It was March 30th, 1968. 45 racehorses and 45 jockeys waited anxiously for the Grand National, one of the biggest steeplechase races in England, to begin. When the race began and the horses raced, the jockeys rode, and the fans cheered, three people roughly 300 miles away in Belfast were desperately trying to hear/see who would come out victorious.
In a steeplechase race, the horses have to jump over fences. A somewhat common occurrence is that the horse doesn’t clear the fence, thus taking them out of the race. As the horses rushed to the first fence, a number of them couldn’t clear it. Disappointed, one of the three people threw their arms up in frustration. As the race continued and the horses got closer to the finish line, one of the three became more and more excited. Their horse, or at least the one that they had bet on, crossed the finish line before anyone else.
When Red Alligator crossed line the, two of the three cheered, and the other one was just a bit disappointed. Michael Henderson was just five years old, but he just had his first bet hit thanks to Red Alligator and his older brother, Stephen.
“I picked Red Alligator, but he started crying,” said Stephen Henderson, who was eight at the time of the race. “I said ‘fine you can have him’ and I picked a different horse. I don’t remember his name, but he fell at the first fence. He (Michael) got the winnings, and I got nothing.”
Horseracing is embedded within the culture of Ireland. This is a sport that, in Ireland, dates back to the switch from BC to AD. Plenty of Irish families have become fans of one of the most popular spectator sports in their society. The Henderson family is proud to be one of those families.
“In Ireland, it [horseracing] is huge. It always has been,” Michael said. “It’s a hobby that we can do together. Some people play golf, we go to horseraces.” When he and Stephen were kids, they wouldn’t always go to the tracks. Usually, it would be watching the races on a TV or on the radio. And most of the time the places with a TV or radio was a bookie. In Ireland, bookies are legal and, at least back in the 60s and 70s, were everywhere. According to Michael “there was a bookie right across from where we went to school, right next to a candy store.”
Of the two brothers, Stephen is certainly the bigger horseracing fan. Being the oldest of three kids, he got taken to the races with his dad. Stephen went to the Galway Races when he was just eight years old and loved it. “It was a busy place to be, lots of people. All the betting guys used to have their own stand… I remember seeing the guys and being enthralled with it,” he says.
The five Hendersons – Michael, Stephen, their sister Anne Marie, and their parents – all enjoyed their hobby of horse racing, but life in Ireland quickly became more dangerous.
While the exact start date is unclear, the Troubles certainly picked up just seven months after Red Alligator’s big win at the Grand National, with the civil rights march in Derry on October 5th, 1968. The fighting escalated from there, putting the safety of the Hendersons at risk. Thankfully, due to one of their aunts marrying an American a few years earlier, the Hendersons were able to leave Ireland and immigrate to the United States. While they were much safer in the States, their hobby was a little harder to keep up with.
“When we came to this country, we kind of lost interest in the racing. There was no bookies and the closest track would’ve been two and a half hours away” said Stephen. While the bookies were legal across the Atlantic, the U.S. uses parimutuel gambling for horse races. This meant that the tracks usually determined the odds and then those odds changed with bets. Due to this, you really only had one place to go to for betting. With bookies, you could get different odds because they were determined by the bookie, according to Stephen. You had the chance to win some more money.
Thankfully, the Henderson hobby was saved when Sports Haven was built in New Haven, Connecticut in 1979. This venue gave the Hendersons a nearby venue to watch and bet on horse racing. “It was built like a theater. TVs everywhere, huge restaurant. You would get lunch, bet races and enjoy the day. It was 45 minutes from West Hartford,” says Stephen. “Technology started bringing the horse racing to you, instead of the other way around.”
Though technology appeared to have saved their hobby, it was not without its shortcomings. Remember, these were the days of dial-up internet. Things were slow compared to how they are today. When online horse race betting software was introduced courtesy of YOUbet, people would crowd around a computer and pray for a good signal. “It would be my father in law, brother in law, Dad and I would all be huddled over a laptop. The horses were coming around the last bend and it freezes because it’s dial-up internet. ‘Fix it fix it!’ Dad’s yelling” said Stephen.
It's relatively good luck that both Michael and Stephen married into families that enjoy horseracing almost as much as they did. Although she never went to the tracks, Michelle, Michael’s wife, grew up with a similar passion for horses, albeit without the gambling. “My grandma’s sister lived in Flushing Meadows,” she said “When I was little, we used to go out there and go to breakfast at Belmont. You could watch the horses work out while you eat. I thought it was amazing. I loved horses growing up. My dad and Uncle Ted would go back to the races after breakfast. I wanted to go with them, but they wouldn’t let me.”
When she met Michael and learned of the Henderson’s hobby she thought it was cool and didn’t think too much of it, “I was just happy he wasn’t betting half his paycheck (on the races).” Since they were living in New Jersey, one of the closest major tracks was Saratoga, in upstate New York. “I hadn’t been to a track outside of Belmont. I loved Saratoga when I first went; I loved just being at the track,” she said.
While Saratoga might be the most impressive, it wasn’t the first track that Michael had been to. As it turned out, Stephen also married into a family that loved horseracing. Every year in Massachusetts, the Northampton fair would be held and there would be races there. It was at that fair in the late 1980s when Michael saw his first races live. “I don’t remember a whole lot from the races,” he said. "But the people in the stands were a riot. It was the same people who had been going forever. It was like a situation comedy, they all had their own personalities and quirks.”
Now that Michael and Stephen are older they have the time and more importantly, the money, to go to the tracks and spend time with their families. It was something they learned from their father. Stephan told me “when my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, I took him to the Breeders’ Cup up in Chicago. It was freezing, but we got great seats, right by the finish line. And I mean we were both having a bad day. We couldn’t win anything. So, we pooled our final $10 and bet on this horse, Volponi. We bet $10 on him and he won us $100. That was the last time I went to the track with my Dad, so it was pretty special.”
Both Michael and Stephen are in their 60s now, so it is their turn to pass on horse racing to the younger generation of Henderson. At least for Michael, he’s passed it on to his sons, myself and my brother, Patrick. Thanks to my Dad, we’ve gone to Saratoga once as a family and if I remember correctly, I won some money. I certainly understand how horseracing can be so impactful and how someone can pick it up as a hobby. I haven’t been back to a track in person, but if my dad has a race on TV, I’ll usually sit down and watch it with him.
I knew that horse racing was important to my family but I didn’t know the full story. Just between my dad and my uncle combined, they’ve gone to 42 racetracks and seen thousands upon thousands of races. They’ve been to the biggest races in the world – the Breeders’ Cup, the Kentucky Derby. They’ve been to races in Ireland, like in Galway. For my dad and uncle, horse racing – and betting on horse racing – is part of who they are, and it is ingrained in the history of our family.
And if you ever find yourself down at the tracks, I’ll give you some advice Granda, my grandfather, told me. “If there are ever two gray horses in a race, always bet on one of them. One of them will always win.”