Harness: Profile of Hall of Fame Communicator Dave Little

What kind of car do you drive?

2010 Toyota Camry -- high mileage and still going strong!

Favorite dinner meal? Snack?

My dad's lasagna for dinner followed by my mom's chocolate cake for dessert; Doritos.

What is your favorite all-time track to visit? Why?

Harness: Roosevelt Raceway -- A special place with the greatest tote board anyone's ever seen.

Thoroughbred: Santa Anita Park -- I could go there every day and never get sick of it.

What is your favorite big event in racing? Why?

Without question, the Meadowlands Pace. There is always electricity in the air. The best horses in the most intriguing division on a hot summer night at the greatest track in the world. The Hambletonian is great, but it belongs to ALL of harness racing. The Meadowlands Pace belongs to The Meadowlands!

What is your favorite sport to watch? Team?

Baseball. I became a New York Mets fan in 1972. How about this coupling of my two favorite things? The day I picked all nine winners on a Roosevelt matinee program was the day of the Mets parade in celebration of winning the 1986 World Series. My accomplishment went above the Mets parade on the back page of the New York Post. I had been at the paper less than six months and there was a photo of me above Gary Carter in the backseat of a convertible covered in confetti.

What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know?

I love animals. My wife Debbie and I used to drive 90 minutes one way just to spend some time with dogs in a shelter down the Garden State Parkway. More recently, we sponsored hybrid wolves at an exotic animal park in Oklahoma. Some seriously ferocious-looking beings, but sweet and always great to hang out with.

What is one word that describes harness racing for you?

Challenging.

How did harness racing enter your life?

I was 16 in the summer of 1978. I used to read The Bergen Record newspaper sports section cover to cover every day and a good friend of mine went to the track one night. I borrowed $20 from his father and the first bet I made was on the advice of the paper's handicapper. I hit the double for $66. That was that.

You worked nearly 25 years at the New York Daily News. Do you look back at that time fondly?

I do in a big way. I LOVED being a newspaperman. My wife Debbie and I would go on vacation, and with a few days to go, I'd tell her 'I can't wait to get back to work'. I had one great sports editor after another during my tenure. Covering races was a special treat, and as far as I know, I wrote the last weekly harness racing newspaper column.

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My last year at the News was a nightmare. I was putting the scoreboard pages together, something I wasn't interested in doing. The only racing left in the section were NYRA entries and results, with my selections. All harness racing was gone. The day they told me I was being let go was a great day in my life. Especially, when you consider what was to come.

Three words -- Battle of Saratoga. Any thoughts?

To be part of something so popular for 20 years was a real treat. And since I was the harness guy -- or "Trotter Guy" as Bill Finley dubbed me -- I felt like I had the entire industry rooting for me. I'll never forget my three-year reign from 1999-2001. The insults were always flying. That was the schtick. Lots of people read what we wrote every day. I miss handicapping the races at NYRA. I miss the Battle of Saratoga.

After the Daily News you caught on with The Meadowlands and was doing the thankless job of morning-line odds. Were you glad to give up that job and focus on being an on-air host, handicapper and writer?

That's not quite how it went down. I was out of work and Jason Settlemoir was nice enough to hire me to do the morning-line and the program comments for the 2016 Championship Meeting, but on an interim basis.

Doing the morning-line odds was a tough gig. I was sure I'd be good at it. At the start, I wasn't, but I feel like I got incrementally better every few weeks, but I only did it for a few months.

I love doing TV. Partnering with Dave Brower, who I've been friends for over 25 years, I think we have good chemistry. I love handicapping the horses. I enjoy arguing with Brower, whose approach is far different than mine, but that's a good thing. When one of us is in the host chair and surprises the other guy with a question he's not expecting, those are the moments I really look forward to. I love writing the recap at the end of the night. The challenge of taking a live event and writing something that goes beyond merely giving the facts, something that requires some imagination, that's something I get to challenge myself with every Friday and Saturday night.

When people ask, I tell them this about my Meadowlands gig: "I'm where I belong."

What's it like to be live at The Meadowlands for world-class racing week after week? Is it a dream come true in some respects?

Really cool. The level of racing we have at The Meadowlands is second to none. Stakes season is great, of course, but if we get a Preferred Trot and Pace in the dead of winter, that's a great night of racing as well, if you ask me.

What have you learned in your time covering the sport?

If you want to get harness racing stories into major newspapers, be extra nice to your editors. Of course, that's not much of a problem these days given the state of the newspaper industry.

What was your favorite moment covering harness racing?

Muscle Hill's sensational six-length romp in the Hambletonian in 1:50 1/5. Absolutely spectacular!

Which is your favorite horse from your time in the sport?

Genghis Khan. He went up against Beatcha in the World Cup. It was a great rivalry. That's 40 years ago and I remember it well, just not as well as his driver. I was on the phone with Billy O'Donnell sometime within the last year and I asked him about Genghis, and he told me about some of his best races. When you consider how many great horses he drove in his career, that's a good memory.

What is the best advice you've ever gotten about harness racing?

"Don't memorize!" When I was in my late 20s and desperate for a race-calling gig, I drove up to Monticello to call some qualifiers. Bob Meyer, the announcer at Yonkers, told me that I had to memorize, but Howard Oil at Monti said not to do that. He taught me his technique, one where you could pick up the program as they head to the gate, and I've used it ever since.

If you could interview anyone from harness racing history, who would it be with and why?

I'd love to get another interview with Herve Filion. He was someone Debbie and I got to know towards the end of his career and he was so nice to us. I interviewed him and Dave Palone at Goshen after Dave had passed Herve for most driving wins all time and Herve could not have been nicer to Dave, or a better interview for me.

Announcing races has been a passion of yours through the years. Do any races that you've called stick out in your head?

Actually, no. I love calling the races yearly as the Grand Circuit announcer at Historic Track in Goshen, the Orleans County Fair in Vermont and calling a race card or two every year at The Meadowlands is also a thrill.

The one thing I try to do: Don't make a boring race into an exciting race. An announcer cannot create excitement from the booth. It is created on the track. Sometimes, it's really exciting, sometimes it's not.

Did you ever consider trying to find a full-time announcing gig?

I did. After Bill Ryan passed away 30 years ago, I was up for the Freehold job. I had called four or five consecutive Saturday programs filling in for John Bothe, who was the interim announcer, so my audition was solid. It looked like I was going to get the gig, but late in the game, management decided to go with Jack E. Lee, the longtime voice of Roosevelt Raceway. A year and a half later, I was at The News, so by not getting the Freehold job, my life took a completely different path. One that I was happy to travel.

You've been a member and Director of the United States Harness Writers Association for decades. Do you think industry people realize how much "free" time gets donated to making it run smoothly?

They don't realize. I've spent at least 10 Hambletonian weeks as the chief copy editor for the Clyde Hirt Journalism Workshop. We take 6-10 college students every year and teach them everything they need to know about how to cover the Hambletonian. Not an easy thing to do. The goal is to get young people interested in the game who know nothing about it.

Even though it's Hambletonian Week, we eat, sleep and breathe that workshop. In addition to my other responsibilities of my job. If I get four hours of sleep on a given night, that's a good night. And well worth it because maybe one of those kids will become a fan.

What was the moment like when you found out about your election to the Communicators wing of the Hall of Fame?

It was humbling to know that my peers thought I deserved such an honor. I took a lot of pride in being a newspaperman, which from where I sit is the primary reason I got in. The fact that I've also called races, been on TV, served as a director in USHWA, covered races, wrote columns, and the thing that I am most proud of, being a public handicapper, I suspect didn't hurt.

Is there a track or race that remains on your bucket list to attend?

Not that I can think of right now. For many years, Debbie and I would visit a new track every year, so I've seen an awful lot.

I've been to the Little Brown Jug, Gold Cup & Saucer, World Trotting Derby and Trot Mondial among others. These days, I enjoy a big race more when I'm working.

If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be?

Conformity of rules, conformity of takeouts and conformity of a commitment to tracks putting money in the hat to promote the sport. Sorry, that's three things.

How do you view the future of harness racing?

When I was a writer at the News years ago, my feeling was if a business can't stand on its own, let it dry up and blow away. But then I learned about the agricultural aspects, the breeding aspects and everything else that needs to happen to make racing happen. The number of jobs at stake are too important. A longtime racetrack manager once told me: "We offer many different types of gaming and dining options to get people to come to our track. That's how we like to conduct our business."

Time for the stretch drive:

Best Horse You Ever Saw?: Trotter-Muscle Hill; Pacer-Nihilator

Best Driver Ever?: I'll let you know after I retire, for the time being I have to deal with these folks all the time.

Favorite TV Show?: The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Trotters or Pacers?: Pacers.