Growing up Langley

The name “Langley” may take harness racing horsemen and women back to the glory days of harness racing, when it was impossible to find a seat in the grandstand.

The late Pete Langley was the first racing official in harness racing in Illinois at Aurora Downs before he became the presiding judge and track superintendent at Sportsman’s Park. His son, Phil Langley, somewhat followed in his footsteps and became the race secretary and later director of racing at Sportsman’s Park before becoming a minority share owner of Balmoral Park and Maywood.

He later became racing director at Balmoral Park and president of the United States Trotting Association.

Another generation later, Dr. Pete Langley has combined his harness racing blood and aptitude for science into a career as a veterinarian, caring for racehorses in the Chicago-area and beyond.

Although his grandfather passed away when he was young, Langley remembers him as being tough, but kind.

“Although he assessed a lot of fines, he also made sure that young struggling horsemen would be able to pay those fines,” Langley says. “He also took great pride in his racetrack and backstretch to the point that he handed out hoof picks to every stable and if there was a trail of debris from your barn to the track there was going to be heck to pay.”

Langley grew up working in the racing office at Sportsman’s Park.

“I used to go to the races every night during the summer,” he says. “And it was a lot of fun. I saw a lot of really, really good horses in the 70s and 80s. My favorite was Albatross, who set the world record at Sportsman’s Park in 1972, which was unheard of for a five eighths mile track. I also enjoyed watching Governor Skipper and Burgermeister. When he stopped working in the racing office, my father’s best horse was Thisbigdogwilfight. I kind of lived vicariously through that horse.

“My father was fortunate to work while horse racing was the only gambling that you could do legally,” Langley says. “And so, the power structure was pretty strong in Illinois. And he was given a pretty good amount of authority by his bosses to kind of run racing the way he wanted.

“I think my favorite driver of all-time would-be Dave Magee,” Langley continues. “I just liked the way he drove and the way he carried himself. I kind of grew up being friends with the Knox family and Bob Knox was always a big influence on me as far as drivers and training. I always liked the way he trained. I would say Jimmy Eaton, Nelson Willis, and Steve Searle have also been influential.”

Why vet school?

“I’m not a boss, and I was pretty good at the sciences, so I decided to go to vet school,” he shares. Langley graduated from the University of Illinois and now works with trainers to keep racehorses healthy, prevent lameness, and keep people informed on medication and health certification rules.

Langley worked for Dr. Ken Walker and his wife, Pat, who own Walker Standardbreds, while attending vet school.

“They were very helpful and encouraging, and they were great mentors,” Langley says. “I also hung around Dr. Paul Smith, the state veterinarian at the time, a lot since I was at the track so much. He taught me the backstretch part of racing.”

The vet’s relationship with the trainer is integral to the success of both the horse and the stable.

“We do a lot of endoscopes, where we look down the horse’s throat to see if there’s a respiratory illness or bleeding,” Langley explains. “We also do a lot of blood testing to look for tying up or anemia. We watch horses work to see if they’re showing lameness on the track and then try to isolate where the lameness might be coming from. And then if horses are lame, we usually use therapeutics or joint injections to try to mitigate the lameness or, hopefully, heal it.

“My assistant, DiAnn Skala, is not only invaluable in helping keep me organized and more efficient, but also does a great service by carefully tracking coggins, vaccination, and health certificate status for our patients,” Langley continues. “With the strict enforcement at Hoosier Park, this has helped our clients immensely.”

It may have been challenging for Langley to make a name for himself. His family’s reputation may have had an influence on whether people chose to use his veterinary services.

“My father was really big into integrity, and didn’t tolerate cheating,” he says. This philosophy is ever more prevalent today with the recent federal indictment of the many trainers, owners, and vets for both thoroughbred and harness racing. “Overall, it’s good for our sport, but I’m sad about the black eye it has given us,” he says.

Langley has had a front row seat to the decline of Illinois harness racing.

“I lived through its heyday, which was in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s,” he says. “And, I think, by the early 90s the decline was apparent, but it wasn’t precipitous. When I was a kid, people casually knew about harness racing. I think if you ask the average person nowadays, they don’t even know what it is. It used to be on The Odd Couple and Andy Griffith would have a sign that showed harness racing on Sunday.

“I remember the roar of the crowd turning for home at Sportsman’s Park. You could hear it and it was exciting. Now you can’t really watch a race live in Illinois. And it’s tough on the horseman who have to travel to Indiana and Ohio for racing.

“If Illinois could get their tracks going, where they had two tracks going and you had casino revenue, you may be able to bring the quality of racing back up,” he says. “I do think that horse racing in general needs to figure out how to not just rely on casino revenue, because, even at the places with really good racing, there aren’t that many people watching.”

In his free time, Langley enjoys bicycling, spending time with his wife, Patricia, and cheering on the Fighting Illini. He is proud of the work he does and is happy he can continue to be a part of harness racing, an industry that was written in his DNA.

by Nicolle Kain, for Harnesslink