Racetrack photography is a snap for the Coady family

Focusing on horses no problem for picture takers

It seems there is a Coady with a camera at every racetrack in the South or Southwest.

Two generations of Coadys--patriarch Jack, 77, no longer is an active photographer--shoot the finish line and winner's circle photos at tracks from Arizona to Arkansas. The family business, Coady Photography, is contracted to provide photographs for ten racetracks in the United States and Canada.

The clan's unique niche began in 1962 with Jack Coady, who at one time owned Thoroughbreds. He decided that working the midnight shift at the now-defunct Phoenix Gazette for $1 an hour, then shooting pictures for the same price as an Associated Press stringer, was not how he wanted to support his growing family, even though his salary had risen from $40 to $110 a week when he had been at the paper for ten years.

Coady bought a $300 camera from the paper, paying $10 a month, quit his job to start his own business, and quickly enlisted Turf Paradise, which opens its 50th anniversary season on September 30, and a few Canadian tracks as clients. He and his kin have been snapping photos ever since.

"I'm glad to see they're in it and doing good work," said Jack. "In the old days, I taught my sons, so that got me out of the darkroom. We had a trailer, and we traveled around Canada with it."

Two of his sons, Jack Jr., 58, and Jeff, 54, and Jeff's four sons are currently involved in the business, although only one, Shawn, 30, is most likely to make track photography a long-term career. The others are leaning toward futures in commercial aviation, computers, and export-import.

"The grandkids are a lot better than I ever was, especially now with the digital cameras and with processing," the eldest Coady said. "They can do anything. If you're not in the picture, they can put you in there. They can make you the jockey.

"It's a proud feeling having the family involved. I feel good about it. I just never expected the business to grow like it did. I started doing it just to make a living."

Here is where the still-clicking Coadys line up: Jack Jr. is at Prairie Meadows Racetrack in Iowa (his wife, the former Mary Lou Day, is the track's publicity director); Jeff works at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, Colonial Downs in Virginia, and Retama Park in Texas; and Shawn is in Arizona at Turf Paradise and Yavapai Downs, where his brothers Kevin, 25, and Chris, 21, also work. Kurtis, Kevin's twin, is at Lone Star Park in Texas.

Jack Coady's other son, Clay, a banker, is also a renowned dog show judge and at one time showed dogs for entertainer Bill Cosby.

"Clay was the middle kid, and, of course, he wasn't going to do the same thing as the other ones," his father said with a laugh.

The Coadys rarely have missed a finish-line photo, and if they did, 99.9% of the time it was probably due to camera malfunction. But Jack remembers a time when running for his life took precedence over a photo.

"You have to stay at a distance when you're shooting, probably three or four feet off the [outside] rail and be very alert," Jack said. "I was shooting a race and a horse stumbled, threw the rider, and the blinkers came over his eyes. He went straight toward the outside rail, hit it, went over it, and knocked things over because he couldn't see.

"It was crazy. [The horse] ran right behind me, and I moved out of the way because I decided to let him have his way. That was the closest call I ever had, but I had one guy get kicked just a little bit."

Frank Covello, who trained G Malleah, the world-record holder at six furlongs, and is a former president of the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders Association, said the Coady influence cannot be minimized.

"When I was with the breeders association, every time we asked Jack to cover an event for us, it was always done, and it was done correctly," Covello said. "And more often than not, his time was donated."

Digital advances

Shawn Coady took an avid interest in his grandfather's work when he was a high school student. Using a digital camera takes a lot of the drudgery out of the work, he said.

"We can stay out of a darkroom, so it's a lot better," Shawn said. "That and because back then, you could only take one picture, and we can shoot two or three in the same amount of time."

Shawn almost missed the finish of a Turf Paradise race a couple of years ago, but he blames that on track announcer Luke Kruytbosch.

"We had a Quarter Horse race going on at Turf, and I'm listening to Luke announce a race, knowing, of course, that he was at another track at the time and this was a simulcast," Shawn said. "But actually, it was his first day back at Turf Paradise, and he's announcing the race I'm supposed to be shooting. So this was really Luke's fault."

Jack said most skilled photographers can develop the eye and timing needed to be a good track photographer and that "digital sure makes life a lot sweeter.

"You do have to have the eye and reaction time, but that comes from doing it," Jack said. "At some of the tracks we're at, we train people and get them up to par. You've got to go out and shoot every race. They learn."

Jeff Coady can attest to the learning curve. When he was a teenager, he started on the bottom. "My father threw me in the darkroom when I was 14, and things just evolved," Jeff said.

And with great-grandchildren now in the family, the evolution could go on for years.--Jim Gintonio