Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem Nov. 14, 2024

A good Thursday morning to you all! Writing today from San Antonio and just got back from my first ever San Antonio Spurs game; it was a blast! Over the years I’ve been to probably six or seven NBA arenas and like so many sports, it’s just so much more fun being in the arena, feeling the atmosphere and seeing how crazy athletic those professional players are. Very cool experience.

I’ve been through San Antonio before, but this was my first time getting to stay here and really see the city a little. With that in mind, I wanted to write today’s column about the blessings and sometimes hardships of traveling that go along with working in horse racing. When I first started practicing race-calling, someone told me once “you better get used to the idea of moving because you’ll have to do a lot of it.” I was 25 and that didn’t sound all bad. Plus in my head I was going to someday get the job at Emerald Downs and then I could just live in Seattle my whole career. So much for that idea!

My first job was at River Downs in Cincinnati and other than the show WKRP and the Bengals and Reds, I knew nothing about the city. I was there from 2006 to 2008 and during my first season, I was lucky enough to land the Portland Meadows job. So I had two gigs and mostly year round work and I was thrilled about it. I only had two months of the year where I wasn’t announcing, which on paper sounded great. Until I realized that two months with no income is a long time! Plus often in racing, nobody is paying for you to move, so it’s incumbent on you to get there. 

Moving every six months was really fun and exciting for exactly one year. By 2008, I’d had two relationships fall apart because of the distance, any money I saved during the season usually vanished with the down months and moving costs, and I was depressed. I quit River Downs and moved back to Portland and just worked there full-time and year-round. It was the first and only time in my career that I had geographic stability. I had health insurance and a year-round salary. Those parts were awesome. But I didn’t get to travel and I didn’t have the excitement of announcing for half the year. I basically stayed in the Pacific Northwest from 2008 to 2019 with the exception of a failed three-month endeavor at Louisiana Downs in 2015. I truly thought after that I’d never go back to the traveling lifestyle again. 

Since 2019, I’ve been back out on the road each year, driving across all four time zones in five of those six years. Monmouth Park, Colonial Downs, Grants Pass Downs, Tampa Bay Downs, Pleasanton, and fill-ins at Houston and Gulfstream Park West. Lots of miles! And sometimes, sure it gets old. But my schedule now allows me to be in Tampa for 9 1/2 months a year and just 2 1/2 months in Richmond, Virginia at Colonial Downs, and that to me is a great schedule.  

There’s so many people in racing, in particular horsemen and horsewomen, who still do the six month or even three months at a time travel schedule. Rentals, campers, hotels, tens of thousands of miles a year. It has to be so exhausting. I also wonder how sustainable it is for many folks because the cost of everything has gone up so much. But it’s very tough to have a good year-round gig in one place in this business.  

I’ve talked about the drawbacks of this constant moving lifestyle that many in racing do. And it’s not just unique to racing of course, lots of people have to travel for work. But I want to write about some of the great things that come along with this chosen path. For me personally, I’ve gotten to see almost every corner of the United States. Of the top 50 largest cities in the country, Charlotte is the only one I haven’t been to. I’ve seen the Great Lakes, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, Lake Tahoe, and a million other cool places because I get to go out on the road. 

I’ve eaten the best BBQ in Texas, had an amazing Veal Parm in New York City, and tried at least 20 top pizza places recommended by Frank Mirahmadi in my stops. I feel like I have friends and acquaintances in almost every state and I often get to see them. So while there’s sometimes things to complain about when it comes to the lifestyle of working in racing, I think for me there’s so much more to be thankful for. This whole week driving across the country, I kept reminding myself how fortunate I was to get to make this trip and see the country.  

Everyone have a good week!