Susie Raisher Photo

NYRA mourns passing of Eddie Brown

by Jim Reisler

It is with great sadness that the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) notes the passing of Eddie Brown, who worked for many years at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course, most recently as NYRA’s assistant clerk of scales. Brown, who was 85, retired in 2019 and lived in Seaford, N.Y.

Brown was a “racetracker” to the core, turning a childhood love of horse racing into a career on the track that lasted more than 65 years. He was a throwback, a colleague with great reverence for the sport, an encyclopedic knowledge of its history and a love for sharing the wisdom of what he knew with fellow employees and fans.

Brown fell in love with racing as a boy attending Jamaica Racetrack and made his way in the sport galloping horses and working as an assistant to the trainers, Frank Wright and Lefty Nickerson. Joining NYRA in 1972, he worked as a valet with Hall of Fame riders Angel Cordero, Jr., Steve Cauthen, Jerry Bailey and Pat Day.

Brown was Day’s valet when he won the 1989 Belmont Stakes on Easy Goer, which he once described as his favorite memory of the “Test of the Champion.” And Brown maintained close friendships with all those riders, especially Bailey who when working with NBC at Belmont or Saratoga always made a beeline for the jockey room to see him.

In a 2018 interview with Andy Serling on the podcast, “Across the Board with Andy Serling”, Brown described being assistant clerk of scales as, “supervising superstars and union people” alike and helping to ensure the smooth operation of the jockey room as being, “like a Broadway show…once it starts, it keeps going.” Brown was always insistent in crediting others for his career breaks – “I had such great teachers,” he told Serling – and he took considerable pride in seeing young riders on the NYRA circuit blossom into stars, citing Hall of Famers John Velazquez and Javier Castellano, as well as Irad Ortiz, Jr. and Jose Ortiz, in particular.

But for all the traditions of the track that Brown revered, he always had a foot firmly planted in the present. Brown could relate to anyone from new NYRA employees he enjoyed showing around the jockey room to holding forth on his favorite movies – horse racing movies, of course [his favorite: “Boots Malone” from 1952, starring William Holden]. One of Brown’s legacies at NYRA was hanging racing-related photos, win pictures and posters on the walls of the Aqueduct jockey room.

Brown, a widower, was laid to rest Saturday at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Pinelawn, N.Y. Krauss Funeral Home handled the arrangements and has a tribute page on its website where anyone is welcome to leave a note that it will pass along to the family.

In the coming days, NYRA will honor Brown with a moment of silence.