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Horse Track Chaplain
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Many people believe gambling is evil and places like horse tracks should be avoided. But there is a group of chaplains who go to the track every day…to minister to the workers there. Reed Galin reports. |
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SCRIPT:
The workouts - and the work - start early at Philadelphia
Park. They are long days. Seven days a week, often, for residents of
this hardscrabble village it takes to make this happen:
Natsound: (horses run out of the gate)
The Rev. Tom Brooks / United Methodist chaplain: “This is the front stretch. This is the world of power, privilege, the gambling, what people think of when they think of racing. But where you want to find the soul of the racetrack is on the other side of this fence.”
“Soul of the racetrack” is not just a casual description for Tom Brooks. He’s a United Methodist pastor, on the backstretch.
The Rev. Tom Brooks: “There are people working here who don’t have any spiritual exposure whatsoever.”
It is a colorful but dangerous environment…
Natsound: (knock on door) “Hello, it’s the chaplain.”
…where low wages are common and workers are often exploited.
Ramundo lives in a tiny dorm room.
Natsound / The Rev. Tom Brooks: “Are you lonely?”
Natsound / Ramundo: “Yeah.”
He has medical problems, and hasn’t seen his family back in Mexico in more than three years.
Natsound / The Rev. Tom Brooks: “You want me to pray for your sons?”
Natsound / Ramundo: “Yes.”
This is one of more than 40 racetracks where fulltime or volunteer chaplains like Brooks are at work.
Jockey: “It’s nice to see him come, it just kind of builds us all up, brings us closer to God.”
The Rev. Tom Brooks: “Racetrack ministry sounds like an oxymoron and there are those issues, but that’s precisely why we have to have ministry out here.”
Natsound: (bugle, racetrack theme begins)
This world is not all silk and success…
Natsound / The Rev. Tom Brooks: “But you’re smoking and you’re drinking?
…in fact, that is the very rare exception. So Tom Brooks will keep coming around the backstretch ministering to the soul of the racetrack.
Natsound / The Rev. Tom Brooks: “Well, good to see you. God bless you.”
TAG:
As for those who frown on horse tracks, Rev. Brooks likes to remind people that Jesus was born in a stable. One of the programs the chaplains support is the White Horse Award, which is given to recognize the racing farm or backstretch worker who performed the most heroic act for a human or a horse. The 2004 award will be presented at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie on Oct. 28, two days before the Breeders' Cup World.
For more information about the racetrack programs, you may contact www.racetrackchaplaincy.org.