(WOODSTOCK, VA – 9-10-2025) —- It’s hard not to root for a guy who skipped high school graduation to go to track. Meet 80-year-old track racing owner, trainer and rider Gerry Longo, who currently competes at Shenandoah Downs in Woodstock, Virginia and is fresh off a victory on Sunday – his ninth since turning 80 again on April 22 – with 4-year-old pace mare Rollin In The Sand.
The driving victory was number 3,124 for Longo, in starting number 20,200. Later on Sunday’s card he scored a second place with Hoo Nien A – marking career starting number 8,400 as a trainer. Not bad for a guy who was born in Rochester, New York, grew up in the California carnival scene and packed his bags after high school to pursue a career in harness racing.
“My father died when I was nine, so my uncles told my mother to come and work at a fair they were hosting in California. When I wasn’t in school, I would blow up balloons and do ‘dimes on a saucer’ runs,” Longo remembers. “My mother let me go to the races – we lived only three miles from Los Alamitos. All the fairs in California had a combination of harness, quarter horse and thoroughbred races and when I first saw drivers on harness horses, I was hooked.”
“I ended up seeing a driver by the name of Larry Gregory at the same trade shows I attended. Wherever he would go, I would be there and one day I asked him for a job,” Longo continued. “He said, ‘Oh no, we’re not hiring.’ I told him I would work for free. I have the job. I shoveled manure and walked horses. I’m 15 or 16 years old and still earn between €500 and €600 a week in the fair business. That was a lot of money in the 1960s.”
Longo bought two horses while he was still in school, but neither did anything good. He sold them both, graduated high school and left to pursue his dream in Batavia, New York, heading east with Gregory.
After arriving, Longo purchased a horse from Roy Saul for $1000, who won six in a row. He then went to Northfield, Ohio and spent $1,500 on a new purchase, also winning six in a row. He has been buying and selling horses ever since.
A number of decades have passed since that first taste of standard racing, but surprisingly, Longo’s career highlight came just three years ago when he won the Dan Patch Stakes at Running Aces in Minnesota with his horse, A Major Omen.
“At last I have my good horse,” he said. “A very good horse. I bought him for $60,000 in the fall of 2021, took him to Shenandoah Downs and won the first two races with him. A year later he won the Dan Patch. That was my biggest thrill in the industry. I won over $300,000 with him, so I made back my investment and then some.”
Until Cal Expo recently closed, Longo’s annual circuit included rides at tracks in California, Minnesota, Virginia and Illinois – an ambitious schedule for any rider, let alone one in their 70s.
“I wouldn’t give up this life for anything.” he said. “I’m an owner. I train. I ride. I’ve never had a job other than working at the fair when I was in high school. I don’t have a home. I’m always mobile. Home is wherever I’m racing at the time. I sleep in dorms at the track I’m at. My daughter has a house in Riverside, California and I’ve only been to her three times in the last five years, mostly for vacations. I have to care for the horses seven days a week. I told my hair wherever I die, just bury my ashes on the track where I am because they’re going to have to scrape me off the track.
Longo has been consistent over the years as a driver and trainer. He was first or near the top in the driver standings at tracks such as Cal Expo, Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos. His first win came in 1966 at the Tiffin Fair in Ohio. Most recently, Longo has been a big supporter of Virginia tracks. He competed at Colonial Downs from 2010 to 2014 and has since been a regular at each of the ten fall meets at Shenandoah Downs. He doesn’t see himself slowing down anytime soon.
“I feel like I’m going to live to be a hundred years old,” he said. “I still get a kick out of riding. I still get a kick out of being in the winner’s circle. I still think I’m competitive. I plan to keep going until I think I’m no longer competitive. I’m still proud of new achievements. The horse I won on Sunday is a new purchase. She was winning when I bought her and I’ve been able to keep that going.”
Since records were kept – starting in 1977 – Longo has won more than a hundred races in a year, six different times. His best season came in 1993, when his horses earned more than $600,000 in purse money. When asked if there is a secret to his endurance and consistency, he replied: “Good work, hard work and good health. It’s not the riding that wins a race. It’s the horse and the people behind the scenes. The grooms and trainers get them out every day and work hard. We don’t have lazy people in the horse world. We have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Through Darrel Woodfor Shenandoah Downs
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