A chat with MIke Pribozie

If you follow harness racing, there is a good chance you have read or listened to some content produced by handicapper/broadcaster/bettor/owner Mike Pribozie, who is passionate about all things related to the sport. If you watch or bet Mohawk Park, you surely have seen his picks on the live broadcast nightly.

Harnesslink recently caught up with the 46-year-old from Johnstown, Pennsylvania for an extensive chat about the origin of his interest in harness racing and plenty more.

Garnet Barnsdale: Tell me how you got interested in harness racing.

Mike Pribozie: I was around 17 years old, and my uncle took me to the Off Track Betting shop – it was a Meadows OTB at the time – and I just started watching The Meadows, and I liked it right away. I started to go to the track, too, and I got hooked pretty fast.

GB: Take me through your journey into harness racing media.

MP: It started in 2016. I was a regular on horse racing Twitter and I saw that Ray Cotolo was advertising looking for someone to co-host with him on the North American Harness Racing Update podcast. So, I messaged him and told him that I would come on with him. He and I hit it off, and eventually Rod Allums Jr. joined us. We started doing live shows at various tracks and started the website NAHU Picks almost six years ago. I got some exposure there and by hanging out and meeting guys that were already working in harness racing media, and it kind of just expanded from there.

GB: So now, in addition to your website, you are also part of In The Money Media with Edison Hatter (2022 Dan Patch Breakthrough Award Winner). Tell me about that.

MP: I was always and In The Money fan and I listened to a lot of their podcasts, but it was all thoroughbred podcasts, and I was thinking that there was nothing for harness racing. I messaged Robert Reid Jr. (who was doing some thoroughbred stuff for them) and told him that we need to get some harness on there. A couple of months later, Edison popped up with a harness racing show and I became friends with him and appeared on his show a few times. We got Ray (Cotolo) involved and the show started expanding so Edison needed help.

He couldn’t do it all himself and Ray and I had a lot of experience doing the podcasts and going to a lot of racetracks. Now, it is more of a group effort because we are so busy. We have many more tracks involved and we have a lot of work to do. Last year we even branched out and did our own show called “The Harness Player’s Podcast” some roundtables for the big events and we do some live broadcasts from the racetracks, so we are a bit everywhere.

GB: You worked on the in-house live show on Adios Day at The Meadows this year. That must have been a very cool experience for you.

MP: That’s their big day and I’ve been going to The Meadows for more than 25 years, now there I am sitting on the desk on Adios day and giving my analysis for the races. It was great, honestly. It was amazing meeting and talking to the drivers and feeling like I belonged.

GB: You share your content every day on social media without fail. Why is that important to you?

MP: I just think that there isn’t enough promotion for harness racing. There are a ton of thoroughbred entities out there putting out a lot of content. I think that Mohawk Park does a decent job on social media, but most tracks do not. I feel that we need more of that. I want to promote and get people interested in harness racing.

The only way to do that is to keep reminding them: “hey, we’re here…hey, we’re here…hey there are picks here…hey we got stuff going on over there…”. The only way to do that is to consistently push it out there. That’s one thing with our website. If we are going to do it, we have to be consistent, and we have been consistent for five years. We are always there, and I like that consistency and I feel that it matters. That’s why I do it.

GB: You have a full-time job in the medical field. How do you balance that job – which can require some long hours – with your harness racing media work?

I work as an anesthesiologist working in operating rooms and some surgery centers. How do I balance it? I just try to stay plugged in. If I am missing seeing races because I am at work, I try to go back when I get some free time and watch them. I take it very seriously, so I don’t want to be putting out content that is sub par. Everything I do, I do it at 100 per cent. So, I make the time. Stay up an extra hour, for example.

I do whatever is needed to get the job done to the point where I feel comfortable giving advice or content that I feel I would want to bet for myself. I’ve never given out any picks that I wouldn’t feel comfortable betting with my own money. It is difficult at times and sometimes requires me to get home late and wake up early the next day. But I love it, and if you love it, you find ways, and that’s what I do.

GB: Tell me about your biggest score as a bettor.

It was several years ago, and the bet was a 20-cent Pick 4 at Mohawk Park. It started out with a winning 30 to 1 shot, then a couple of mid-priced horses won the middle two legs. Then the last leg was won by a horse that was 10 to 1 in the morning line that ended up closing at 2 to 1 but it still paid well in the Pick 4. It paid more than $10,000 for a 20-cent ticket and I spent $48 to get it. That was the biggest score I ever made in terms of one single ticket. I have had huge overall days, too.

GB: Okay, now the worst beat.

MP: It was another Mohawk Park Pick 4 ticket. There was a race where I used all but two horses, and of course the two that I left out finished 1-2 in that race. I think they were 90 to 1 and 50 to 1. I had the other three winners of that bet and the Pick 4 paid $50,000 to one winning ticket. So, if I had hit, too, I would have cashed $25,000. Yeah, that was pretty bad. An “all but two” that cost me 25 grand.

GB: Tell me about your venture into horse ownership.

MP: I got involved initially at The Meadows with trainer Tim Twaddle who has been a consistent trainer there and recently recorded his 1,000th win. I got introduced to him at The Meadows more than 10 years ago. We started out with my dad, my brother, me and a couple of other guys. Our partnership was called Up Anchor Stables. It was really good.

I owned pieces of more than 20 winning horses, and I still have some pieces. Tim was a great person to get me in because he is a great guy and he provided an experience for me, that included bringing my kids to the barn and things like that. It was pretty low level, but it was still a blast. I loved it then and I still do. If you own five per cent of a horse or 100 per cent, you still get that same thrill when you win a race. I’ve also had pieces here and there with Rod (Allums Jr.) who still trains.

GB: What was your best horse?

MP: We didn’t have any champions or anything like that, but we did buy one cheaply for $4,200 that made more than $40,000 who is in foal now and I still own a pretty good piece of her. I did own one named Utah Beach (Somebeachsomewhere) that raced in the Adios. He was also second in a stake at Balmoral. It was a lot of fun to have that kind of a horse.

GB: You are granted three wishes to change something or do something to improve/fix the sport. Go:

MP:

1. I wish we could have a better perception of racing. There seems to be a negative perception around it and that makes it difficult. I wish you could make it feel like it was clean, and it was fair and that it’s something that you could put money into without thinking that it is nefarious.
2. More promotion. There just isn’t enough. If people aren’t aware of the sport, they can’t become interested in it. When you tell people that you are into harness racing, they reply: “what’s that?”. Even people that I work with that have lived here for 30 years have no idea that there is a harness track 1 1/2 hours down the road.
3. Less inside information, if that’s a thing. You know, you see horses at some tracks that are bet down to 2 to 1 that show nothing in their form that supports that they should be bet down to 2 to 1. But they are being bet for a reason and most of the time, those horses perform.

GB: What is your favorite race to attend and why?

MP: For a long time, my favorite race has been the Adios. It’s in my backyard and I had a horse race in it once. For thoroughbred racing, it’s The Kentucky Derby. It’s hard to top. I’ve gone to it twice and I will say that it’s really worth it. But for harness, The Adios will always be my favorite.

GB: Who is your favorite horse of all time and why?

MP: Right now, my favorite horse is Charlie May because I have a connection to his owner Don Tiger. There was a horse that raced at The Meadowlands in the ‘90s named Jacsue Brooks that got really good for a while. That was the horse that got me into racing. He was gutsy and I followed him. He brought me back every Saturday night to see him. He was one of the horses that really got me into racing.

GB: What’s next for you in harness racing?

MP: Hopefully more involvement and more broadcasting opportunities would be good. Maybe more appearances at big races. I do try to travel to the big races and get to as many as I can, I enjoy that. Maybe some international travel. I’d love to go to Sweden for the Elittlop and France for the Prix D’Amerique. That is definitely on my radar, and I think it will happen in the next couple of years.

by Garnet Barnsdale, for Harnesslink