Meet Lauren Floyd

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Meet Wasabi Ventures Co-Owner Club Member and Ambassador, Lauren Floyd! She grew up riding horses in northern Virginia. Smarty Jones’ Triple Crown run sparked her interest in racing, but she didn’t become a serious fan until 2014. Lauren rode horses all through college at the University of Mary Washington and graduated in 2014 with a degree in English. Currently, she works in the software development industry in the DC area, which helps finance her horse racing hobby. She joined Wasabi Ventures Stables in May 2018 and is now one of two Maryland track ambassadors for the club. 1.What attracted you…
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Meet Alyssa Lapa

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Meet Alyssa, Lyss for short. She is 28 years old and either had or has been around horses since she was about four years old. She was born in Arizona and growing up split her time between Arizona and Illinois. She now lives, works, and goes to school on the Space Coast of Florida and lives across the Indian River from Kennedy Space Center. She loves to read, watch movies and is an amateur photographer. What attracted you to the horse racing industry? I did not have a real interest in horse racing outside of the three races of the…
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Meet Jim Neubauer

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What attracted you to the horse racing industry? A friend of mine at work kept asking me to go see the races. I didn’t have any interest in going, but in 1991 I finally gave in. When we got to the track, I was just blown away the minute I walked in the doors — the colors, sounds, smells…everything. It was amazing. A couple of weeks later, we went to one of the smaller tracks in Nebraska where my friend’s dad was a veterinarian. After watching the races, we went to the backstretch to watch him go through his rounds.…
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Meet Vanessa Kerr

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What attracted you to the horseracing industry? I’ve loved horses since I can remember, but when I was younger the only way I could participate was by watching horse races on television. That was my introduction to the industry. What aspect of horse racing do you enjoy the most? I’m interested in horse breeding and bloodlines. It’s really intriguing to look at the breeding background of a horse to try to figure out in what race it will run best, or what horse to breed it to later. I read everything I can about horse bloodlines, such as BloodHorse magazine…
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Meet Chris Eldridge

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What attracted you to the horseracing industry? My initial experience with horse racing was about three years ago when I was a speaker at a conference held at Churchill Downs. I was there very early in the morning getting prepared, and American Pharoah was doing his morning workout. I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I didn’t know anything about horse racing. I just knew that was the “horse from TV”, but we all know what happened a few weeks later when he won the Triple Crown. So, it was amazing for me to know that I…
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Meet John Piassek

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As Managing Editor of DanonymousRacing.com, John Piassek is responsible for creating and producing content, as well as managing a staff of 12 handicappers who post their picks and analyses of a wide variety of racetracks all over the United States. The site also features articles about racing from a variety of different perspectives among racing fans. John is also the columnist for Mid-Atlantic Musings, which is featured on DanonymousRacing.com. The column represents John’s passion for horse racing and an interest in ways to improve the industry from a fan’s perspective. In addition to handicapping the races at Laurel Park, John…
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Meet Gary Quill

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Gary is a fourth-generation handicapper. Currently, Gary’s handicapping prowess is on display as “The GQ Approach” at TheRacingBiz.com, providing selections & analysis for every race day at Maryland tracks. In the past, he’s been a guest handicapper at Laurel Park on Maryland Million Day and at Pimlico on Preakness Day in the Preakness Infield Corporate Village. During Preakness Week, he has conducted interviews with horsemen, jockeys, and others in the racing industry at Pimlico Stakes Barn, Alibi Breakfast, and Preakness Post Position Draw since 2008. Though an IT professional by trade, he has had part-time roles with the Maryland Jockey…
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