BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY,
Tuesday, December 3, 2019—Every racetrack has them, folks whose names don’t
appear in the program, but without whom the program doesn’t come close to
getting off the ground.
Yonkers Raceway is
no exception. The joint doesn’t conduct 230-odd cards a year with very few
hitches without them.
Do not refer to
them as innominate. Do refer to them as invaluable.
Arthur Webb is one
such person. To friends, of which he counts many, he’s just ‘Zeke,’ and Zeke
the caretaker is retiring after 50 years when Yonkers’ 2019 season ends Tuesday
night, Dec. 17th.
“It’s time,” Zeke
said. “At least that what my wife (Mary) told me.”
It seems Zeke, a 67-year-old native North Carolinian (‘Running Rapids, near the
Virginia line’), had no choice but to end up with horses. His grandparents
worked with them, while his two sisters and seven brothers—all older—were part
of the Roosevelt and Yonkers Raceways circuit.
As for Zeke, who
still resides in dearly-departed Roosevelt’s Long Island locale of Westbury,
his half-century of keeping the trotters and pacers healthy and racing began
with Frank Popfinger.
After Popfinger (“I took care of his first 2:00 pacer, Goodnuff”), it was John
Paton (“26-27 years”), then Mike Sorentino Jr. and, eventually, Don Sider.
Ask Zeke what’s changed in the industry and he mentions the sort of horses now
filling the entry box.
“It’s a lot of claimers now,” he said. “When I first started, there were the
(‘letter-classified’) horses. Trainers had them longer. Now, so many more
claimers and we don’t have a bonding with them the way we used to. It’s lost
some of the sport.”
Then, there’s the
equipment. “Everything was so much heavier then,” he said. “The hopples, the
bike, everything. Now, with the quick hitch and the other improvements, it’s so
much easier for the horse, especially young ones.
“They’re able to be ‘broken’ quicker so they don’t have to think as much. They
get more confident, and I really think they sense if you like them.”
It’s the affection that Zeke made a point of reinforcing to his inquisitor.
“You have to love the animal,” he said. “I didn’t choose to do this for the
money. For me, happiness is more important than money.”
(For his part,
Zeke, along with late brother, Van (Sylvanious), enjoyed modest ownership
success with the pacer Redd Fox during the last half of the pacer’s decade-long
[1997-2007] career.)
“He even won a
(Yonkers) race on my 50th birthday, Sept. 26, 2002.
Ask Zeke what he’s going to miss and “It just being here. We’re going to the
Carolinas to be with our daughter, Yolanda, but when the weather warms up, I’m
going to come back
Ask Zeke if he’d
choose this work all over again, he politely offers a correction.
“I haven’t been
working,” Arthur Webb said, “I’ve been enjoying myself.”
One last question
before we go…”Zeke?”
“I was growing up
and there was an older guy, Zeke Butler, who ran a tobacco tractor. He didn’t
move too fast and everyone said I was as slow as old Zeke Butler.
“I didn’t much
care for the nickname at first, but since everyone starting calling me Zeke, I
sort of went along with it.”
Alrighty then.
