ARCADIA, Calif. – Officially established in 1934, Santa Anita Park is one of the oldest race tracks in the country.
The track has been Huey Barnes domain as the assistant starter for more than six decades.
“I thank God every morning I get up to let me get up and come out here and do what I love. I love being around horses,” said Barnes as he walks along the track during the morning’s training sessions, smiling, and waving at every person that rides by.
He just turned 86-years-old, but he was just a boy when he was first introduced to horses by his grandfather, who worked at Belmont Park racetrack in New York.
“I was so small and tiny. Basketball, football, baseball were out of the question because I wasn't big enough,” said Barnes.
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When he was 17 years old, he followed the famous horse trainer Charlie Whittingham out to California. They landed at Santa Anita where he landed his first job as an exercise trainer, known as a pony boy, for the young horses Whittingham was training that was in 1954. And he has been at Santa Anita ever since.
“Santa Anita it is a beautiful place and I wouldn't trade it for nothing. It’s gorgeous,” said Barnes.
After 65 years, he is an icon at this track. Working at the starting gates can be a dangerous job with anxious 1,500-pound horses and tight proximity. Seeing them every day develop from yearlings into full grown racers is still one of his greatest joys.
“Watching these horses when they come here as babies and then develop and turn into racers. And they win a race and you see how you started them off, showed them what to do, and they continued to do it… that’s what really turns you on. And you see that you did something that is worth doing. And the horses love it too. They love being out here,” said Barnes.
Barnes knows everyone and everyone knows him. A man named Mike is working at the training gate with him and they’re joking around, which is apparently something they do often.
“He’s just is a sweetheart deep down,” said Mike as Barnes chuckles and shakes his head.
“This is what I go through every day? This is every day,” joked Barnes.
Whistling while you work maybe a cliché, but Barned literally does that all day long.
“It’s good here. It's a good living. That's why you see so many people who want to work here. Everyone who works around horses works with them because they love them. You’re not going to find any human being here say, Oh, I'm just working here for the money. No,” said Barnes.
Barnes has the unique honor of being a member of Santa Anita's “Octo-plus Club,” as an Octogenarian, someone who is 80 years of age or older. There are only seven employees who work at the track who aren’t in that club.
Barnes has been married 48 years with four children, six grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. But the employees, trainers, jockeys, groundskeepers, and other racing personnel here are very close, and Barnes says they are his second family.
Despite all the turmoil in the horse racing industry these days, he has no intention of retiring anytime soon. For him, home is where the horses are.