Harness racing's new act of Durkin and Spadaro

Durkin and Spadaro. A new vaudeville team? A fledgling law firm? A poor imitation of Bonnie and Clyde? None of the above. Tom Durkin--the renown, 57-year-old announcer of Thoroughbred racing at Belmont Park, Saratoga and Aqueduct, voice of the Triple Crown and voice of the Breeders’ Cup for its first 22 years--has joined forces with his buddy Joe Spadaro--a 65-year-old former harness trainer who was the deputy executive director for the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund for 18 years before semi-retiring to become the volunteer web site coordinator for the Harness Horse Breeders of New York State (hhbnys.com) - are buying Standardbreds.
   

Not a lot, just a handful so far.
   

Why? “My main motivator in life--for fun,” Durkin said. “Luckily, I earn a decent living and can risk a few bucks on a venture such as this. To see the horse’s progress and eventually race is a pretty good kick, and Joe is a great partner; knows the game inside and out, and is so easy to get along with.”
    

Durkin, who called harness racing brilliantly at The Meadowlands before moving on to Thoroughbreds, was part of a Thoroughbred partnership stemming from his Breeders’ Cup involvement with NBC TV. “A group of about 10 or 12 of us from our NBC sports team bought a Mt. Livermore filly which we named

Conflictofinterest in the hopes she would run in the Breeders’ Cup and we would have a conflict of interest on the broadcast,” Durkin said. “She ran about a half dozen times. She didn’t run at two. She broke her maiden at Kentucky Downs going a mile and a half on the grass. She had a good turf pedigree and we sold her. After expenses, we fell a bit short of even, but had great fun during her modest career.”
    

Spadaro drove Lady Is A Trump in a matinee race April 6, and she finished third. “She behaved perfectly in every respect and appears to have a promising future,” Spadaro said. She is scheduled to ship to trainer Kelvin “Red” Harrison’s stable at Magical Acres in Chesterfield, New Jersey, and is fully staked for the rich New Jersey Sire Stakes, though Durkin and Spadaro plan to pinhook her.
    

Last January, they purchased the 9-year-old, in-foal broodmare Electra Hanover, and a daughter of Lindy Lane out of Elke Frazer, by Super Bowl, who had been bred to SJs Caviar. She foaled a filly on April 5, and is booked to be bred to Conway Hall, one of the country’s top trotting sires, who stands stud at Morrisville College. The baby has yet to be named, although Durkin has supplied three names for United States Trotting Association’s approval.

Durkin outdid himself naming that filly’s older, full brother, a yearling trotting colt, which was part of the package. He was renamed Eggipus Complex. “I believe Tom used the fact that from Greek mythology, Electra was madly in-love with her father,” Spadaro said. “a reverse Oedipus Complex.” He is by SJ's Caviar, thus the "egg" reference.

They won’t have the colt for long. He’s consigned to this year’s Morrisville’s Yearling Sale on Sept. 21.

“It’s interesting to look over the pedigrees of our horses,” Durkin said. “I remember calling so many of the names. I see a generation or two back in the pedigrees. It brings back old memories.”
   

Durkin is fully cognizant that going into business with a friend can be perilous, but he has a solution: “It is never a good idea to go into business with a friend, but with Joe I am completely confident. He is Italian. I’m the Italian wannabe. I reintroduced him to his Italian roots during several stays in Italy. He is competent and honest, and if he gets out of line…then the partnership needs to dissolve, let’s just say I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse. I have associates in Sicily, you see.”
    

Maybe vaudeville isn’t a bad idea. (Bill Heller for HHBNY)

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