Tim Snyder (41:36)
I was born in Scarborough, Maine. Specifically, I was born in the grandstand of Scarborough Downs as a racetrack. My dad was a jockey and my grandfather was a trainer. And so I started the racetrack real early age. Horse has been my. My whole life. The racetrack's pretty rough place. It's a hard life, you know, I broke my tailbone. I broke my neck, actually. I'm crumpled right now from horses. I love horses. I like being outdoors. I don't believe I could work in a building like this building I'm in right now. I couldn't. I don't believe I could. I could deal with it, being inside. I'm an outdoors person, always have been. Well, the first time I met Lisa was I ran over her, believe it or not, with a horse. I was on a runaway horse. Well, the horse, he would break. He would break off with you and just take off at a dead run. And I hollered up ahead to Lisa. I didn't even know her name was Lisa at the time. She fell to the wall. Her horse got loose, and my horse ran out of the barn, up and across the street and ran up into another barn. I went back across the street to make sure Lisa was all right because the horse did knock her down and she was fine. I guess it was about a week after that, we were kind of like inseparable. It was pretty wild. We got married. A year later, we decided to get married. Lisa was very attractive, very outgoing, do anything for anybody. She was just unbelievable person. She just. I could never. I never found a fault in her, you know. She was a great person. Lisa loved horses, would do anything. She could do anything. Some of the worst horses I've had that were real rough houses, she just got along with them. She could have a horse eating right out of her hand in a couple of days. You know, she could. She could really change a horse. A lot of people always used to say, what, I don't know what she sees in you, Timmy. It's hard to meet somebody like that, you know, Think the same, do the same. You know what I mean? Have the same ideas. Lisa and I were in business together with the race horses, man and wife team. I hauled horses throughout the country. She more or less did the training. When I was out of town, Lisa wanted to keep every horse that I bought. You had to buy them, you had to sell them. You couldn't get attached to them. I've had probably four or five hundred horses from bought and sold. I used to have to take my horses to other farms and never let her see the ones that I would buy because she wanted to keep them all. We were married about. Yeah, we were married 10 years. We were in Columbus, Ohio, at Beulah Park Racetrack, and she got a real bad pain in her back. She had expressions on her face that I've never seen before, and I knew it was serious. I just told her, look, Lisa, we're going home tonight. She had cancer. It's a miserable disease, I'll tell you. Late stages. When she was sick, towards the end, she used to always comfort her mother and me, that she would, don't worry that she was going to be back and she was coming back as a horse. It's kind of crazy how all this happened, but she said, I'm going to be back. I'm coming back as a horse. I'll be back. After my wife passed away, I sold all my horses. I traveled the whole country. I was kind of like, kind of lost, you know, I don't know if I was running from it or whatever. And then I eventually went back to Finger Lakes. I had in the back of my mind to buy a horse and get back into training again. I got a phone call from a guy that I hadn't talked to in four years. He said, geez, I think I got a horse here you might be interested in. I had a couple thousand dollars in my boot, and off I went in my station wagon and I went to see the horse. I was like, wow. She had a problem with her foot, and she had one eye. She wasn't named. She never beat a horse in her life. Never had finished a workout in front of one or galloped in front of one. That's why they sold her. And she had a lot of faults against her, and they totally, totally gave up on her. And I told them, I said, Look, I got 2,000 in my boot. I'll give you 2,000 now and 2,500 when she wins. If she wins, you get paid. If she don't she don't actually how Lisa's booby trap got her name. I was in a. My boss, the guy I was working for, John, said. He said, let's go to the booby tribe. I said, all right, what is it? He said, a gentleman's club. You get a nice big sandwich, you get a lunch, and you throw the girls a few bucks. And that's how she got her name. I named it after Lisa, and I named it after the bar. Lisa's booby trip. She went right in training. I had to do, make some changes with her. Her feet were needed, some corrective shoeing. I trained her every day, exercised her every day. I galloped her myself. It took some time for her to develop into what she turned out to be. Different things struck me about her, you know, the look she would give me. And it sounds kind of, you know, everybody says about reincarnation and all that it's. It's kind of crazy, but this horse would actually. I could think something, and she would do it. It's. That's kind of the relationship we had, you know? And then Lisa, my wife, was the same way. You know, I could be thinking something, and she knew what I was thinking. It was really, really crazy. But a lot of people picked up on it. I mean, she's like. She's like being Lisa. I want to know the truth. It's like being Lisa's still here, actually. Lisa never let nothing ever get her down. My wife. And Lisa, the horse over, overcome. She had one eye and she was handicapped, couldn't see, but it didn't bother her. She would set pain aside to do her job, you know, and it takes quite a horse to do that. The first time I ever raced her, I drove by the cemetery on the way in and stopped and seen Lisa. And I told Lisa, I said, we're gonna win one today. This horse was just, like, out of her. Out of her mind, feeling good, you know what I mean? And there they go. They said, go. And she went right to the front, out for the lead races. Lisa's booby Trap from the outside, every stride was. She opened up, getting away. Sandy, she's a racehorse, no doubt about it. And Lisa's Booby Trap has a big lead. She's all alone. Sandy castles into second. Check out this debut. Lisa's booby Trap. Very impressive. In her first look, she is an authoritative winner. She went by 17 lengths, almost an eighth of a mile. There wasn't a horse in the picture. It was amazing. It was a real rush, real thrill. You know, the purse was probably about 20,000. She went her first three races at Finger Lakes. It's called Finger Lakes Racetrack. And then Saratoga opened up. And the purses at Saratoga are $100,000 and Finger Lakes, they're $20,000. That's the difference. I was looking at a Saratoga book one day and I said to myself, I said, well, I think she's earned her, earned her way to go to Saratoga. I think the odds started out at 10 to 1 at Saratoga. The four horses that was in the race with me, they spent a million dollars on. I spent 4,500. She was last from the, from the start, from the beginning. It was a real, very fast race, a lot of speed. Here's Lisa's Booby Trap, who's on the March 4th on the far outside, and Funny Feeling is fifth. And she just kind of circled around him and he hit her two or three times. And she just took off and ran right on by them like they were tied to the fence. Lisa's Booby Trap has made a run from last on to the lead. They were all out. They ran hard all the way. Here's Lisa's Booby Trap under the wire by a half a dozen links. I had to fight my way through the crowd to get to the winner's circle. I'll tell you, I couldn't go to the donut shop without have a cup of coffee. They'd say, hey, that's the trainer. Lisa's Booby Trap. You know, every lady that named Lisa or every lady that had cancer or anybody that had one eye, they were at my barn to meet Lisa's Booby Trap. I've had people in my. I had to have a guard guard my horse. The horse was just fantastic with the camera. She loved people. She'd nuzzle up to people. She didn't bite or nothing. She'd love you up. When I got to Finger Lakes, the first guy came up to me, offered me 60,000. Then I had another guy offer me quarter million dollars in cash. Then I had a guy come from Kentucky that he offered me a half a million dollars for the horse. Broke as I was, I probably could have used a half a million dollars. Money's dirty, far as I'm concerned. I didn't want to sell the horse, period. I don't think I'd sleep right at night if I sold her. You know, she was the star of Saratoga that year. And I mean, she didn't win a million dollar race or nothing, but she was horse of the year 3 year old filly of the year. She was best allowance horse male and female of the year at Finger Lakes. I was working her just one day. I just got a, just a feeling that it's not the right thing to do. I backed up and I took her home. I took her home and retired her. I didn't want her to be crippled. See, a lot of horses can break down. People get greedy and they want more, you know what I mean? And they'll, they push them right to the end. I've done it with a lot of horses, push them, you know, right, right on through. But I didn't, I didn't want to do that with her. And this is the only horse in my whole career that I haven't sold. Everybody said, well, what the hell? You, why would you not want to run her? I said, well, what if she broke her leg? It was a tough call. I quit while I was ahead and she was ahead of the game. You know, she's out in my barn. I see her every day. I brush her every day. I pick her feet every day. I feed her every day. I get an inkling or something in my stomach tells me, go to the barn. I go to the barn. I sleep a lot better at night. She's the biggest thing in my life right now. I don't know if that sounds a little strange, but it's a, it's about that. The biggest thing in my life. I love her to death. Yep, I certainly do. I get two leases, you know.
