Sue Finley | Horse Racing Free Tips

12 Questions: Sue Finley

Sue Morris Finley, Publisher & CEO of the Thoroughbred Daily News, spent her childhood driving back and forth to Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga with her family. In 1993, she was part of the team that took over the production of the Thoroughbred Daily News, and oversaw its move to Red Bank, NJ, becoming its co-publisher. For 12 years, she was the First Vice President of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a national organization dedicated to the humane retirement of former racehorses, and served three years on the board of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

What was your racing highlight of the year?

Unquestionably, Flightline's Breeders' Cup. I bought my Breeders' Cup tickets early, made sure to get outdoor seating so I could see him in person, and then kept my fingers and toes crossed all year that he would make it. It was worth the wait.

What is one moment in 2022 that you haven't gotten over yet?

The turmoil over HISA. I feel as if all of our lives and careers are hanging in the balance, and no one is in charge.

Who, if anyone, do you think was the equine breakout star of the year?

Forte. Totally in command in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile to win his third Grade I. Wow.

What about a human breakout star?

It's a tie among the 26 incredible people who work at the TDN. Their journalistic skills and dedication to their jobs are second to none, and they've driven us to another record year. It's an honor to work with them all.

Favorite international meet?

I love going to the races at Deauville during the Arqana summer yearling sale, but I think my favorite day at the races ever was at a small track outside of Berlin called Hoppegarten. Not only did almost everyone at the track bring their dog to the races with them, but they all stood and applauded each horse as they came back from the race—win or lose.

Favorite Thoroughbred of all time?

It's a tie. Affirmed, because my parents took me to see the 1978 Belmont Stakes and it kindled my love for the sport. And Renaissance Bob, who we rescued from a slaughter auction and who went on to spend 23 years at the TRF's Wallkill Correctional Facility, helping incarcerated men to change their lives. Both chestnuts, incidentally.

What is one change you'd like to see happen in racing in the foreseeable future?

I would like to see video replays made freely accessible everywhere. How can we promote the sport when we can't see it and show it to others?

What or who surprised you the most this year? Could be a performance, a stallion, a sales price, etc.

Sharp Azteca, who's currently number one on the first-crop list with 34 winners!

You get to have one conversation with someone deceased in the racing industry. Who are you talking to and what's the topic?

My dad. I'm counting him as being in the industry since he was one of our most important assets: a die-hard fan and a $2 bettor who loved nothing more than coming home with a $10 profit after a long day at the track. And because I'd give anything to talk to my dad again.

What was the biggest lesson you learned in 2022?

Don't count your chickens.

Finally, what are you most looking forward to in 2023?

Discovering the next Flightline. Is it too early to start looking for him?

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Letter to the Editor: the Man O’ War Project

My sincere thanks to Ms. Sue Finley for the compelling article about the Man O' War Project in the TDN Thursday. I whole heartedly appreciate Earle Mack's support of our veterans.

I have only mentioned my own personal story about PTSD to a few people. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 my father left Columbia University and enlisted in the Air Force. He was 17, turning 18. He went to Officers Training School and was promptly shipped to the South Pacific to work in the intelligence corps. His job was to set up airfields for reconnaissance once the Marines had taken an island. You can imagine the carnage he saw with the Japanese scorched-earth policies in full force and in full view to a young man not yet 20. The indigenous people suffered enormously. It affected my father deeply.

When he returned from the South Pacific, he finished up at Columbia, then moved to Lexington to find a position in the horse business. He worked for Keene Daingerfield at the Thoroughbred Record (later, better known as the Dean of Kentucky Stewards). Experiencing difficulty adjusting to civilian life, did he self-diagnose some sort of stress disorder and know that he needed to reconnect with horses to reprogram his psyche? One wonders. The whole concept of PTSD had not yet been identified at that time and men were supposed to buck up and push through the pain. It was a different era. It seems that something inscrutable drew him back to horses and he eventually readjusted to post-war life. He trained horses at Keeneland in the mornings before work in the late '40's while starting a family and working at The Record.

Later in life, when GE hired him for his first real job and he was transferred to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he took in layups from Suffolk Downs and the vibrant fair circuit in Massachusetts at our farm in Stockbridge. We were just an hour from Saratoga. I remember him taking me to the Travers when Jaipur beat Ridan by a nose in 1962.

He always had horses in his life until just a couple of years before he died, by suicide, at age 49 (when I was 19). My sister and I have often wondered if he had stayed physically connected to horses if he might have made it through the rough patch preceding his suicide and enjoyed a full life.

He only spoke about his South Pacific experience once to me, when I threatened to leave home to enlist during the Vietnam War era, because we had argued, and it had turned violent. I was 18. But he knew that war was as close to hell as life can be and he did not want that for me, or on his conscience. He was gone a year later.

My sister and I have both kept horses in our lives; my wife Mary and I have five retired racehorses at our farm here in Kentucky and my sister has three warmbloods at her ranch in Los Alamos, California. It is our lifeline at times too, and perhaps an homage to our late father who connected us with horses, for life.

The research Earle Mack has funded is meaningful. If it saves one veteran's life, it was worth whatever he invested in the Project. I tip my hat to him and say thanks.

Best regards,

Joel B. Turner

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TDN’s Bianca, Wolfe Among Media Eclipse Award Winners

TDN Associate Editor Joe Bianca and multi-media producer Patty Wolfe are among the winners of the Media Eclipse Awards as announced Wednesday by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

Bianca and Wolfe were awarded the Eclipse in the ‘Audio/Multimedia Internet’ category for a piece written and narrated by Bianca and produced by Wolfe entitled “To Hell and Back: Belmont Marks a Deserved Triumph for New York City,” a tribute to the Belmont S., which took place as the first leg of the COVID-19 delayed Triple Crown Saturday, June 20, and appeared the day before the race. It is the first Eclipse Award for Bianca and a second for Wolfe, who also shared the honor with TDN’s Christie DeBernardis for a TDN Multimedia piece on off-the-track Thoroughbreds in 2018.

Bianca’s text and narration goes into the rich history of racing in New York and Belmont Park, which first hosted the Belmont in its current location in 1905. Wolfe weaved in archival racing footage with images of images of New York City, most impacted by the coronavirus.

“Winning an Eclipse Award is an honor like no other in racing and I’m immensely grateful to have been selected this year,” said Bianca. “I want to thank our producer Patty Wolfe and her incredible team of talented editors for illustrating my words so beautifully. Also thank you to our publisher Sue Finley for her steadfast support for my work as we branch out into different types of media at TDN. It has obviously been a very difficult and tragic year, but I’m so proud and thankful to have moved people with one of the inspirational success stories of 2020 in an ode to my beloved hometown.”

Added Wolfe: “This video is a reminder of the things we always had but almost lost. Other professional sports were not competing at that time, and New York had just been through a nightmare with the pandemic. NYRA’s running of the Belmont S. in June was momentous. Talking directly into his computer, Joe’s authenticity was compelling as he put the magnitude of the moment into words.”

The Paulick Report’s Natalie Voss is the recipient of the Media Eclipse Awards for both the ‘Feature/Commentary Writing’ category for her piece entitled “An Angel On His Shoulder: This Thoroughbred’s Fate Was Written in Ink;” and for the News/Enterprise Writing category for her multi-part series “A Decade IN, How Are We Doing With Thoroughbred Aftercare?”

NBC Sports receives the Eclipse for their coverage of “The Breeders’ Cup World Championships” Nov. 7, a program produced by Billy Mathews and Lindsay Schanzer; as well as the ‘Television/Features’ category for “Rider’s Up: The World’s First Sports Bubble,” which aired on NBC Sports Network Oct. 2, 2020, and was produced by the Hennegan Brothers.

Alex Evers is the recipient of the Eclipse for ‘Photography’ for “A Derby Without Fans” which ran in the Paulick Report Sept. 21, 2020.

The 2020 Eclipse Awards ceremony will be a virtual event. It will be televised live on TVG and streamed on other outlets on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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