GLYNN WASHINGTON, HOST:
Welcome back to SNAP JUDGMENT, the "No Perfect Love" episode. Today, we're pushing all the nonsense out of the way and digging into the heart of the relationship. Now, you might like your relationships at the gym. Some like it on the mountain tops. Our next storyteller, Tim, he's a guy that knows to take his life wherever he finds it. SNAP JUDGMENT.
TIM SNYDER: I was born in Scarborough, Maine. Specifically, I was born in the grandstand at Scarborough Downs; it was a racetrack. My dad was a jockey, and my grandfather was a trainer. And so I started at the racetrack at a real early age. Horses have been my whole life. The racetrack's a pretty rough place. It's a hard life, you know? I broke my tailbone. I broke my neck. Actually, I'm crippled right now from horses.
I love my 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 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 (laughter), 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 in - across the street and then ran up into another barn. I went back across the street to make sure Lisa was all right 'cause 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, would do anything for anybody. She was just an unbelievable person. She was just - I could never - I never found a fault in her, you know? She was a great person. Now, Lisa loved horses, would do anything - she could do anything. Some of the worst horses I've had that were real rough houses, she'd just get 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, Tim. 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 racehorses, 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 we have 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, were married 10 years. We were in Columbus, Ohio, at a 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. And I just told her look, Lisa, we're going home tonight. She had cancer. It's a miserable disease, I'll tell you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SNYDER: 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 of 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 it 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 jeez, I think I got a horse here you might be interested in.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SNYDER: 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'd never beat a horse in her life, never had finished a work out in front of one - or galloped in front of one. That's why they sold her. And then she had the one eye and then she had the clubfoot. 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, you don't.
Actually, how Lisa got her name - or Lisa's Booby Trap got her name - I was at my boss, the guy I was working for, Johnson - he said let's go to the Booby Trap. I said, all right, what is it? And he said it's a gentleman's club. They've got 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 Trap. She went right in training - I had to make some changes with her. Her feet were - needed some corrective shoeing. I trained her every day. I exercised her every day, I galloped her myself. It took some time - 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 kind of crazy. But this horse would actually - I can 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'd do 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. You want to know the truth it's like Lisa's still here, actually. Lisa never let nothing ever get her down - my wife. And Lisa, the horse, 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 going to win one today.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORN)
SNYDER: This horse was just like out of her - out of her mind feeling good, you know what I mean?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: And there they go.
SNYDER: They said go, and she went right to the front.
MAN #1: Out for the lead race is Lisa's Booby Trap from the outside.
SNYDER: Every stride was - she opened up.
MAN #1: Lisa's Booby Trap getting away.
SNYDER: She was a race horse. No doubt about it.
MAN #1: Lisa's Booby Trap has a big lead. She's all alone. Sandy Castles in the second. Check out this debut-er, Lisa's Booby Trap, very impressive in her first look. She is an authoritative winner.
SNYDER: She won 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 and a real thrill, you know? The purse was probably about 20,000. She won 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 at 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 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Horses have reached the starting line.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
MAN #2: And they're off. Zermont (ph)....
SNYDER: She was last from the start, from the beginning.
MAN #2: ...Lisa's Booby Trap is the last of five...
SNYDER: It was a real - very fast race, a lot of speed.
MAN #2: ...Turn. Here's Lisa's Booby Trap who's on the march, fourth on the far outside, and Funny Feeling is fifth.
SNYDER: And she just kind of circled around them. 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.
MAN #2: Lisa's Booby Trap has made a run from last on to the lead and...
SNYDER: They were all out. They'd ran hard all the way.
MAN #2: Here's Lisa's Booby Trap under the wire by a half-a-dozen lengths.
SNYDER: 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 having a cup coffee and they'd say, hey, that's the trainer of Lisa's Booby Trap (laughter), 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 met people - I had to have a guard dog guard my horse.
The horse was just fantastic with the cameras. 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 a quarter-million dollars in cash. Then I had a guy come from - was from Kentucky, he offered me half a million dollars for the horse. Broke as I was, I could've - I probably could've used a half a million dollars. Money's dirty, as far as I'm concerned.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SNYDER: 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 a horse of the year. She was 3-year-old filly of the year. She was best allowance horse, male and female, of the year at Finger Lakes.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SNYDER: I was working her just one day I just got, just a feeling that that'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 on through. But 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 [expletive]? Why would you not want to run her? And I said, well, what if she broke her leg? It was a tough call. There was plenty of races for her. I could have run her nine months of the year. 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 a - if something in my stomach tells me to go to the barn, I go to the barn. I sleep a lot better at night.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SNYDER: She's the biggest thing in my life right now. I don't know if that sounds a little strange, but it's about the biggest thing in my life. I love her to death, yeah. I certainly do. I get two Lisas, you know?
WASHINGTON: And you want to know the best part? When we talked to Tim, Lisa's Booby Trap was being bred to the Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown. So stay tuned to hear about Lisa's little Booby Trap coming into the world, ha. Big thanks for sharing your story, Tim Snyder. You can find out more in Tim's book, "The Ghost Horse." We'll have a link on our site, snapjudgment.org. That story was produced by Anna Sussman with sound design by Renzo Gorrio.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WASHINGTON: When SNAP JUDGMENT returns, someone puts everything on the line without thinking it through, when SNAP JUDGMENT the "No Perfect Love" episode continues. Stay tuned. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.