If there’s one thing racing needs more than new bettors, it’s new owners.
The game took a mini-step towards fulfilling that need recently
when two young baseball players bought into a piece of the action in
horses trained and owned in part by Vann Belvoir.
They would be Kyle Schneider, a first-time owner who has 10
percent of a 6-year-old horse named Miles Heir, and Sean O’Leary, who
owns 10 percent of a 5-year-old mare named Single N Lovin It. Both run
in bottom-level claiming races.
Schneider is a 21-year-old right-handed pitcher for Glendale
Community College. O’Leary, 28, describes himself as a right-handed
knuckleballer who’s also the pitching coach at Monrovia High School.
“They’re both local guys who came to gamble at the track and
eventually became owners,” Belvoir said. “This is the kind of curiosity
that hopefully begins to re-generate interest in the sport.”
Miles Heir, a winner at 10-1 on Feb. 10, finished fifth in Sunday’s second race, a one-mile event with a $17,000 purse.