The finish line is in view for Kelly Putaski

by Debbie Little

With more than four decades in the business, over half of which at The Meadowlands, long-time program director Kelly Putaski is ready to turn the page and retire shortly after the conclusion of the Championship Meet.

Putaski, 61, grew up in Vernon, NY, and started out as a groom in 1980 for his dad and uncle, before moving on to rub horses for several prominent horsemen, including Herve Filion.

But it wasn’t until he met presiding judge Ozzie Cole at New York’s Afton Fair that Putaski would find his true calling, so to speak.

While Putaski was working in the race office as a summer fair intern for the U.S. Trotting Association, Cole took him under his wing, and would eventually give him his first job as a program director at Toledo’s Raceway Park in 1985. The following year, Putaski was offered a gig as program director at Freehold Raceway, where he would stay until the track was sold in 2000.

It was at Freehold that Putaski first worked with Karen Fagliarone, The Big M’s current race secretary.

“I can tell you that he is extremely good at his job,” Fagliarone said. “He doesn’t miss a beat. When he worked for me at Freehold, he would stay late, hours after the last race, just to make sure he didn’t miss anything… He was always willing to help out and is just a perfect employee.”

At the end of 2001, Putaski was hired for his current job at The Big M, which he officially started when racing opened for 2002.

“Once I got to The Meadowlands, I learned fast that they did a lot of different things that I never did at Freehold,” Putaski said. “It might have been the same job, but it wasn’t the same workload. I had an assistant who did a lot of the proofreading, Diane Stevenson. I was kind of like the closer. She was the starting pitcher and I was kind of like coming in to be the backstop, and finalize the program, but then we had some staffing changes, and I ended up taking over everything.”

Putaski said a lot more than proofreading goes on behind the scenes before that program is camera ready.

“There are so many departments that come into play,” he said. “You’ve got the race office, you’ve got the state vet’s office clearing Lasix that I have to talk to before anything goes to press, and the judges supply me with the driver changes and scratches. I do the stewards’ list, I’ve done that for 25 years, and I do the claims. There are just a lot of things that just become kind of ingrained in what you do.

“And I don’t know if the average gambler knows that. They just expect that when they go to pick up a program, it’s going to be there and it’s going to help them make decisions on who they think will win the race or be in the first three, or whatever the gimmicks are that they want to try and hit.”

Putaski is also the chart caller at the East Rutherford mile oval, a skill he unexpectedly learned that first year as a fair intern.

“Somebody came in [to the race office at the Clearfield Fair in Pennsylvania], I think it was Roger Hammer, and he wanted some lines on Tyanna, who was his big filly at the time,” Putaski said. “And they said, ‘Kelly, you want to learn how to chart?’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ And me and the assistant director went up in the bleachers and we charted a few races. I mean, I had no clue what the hell I was doing at first. He said, ‘Just call when the horses get through the quarter pole… it was like a five-horse field, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I kind of got the hang of it after a race or two, and I didn’t know that eventually that would be what I would be doing for 40 years. But hey, you never know.

“My first year of charting at a pari-mutuel track was ’85, and every horse in every race had the same color saddle pad. You just had to figure out the number. It was a five-eighths-mile track, so it wasn’t that difficult.”

Of those two important skills that Putaski has painstakingly polished over his many years in the business, he said he does prefer one to the other.

“I would say I enjoy working the program and doing that in the office probably a little more than being upstairs [charting],” he said. “I like to put together a program and strive to put the best program out I can for our betting public, giving them a very accurate tool for them to make their betting decisions.”

Putaski said he is particularly proud of the job everyone does putting together the Hambletonian program each year because he knows it’s the one that will have the most eyes on it.

“As far as the Hambo program, that’s a lot more stress,” he said. “Basically, we do a double print on the Wednesday of Hambo week, so you don’t have that extra day to check things. You’ve got to get it done. It’s got to be ready to go, because as soon as you finish with the Friday program, they’re already at your throat trying to get that Hambletonian one out.

“And you’re dealing with the Hambletonian office, and there are a lot more sponsors that have to be correct. It’s just more involved. It’s more information and you want it to be the best product you can possibly get, because you’re going to have a big audience, and you just want to do it right.”

Putaski’s attention to detail has not gone unnoticed by his superiors.

“Kelly’s always done a great job for us,” said Big M chief operating officer/general manager Jason Settlemoir. “He brings a remarkably high level of excellence to a position that requires an intense level of attention to detail. And he’s always done that flawlessly. In addition, he’s someone easy to work with and is popular with the entire staff. He’s part of the fabric of The Meadowlands and we’re sorry to see him go but wish him all the best in his retirement.”

Putaski already has some thoughts in mind as he charts his course in a new direction.

“You know, I’ve been doing this up and back for 25 years,” said Putaski, who is very involved in his small, local community in Oakhurst, NJ. It is less than five minutes from Monmouth Park, which, even on a good day, is more than an hour’s drive from The Big M. “I drive a lot of carpools when I’m available.”

Even though The Meadowlands only races two nights a week, as program director, Putaski’s job runs Tuesday-Saturday, so spending fewer hours on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway will allow him to enjoy more time at home with his wife of 30 years, Joy, and their daughter, Jessica.

He said he also intends to enjoy a couple of other sports.

“I did play a lot of golf, and then I kind of slipped away from it, but I definitely have somebody in mind that I could play with once I have more free time,” Kelly said. “He’s a guy that I bowl with. He likes to play golf and likes to bowl, so I think I’m probably going to be hitting him up.”

Kelly is a league bowler who has two sanctioned 300 games in addition to four that he’s thrown in practice.

“I probably will go back to two leagues a week; I’m down to one right now,” he said. “It’s a little hectic when you’re trying to cover the program department, and squeeze in bowling twice a week. But now, I bowl on Monday, and I don’t work on Monday.”

Over the years, Kelly has filled in as a chart caller at several tracks, so should the call come for help somewhere, especially at The Meadowlands or North of the Border, he said he’d be open to the possibility.

“I’ve already kind of made it known that when I leave, if anyone needs me to do qualifiers or baby races, I’d be more than willing to do it to help out,” he said. “I mean, I’m an hour away, but I’d like to keep my gear up there.

“I have never charted in Canada and I wouldn’t mind doing that.”