While his surname is virtually synonymous with the development of pari-mutuel wagering in the United States, the New York Racing Association’s newly appointed Senior Vice President of Mutuels, Pat Mahony, 62, doesn’t consider his 40-plus-year career in pari-mutuel operations an exercise in destiny.

Like many other recent college graduates, when Mahony completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Miami in 1968, he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do with his life.

“I’d been working at the track [in college], so I thought, well, let me just go to work at the track for a brief while to make some money and then decide whether I want to go to graduate school, that type of thing,” Mahony said. “And, here I am.”

Considering the Mahony family history though, it’s not surprising that he ended up in the family business.

Mahony’s grandfather, Mortimer Mahony, helped introduce the modern pari-mutuel wagering system to North America, beginning at Pimlico around 1909 and then up and down in the East Coast and into Canada, including setting up pari-mutuel systems at Belmont and Saratoga in 1940.

Mortimer’s son and Pat’s father, Riggs Mahony, became a prominent American mutuel director in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, managing operations at tracks in Hialeah Park in Florida and Laurel Park in Maryland, along with multiple tracks New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

As children, Mahony and his older brother would visit the tracks with their father – never during the races in the afternoon, but for haircuts at the track barber in the mornings.

“My entire life, I’ve been in this environment, but it wasn’t something that I just automatically knew I was born to do,” Mahony said. “I wouldn’t be here without my family obviously. My father and his siblings, that generation, worked for their father, and [I worked] really between semesters and went to where I was old enough to do it at that point.”

Pat Mahony got his start in the summer of 1966, working as a money messenger at Atlantic City Race Course in Mays Landing, NJ and Monmouth Park in Oceanport, NJ, both tracks his father managed.

In a business where his family has long been well-respected, Mahony has had no trouble distinguishing himself.

“At NYRA, Pat has worked diligently to position our Mutuel department as one of the finest in the industry,” NYRA President and CEO Charles Hayward said. “He’s put a solid management team in place while establishing the highest standards of credibility and integrity. In addition, Pat has worked with the New York State Racing and Wagering Board and industry organizations on national tote strategies and protocols.”

When he was just 22, Mahony was appointed mutuel manager for the summer harness meet at Atlantic City in 1969. In college, Mahony arranged his schedule so that he could take classes in the morning and work at Hialeah in the afternoons.

Mahony began his career toward the end of the manual era of mutuel/tote operations and has seen the industry evolve through electro-mechanical to fully electronic operation. He has worked in almost every aspect of mutuel operations – not just as a manager, but a messenger, seller, cashier, and various positions within in the mutuel office.

While he moved around seasonally between East Coast tracks in the decade after he graduated from college, Mahony settled more permanently in his native Florida beginning in 1979, dividing his time between Calder, Gulfstream, and Hialeah.

At Calder, he held the position of Vice President, Mutuels from 1991 to 2002.

That year, Terry Meyocks, then the President of NYRA with whom Mahony had worked at Calder, called Mahony to discuss a possible move to New York.

“I just thought at that point, the end of 2002, why not?” said Mahony, who joined NYRA as Vice President of Pari-Mutuel Operations in 2003. “New York has always been the pre-eminent racing circuit in the country…and so, when the opportunity came, it was something you really don’t turn down. To have the opportunity to work in New York and be associated with NYRA is a great privilege. The history and tradition here is second to none.”

Not unlike the history and tradition of the Mahony family.