You guys are just kids.
It started for me when I was 15 at Aqueduct and maybe 40,000 people showed up every Saturday. I would bury myself in the line, pay my $2 and go through the turnstile. Did this for a long time and was finally nabbed a year later by a Pinkerton at the windows, while I was making a $2 bet. He took me to a sub-basement and I got interviewed by the head Pinkerton who told me I had to get out, being unaccompanied by an adult.
What a conversation. First, I told him my true age and explained that if I couldn't come to the track, there was nothing else I wanted to do. I told him that I never caused any trouble and reminded him about the riot they had the week before when Manta got taken down for jamming Cathy Honey into the rail (it was a young Pincay riding, in from California....VERY aggressive). I asked him if he banned any of the people who set fires in the grandstand that day.
This guy looked at me across his desk for a long time and then said if I stayed on the 3rd floor and only bet at the last window...past the finish line, I could stay. If they caught me betting anywhere else it was over. I guess you could say I got adopted by the Pinkertons...they all knew me and gave me a pass. And it's been going on over 60 years.
Today I have an owner's license in a couple of states and can even have breakfast at the track kitchen. It's been a dream.
