Michael Dailey, fresh off a thirty-year career in baseball at the professional, college and high school levels — and just six months removed from finishing third in the Virginia Harness Horse Association’s (VHHA) “Own a Horse for a Day” promotion —completed a successful transition to harness racing professionally when he collected his first pari-mutuel driving win last weekend at Shenandoah Downs. The 58-year-old directed Henry Lewis’s 4-year-old gelding pacer Singforyoursupper to an impressive 1:54 4/5 wire-to-wire score in a U.S. Harness Drivers Club race.
Entering action Saturday, Dailey had two previous non-betting wins that both came aboard his Bobby’s Blue Chip. He won a qualifying race at the Woodstock oval September 14 and over the summer, led the 3-year-old gelding pacer to victory in a non-wagering Pennsylvania Sire Stake event at the Honesdale Fair. Dailey’s 15 training starts this year have all been with Bobby’s Blue Chip. He has 29 drives to date with ten ‘in-the-money” finishes and $13,319 in earnings.
“It was a thrill to win for sure,” said Dailey. “Somebody asked me if it was anything like hitting a grand slam. I said I wouldn’t know; I was a pitcher and I’ve given up a couple.”
Prior to his latest foray, Dailey had an extensive baseball career that included more recent stints as Pitching Coach/Recruiting Coordinator with the Glenville State Pioneers, Assistant Coach/Pitching Coach at Davis & Elkins College, Director of Baseball Operations at Virginia’s Radford University, Manager of the North Adams SteepleCats of the prestigious New England Collegiate Baseball League — where he managed several of the nation’s top Division 1 players — and Manager of the New River Valley Cardinals of the Blue Ridge Baseball League where he won seven league championships in eight years. Dailey has had 21 players drafted or signed to play professional baseball.
Dailey played at Lake Land College before finishing his career at Illinois. After signing with the St. Louis Cardinals as an unsigned free agent, he returned to the Cardinals organization as an instructor during their World Series championship year in 2006.
“I have been on the other side of horse racing for a long time,” said Dailey. “At six years of age, I knew the difference between an exacta and a quinella. But I wasn’t on the backstretch side. After I retired from baseball, I had free time and an opportunity to finally get involved. I met Joe Lee, who is a top amateur driver in the northeast and is also Assistant Clubhouse Manager for the New York Yankees. He and I met at Monticello Raceway one day when I was coaching in a summer league up that way and he pointed me in the right direction,” continued Dailey. “Soon after, I walked into George Teague’s barn one day with the intention of buying a horse from onGait. He talked me into not buying a horse and instead, signed me up for a three-month internship with him where he showed me how to dress a horse, jog a horse and a lot of stuff I didn’t have a clue about.”
After tending to family matters post-internship, and a period where he drove sprint cars and competed at lower level NASCAR tracks to fulfill his need for action, Daily got the chance to pursue a horse purchase. After talking to Virginia trainers Betsy Brown and Tracy Bradshaw, the path led him to trainer Steve Wetzel whose Edinburg, VA farm is near Shenandoah Downs. Dailey bought Bobby’s Blue Chip from Wetzel and they campaigned him on the Pennsylvania Fair circuit this summer.
“I love driving but really have no desire to train,” said Dailey. “There is no thrill to that part of the business but it is a necessity to be able to drive. At my age, nobody’s really out there putting me on horses so I have to have my own to drive.”
Dailey’s encounter with Wetzel follows a similar path other “Own a Horse for a Day” contest winners have experienced at Shenandoah the past several years. Wetzel won the contest in September, 2021 — and the $2,000 winner’s share of the purse that came with it. Shortly after that experience, Wetzel went all in on harness racing, purchasing a farm, horses, then obtaining his trainers license. He has since recruited local residents Barry Shrum and Ivan Foltz — “Own a Horse” winners from the 2023 class — to each purchase a racehorse. Next was Daily, who won the contest in April of this year and became the fourth contest participant to bite.
Daily has four drives at Saturday’s Shenandoah’s 14-race card including two in the U.S. Drivers Club events and one aboard Bobby’s Blue Chip in the tenth.
Shenandoah Downs ushers out its annual fall season this Sunday October 27 with the $720,625 Virginia Breeder’s Championship card. The first of 14 races will go to post at 1:05 PM.
