Ron Rippey
Home: Wayne, N.J.
Age: 61
Occupation: Newark Star-Ledger handicapper
Favorite Track: Saratoga
Favorite Wager: Trifecta box and superfecta
The Skinny: Finished 47th in the 2004 DRF/NTRA National Handicapping Championship, playing for Team Aqueduct. Has been a public racing handicapper for the past 43 years, the last 27 years at the Newark Star-Ledger, the largest newspaper in New Jersey. Former sports editor at the Paterson (N.J.) News, Rippey first became interested in horse racing when a friend from the newspaper brought him to the track and he filled in as a substitute handicapper. Won the 2003 Aqueduct Handicapping Challenge to qualify for his first NHC. Also won the 2004 Meadowlands Shootout. His most memorable win at the track came at Hialeah in 1969. After purchasing a Jaguar XRE on his honeymoon in England - a car that he could not get a loan to pay off after he returned home - he bet $500 on a horse named Bounascup and the $5,200 score allowed him to pay off the car after it was shipped across the Atlantic. Married to Arlene who "faithfully gets half of what I win," said Rippey.
Photo: Horsephotos