does a long way.”
Perhaps Perrotta’s more notable years at Saratoga occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s when he was the vice president and general manager for Due Process Stables.
While Due Process gained early success with 1981 2-year-old Eclipse Champion Deputy Minister, the stable struggled to win at Saratoga. Even despite winning graded stakes races as a 4-year-old, Deputy Minister came to Saratoga and finished fourth in the Whitney. Then other disappointing finishes followed for the stable.
The Due Process team finally got to the Winner’s Circle on Aug. 3, 1990 when Yucca, trained by Phil Gleaves, won a claiming race, then followed with a second-place and a third-place finish later in that year’s meet.
“We had been going to Saratoga for a number of years,” Perrotta said. “It took me the longest time to understand how difficult Saratoga was. If you are second or third in Saratoga, you don’t get into the winner’s circle. It took me seven years.”
One of Perrotta’s highlights at Saratoga occurred nearly 25 years ago when Dehere became the first horse in 77 years to sweep the three stakes races for two-year-olds: The Sanford, The Saratoga Special, and The Hopeful.
In both the Sanford and Saratoga Special, it seemed Dehere was beaten after being trapped on the inside during the stretch run before being steered to the outside, then exploding with a burst of speed to win.
“He started both races from the inside post and got blocked,” Perrotta said. “He was hopeless at the eighth pole and didn’t have a chance at the sixteenth pole. Not only did he win, but he won going away. He wasn’t any surprise to us that he was a good horse. How good he was? That was a surprise.”
The grandson of Secretariat later captured the 1993 Eclipse Award for 2-year-old champion after winning the Champagne at Belmont. Dehere’s career was shorted due to condylar fracture in his right-hind cannon bone and was retired.
Perrotta’s latest project features Durkin providing an audio version to Half a Chance, which was an originally written as a screenplay. Perrotta believes Durkin’s voice is something readers would appreciate.
“I thought we would try it,” Perrotta said. “I sent it to Tom to see if was going to work. He liked the story. We’ll get it done soon. People like to listen to books in the car or on an iPad.”
If his latest project is successful and well-received, Perrotta said he would like to explore similar projects with his other books, which includes If Wishes Were Horses, a novel about 16-year-old runaway boy who works as a hot walker at Saratoga in 1972.
Whether it is writing, producing, being the president of the Thoroughbred Racing Network or still being involved in horse racing, Perrotta is not disappointed in the outcome. If anything, he’s surprised.
“It seems serendipitous,” he said. “I am surprised with the way things turn out because they usually don’t.”
