A Warm Welcome from Pompano Park!

A recent visit to Florida, thanks to my Mom and a connection she had in Pompano, I had an amazing opportunity for a behind the scenes experience at Pompano Park at Isle Casino. This visit turned out to be the highlight of my vacation!

First of all I have always been a huge fan of this racetrack.  I watch and handicap their races a lot since I admire how unique the track is. When my parents told me we were going to Pompano Florida for March Break and our house was within five minutes of the racetrack I was pretty excited for this vacation. Our first full day, we woke up and went to go check out the racetrack.  We watched the horses that stable on the grounds jog and train on their impressive 5/8 mile track. Later that night we went back to watch the live racing action. Before the races started on Wednesday night we were invited to go to the racing operations office to meet up with Harness Racing Hall of Famer John Berry and Director of Racing Gabe Prewitt,

Right from the time we walked into the door we were treated amazingly. We leaned that not only was Gabe Prewitt the Director of Racing he was also the voice in the sky, the track announcer! I told Gabe and John about my experience in harness racing and announcing. They were very interested in hearing about my race calls, our stable and home racetrack, Leamington Raceway. I was thrilled when we were invited to join Gabe in the announcer booth.  He explained how he memorizes the horses names and how he times the races so that Pompano is not racing at the same times as other tracks on TVG. What a great day this turned out to be.  We watched a couple of the races in the announcer booth and then enjoyed the rest of the race card right on the fence where the action is.  This night could not get any better! What could Sunday night possibly bring?

As Sunday came around we headed to the racetrack. First of all we went to the racing operations office because we were invited to watch the pre-game show hosted by Gabe Prewitt and John Berry on the top floor in the big grandstand. They also talked about me in the pre-game show and shared a few of my selections with the racing fans. After the show ended we went one floor down to the announcers booth to see the first race from up top. Once the first race ended Gabe asked me to call the second race post parade. Wow! I was very excited and nervous all at the same time so I took a good look at the program to read out all the names I was not familiar with. I was very honored since it was the open pace which was feature race of the evening. This group of horses are speedy every week and I wanted to do a good job. When the time came I opened up my voice and it all came out pretty good in the end. I was nervous for nothing after all and doing a post parade at Pompano is something I will never forget.

     

After all this excitement we headed back downstairs as it was time for my Grandpa and I to ride in one of the best starting cars; the Hummer starting gate. That was a very cool experience riding in there, being that close to the racing action during the whole race. As the night was coming to an end we watched the few remaining races of that remarkable night. As I walked away, I hoped that I would get the chance to come back to this racetrack once again with the amazing experience here and the way we were treated. If you have never been to Isle Racing Pompano Park put this on your bucket list as it is something you shouldn't miss out on.

Nathan Bain 

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