I'm sure you've heard many times the race track is a unique place. I like to refer to it as a city within a city. By that, I mean you could build a 20 foot wall around the perimeter of the race track property and everybody inside those walls could actually survive with little or no contact with the outside world. My point is, race trackers are a close knit bunch. Just let a trainer, an owner, a jockey or anybody else that works on the race track get into a position where they are in need and I promise you fellow race trackers will step-up and open their arms and pocketbooks. That's just the way it is in racing. One person that has come from that fabric of "horsemen taking care of horsemen" is my good friend Sandra Salmen and nobody does it better. Sandra is now the Fair Grounds Horsemen's Relations representative and if ever there was a "right person" for the job, Sandra is that person. When Churchill Downs took over the Fair Grounds in 2004 little did they know Hurricane Katrina would be in the forecast for the summer of 2005. We all know what that mean ole wench did to the city of New Orleans and the Fair Grounds facility. When things started to settle down and winter racing was getting back to normal Churchill Downs management wanted someone with a New Orleans flair to be in charge of the Group Sales Department and in September of 2006 Sandra Salmen was hired. "I started-out in Group Sales, but what I really wanted to do was work with the horsemen. Most of the owners and trainers at this race track have been friends of mine for a long time. I thought it would be a good fit. So after heading-up Group Sales for a while, the Horsemen's Relations position was created, the office was opened and I made the transition without missing a beat." Sandra Salmen is everything New Orleans and everything Fair Grounds. Her history with this race track goes back to her early childhood when she started coming to the track every Saturday with her grandparents. Their box seats were right next to Mrs. Joe W. Brown's, who campaigned a powerful stable here for many years, and Sandra was mesmerized by Mrs. Brown's style and grace. "She was a very classy lady and she owned some of the best horses running at this track. I got to know her and I wanted to be like her." Sandra did operate a small stable of Thoroughbreds, clevelry named Knot Very Stable (get it - say it fast)), on her own, but her proudest association with a race horse was with a horse called A Letter To Harry. Her late father, Raymond F. Salmen, owned A Letter To Harry and one of his greatest wins came in 1979 in the prestigious New Orleans Handicap. "Back in those days some horses had a huge following and "Harry" was one of those horses. People were wild about our Harry, long before they were wild about Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee." Sandra has been employed by four of the last five Fair Grounds owners. She's worked for the Letellier family, the Joseph Dorignac and Louie Roussel partnership, Louie Roussel (when he was the sole owner of the Fair Grounds) and now, Churchill Downs. "I've worked for and with some great people over the years at this special place. But, when Louie sold the track to the Krantz family in 1990, I decided to try something else, but I made sure I left on good terms. I would windup working three different jobs over the next 16 years. I was hired as the Vice President of Advertising for Wemco, the largest manufacturer of neckties until it was sold. Next, I opened my own health food store in Covington and called it - Columbia St. Natural Food Store. Katrina had other plans. Finally, after Katrina, Joey Dorignac hired me to handle outside sales for his catering business at Dorignac's Supermarket." Those of us that have worked on the race track for any length of time know that it extremely hard, if not impossible, to leave and the temptation is always there to return. The race track and its characters becomes our extended family. It's safe to say that Sandra was thrilled to have the opportunity to come back to the Fair Grounds. "Are you kidding? When I got the call and the offer to come back to work here, all I wanted to do was get my foot back in the door. This is like being reborn." At this race track, the position of Horsemen's Relations representative is a unique one. That person has to be multi-talented. Sometimes that person has to be as prim and proper as the Queen when dealing with some owners and trainers and ask "How may I be of service to you? And then, on the other hand, when dealing with other owners and trainers, that person has to say "hey dawlin' - how's ya moma and dem - whatcha need baby? No doubt, in my mind, the right person for that job is Sandra Salmen
