Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Personality of the Month
for June 2007

Joe DeFrank

Long-time race secretary and harness
racing Hall of Fame member Joe DeFrank's
name is edged forever into the sport of
harenss racing--especially in the last several decades when his tenure as head of The Meadowland's racing office began when
that track opened in 1976.

Joe DeFrank

A resident of Ramsy, New Jersey, DeFrank--now 74 years old--first became a racing secretary when friend Don D'Andrea brought his friend to the races in western New York. DeFrank went into the Army and in 1953 followed his friend Don into the racing secretary, securing his first position as a Clerk of the Course at Hilliard, Ohio.

The following year DeFrank ventured to Rosecroft as both the Stall Man and the Clerk of the Course, working consecutive 24-day meets at Rosecroft-Baltrimore, Laurel and Ocean Downs. He eventually headed to the now-defunct Baltimore Raceway, given the job of secretary to him by Hall Of Famer Jim Lynch when he retired.

Since then, DeFrank has worked as a racing secretary at Brandywine, Baltimore, Northville Park, Ponce De Leon, Painesville, Green Mountain, Windsor Raceway, The Meadows, Garden State Park and finally, The Meadowlands.

He's also held other positions in racing such as Program Director, Morning-line Odds maker, etc. He's worked with some of the top people in the sport as well, including favorites Roy Shudt--who called the races at Brandywine Raceway, Rosecroft and Saratoga.

"Roy had a great style," DeFrank was quoted as saying in the July 2001 issue of Hoof Beats magazine. "Eddie Kelly had a horse named Engineer and every time he'd make a move up the backstretch, Roy would go, "And here comes The Engineer! Whoo-whoooooo!"

DeFrank was always Frank in his assessment of the business as well, stating that: "The more numbers you get in a race, the better race you've got to have. That's it. I've been criticized many times for going to 12- or 14-horse fields, as opposed to going for six or seven. Down Under and in Europe they have 20+horse fields all the time, and nobody's wimping out on that."

"I think that going into this job, you've got to understand that you're not running a populatiry contest. It['s easy to try and be fair to everybody, but sometimes you have to make a decision. It doesn't make any difference who the owner is, who the trainer or who the driver is, you must not be afraid."

DeFrank was Racing Secretary at The Meadowlands from 1976 until he retired at age 68 in 2001.

"I thought that being in this neighborhood, the proximity to New York, that this place would probably be highly successful. I also knew they'd have the greatest racing anybody'd ever seen. I started opening night by carding a strong early-closing program. We didn't have any established stakes.

"I knew that New York was not going to allow people to ship over and race. Nor would I. I said to myself, "I'm going to have to get the best guys I know of, that I've been with in the Michicagn area, the Windsor area, the Cleveland area, the Pittsburg area, to come here--The Greg Wrights, the Ray Remmens, the Lew Williamses and Mike Novics. We'll make our own starts, because these guys aren't going to come drive here."

"I knew we had ot have a better program than everybody else, and so that's what I tried to do. Opening night, I said, "I'm not going to start this race off and this meet off, unless I've got a race that I am sure is going to be 2:00." That was a big thing then, so I put an open pace right in the first race. I think Ray Remmen went in 1:57 and everybody went "WOW!" That's just what I wanted to do."