If you ask Adam Lazarus, the path to success starts with a winning attitude. The mindset served him well as an athlete in high school and college, and has led to an accomplished career in sales. But after 20 years as a horse owner in South Florida, Lazarus knows that victory at the racetrack can be elusive. That has not, however, tempered his enthusiasm for the game.
“As is so often the case, the first horse I bought was a complete dud, a disaster,” he remarked stoically. “I actually went 0-for-23 to start as an owner. But after that first experience, right away I said, ‘Can we do it again?’ I was hooked.”
Horse racing wasn’t his first love. The New Jersey native was a huge sports fan as a kid, but the action at nearby Freehold Raceway held no interest. Instead, he grew up playing baseball and basketball and soccer. “That helped pay for a big chunk of college,” he said.
Lazarus earned a degree in Communications from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. His aspiration was to work in sportscasting or perhaps as a scout. But plans changed after his family relocated to the Sunshine State.
“When I first graduated college, I got a job immediately as a sportscaster at a small TV station in New Jersey,” he explained. “That gave me the grandiose idea that I could get a job anywhere. I quit my job when my family moved, and found myself in one of the toughest markets for TV that there is. After sending out 100 resumes, I thought, ‘Adam, you are not getting a job in the sportscasting field. What am I going to do?’”
With time to kill as he figured out Plan B, Lazarus decided to spend an afternoon at Calder Race Course. An admitted stats geek, he was immediately drawn to the wealth of information available in the Daily Racing Form.
“I was a big fantasy sports nut – that’s still true today,” he said. “I took one look at all the numbers in the Racing Form, and I got interested. I liked handicapping, I liked trying to figure out who was going to win. That was my first experience, and from there it took off. I became a real fan. I devoured all the information I could find. I fell in love with racing.”
