Way of Life: From Picking Winners to Breeding Champions. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Way of Life: From Picking Winners to Breeding Champions

Way of Life chronicles Bob Marks' journey from high school horseplayer at Roosevelt and Yonkers to the co-author of books on Meadow Skipper and Murray Brown. He came of age during the heyday of harness racing in New York. It was pre-OTB and the stands were packed every night as the likes of Adios Butler, Bye Bye Byrd and Overtrick dominated. While friends went off to college, he learned the finer points of betting; figured out how to use the money he carried to the track for others for his own benefit; became adept at clocking warmups; and cleaned up betting on photos. By the mid-60s he was submitting articles to Wally Rottkamp's Top Trotter magazine and eventually took over the handicapping role there. While riding the subway to and from his day job his nose was buried in Doc Robbins Tomorrow Trots, not the New York Times. A subsequent job at Boardwalk Associates allowed him to use his public relations skills and gave him an opportunity to strut his stuff as the self-made pedigree Maven he had put so much time and effort into becoming. All of a sudden he was dealing with giants like Delmonica Hanover, Misty Raquel and Davidia Hanover. He worked on the ground breaking Inside Boardwalk newsletter, an opinion shaper as well as an ideal vehicle for advertising the syndicate's yearlings. It was an early progenitor of HRU. And the No Nukes video he worked on was something new and different in the industry. Meanwhile Marks' yearling prognostications and imagined races involving the best of the best from different decades were a big hit in Hub Rail. The Perretti years when Marks managed the bookings of the stallions and mares, advertised and promoted the stock for sale and wrote the newsletter. This section is a fount of information and opinions on a score of horses the farm owned, managed, and sought but didn't get. This book is aimed at those who are seasoned harness racing fans. It is not a primer for the uninitiated, though it provides a glimpse into the world of horse racing. This is a behind the curtain look at the horses and personalities who have fascinated us over the past six decades.

Bob Marks was born in Manhattan in 1942. A graduate of Long Beach High School in Long Beach, New York, Bob Marks attended Rider College in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. His experience in the Standardbred sport began when he started attending races at Roosevelt and Yonkers in 1960. He has written continuously about the sport during six decades. Marks submitted articles to Trotter Magazine in 1964 and later became a regular contributor and editor for Trotter Weekly. He handicapped for Top Trotter's daily tip sheet from 1966 to 1978 and was among the original chart commentators for Sports Eye at Roosevelt and Yonkers starting in 1968. Marks authored the first "Race of the Decade" in 1971, published initially by Rottkamp Press and later featured in Hub Rail magazine. He wrote countless articles for Hub Rail during the 1970s and 1980s, providing two-year-old prognostications for the publication for fifteen consecutive years as well as numerous pedigree-based articles. Marks served as harness handicapper for Only Turf's Best (the original OTB Blue Sheet) for 10 years and as handicapper and operator of Orange Horse tip sheet at the Meadowlands from 1976 to 1989. He was host of "Accent on Racing" on Meadowlands Cablevision from 1980-1985 and also for "Racing from Roosevelt" in 1982. As a pedigree analyst, Marks served as consignment manager for Boardwalk Associates from 1982 to 1985, and then operated Bob Marks Consulting for multiple clients in the late 1980s. He authored and edited Inside Boardwalk from 1982 to 1985, and "Memoirs in a Random Line," covering 40 years of harness observations for Times: in Harness in 2002. Marks went to work at Perretti Farms in Cream Ridge, New Jersey in 1988 as pedigree analyst and marketing director. Marks engaged in diverse tasks for Perretti including writing newsletters and over 1,000 advertisements, selling horses at public auction and market placement. He wrote more than 500 "Trotlines" columns for the farm's website. He also named more than 2,000 horses. Marks produced stallion videos for No Nukes, Matt's Scooter, Run The Table, Presidential Ball, Harmonious, Malabar Man, Muscles Yankee and others. Since 1990 he also worked on audio scripts for Perretti Farms yearling videos. Marks still writes regularly for Hoof Beats and has published 500 pages of his informative "Trotlines" column on the farm's website. "Trotlines" has appeared in Hoof Beats magazine periodically over the last five years.