Brett went on to work at General Foods and work at the family business as well. He ended up buying the farm and taking over the running.
Riley said his parents, Brett and Kellie, gave him a wonderful childhood, allowing him to get involved with the horses as well. He decided that the horse-racing industry was for him and, by age 17, was an owner and trainer.
“I kind of knew I would always be involved in it,” he reflected.
“I used to get picked up from school to go to the races with my dad – Rideau-Carleton, Toronto. I couldn't get out of high school quickly enough!
“I helped my dad a long while, accumulated some horses of my own. It wasn't long after that that Amanda and I got together.”
That would be Amanda Lane, herself from a horse family. In fact, they met at the races and discovered that their grandfathers had actually raced against each other – Tom A. Riley versus Don Bye, who owned a big construction company in Peterborough but loved to race as well. Inevitably, horse talk is a big part of any family gathering.
Riley Racing – still in Roseneath – is now a thriving concern, and Riley has become an in-demand trainer for a number of standardbred horse owners who are not able to do their own training but are keenly interested in racing.
“They pay us to raise and condition their horses – that's part of the business as well,” he said, adding that these horses account for all but four of the 24 horses on their farm.
Year-round, he travels with these carefully trained horses to race at Woodbine-Mohawk Park in Milton, Flamboro Downs in Dundas, Woodbine Racetrack in Etobicoke, Georgian Downs in Barrie, Western Fair (London) and their home track - Kawartha Downs in Peterborough (where his current stats are 12 wins, 14 seconds and 14 thirds).
At a rate of about four nights a week of racing, he estimates he travels at least 50,000 km. a year on these rounds.
And the wins keep him going, like that three-race autumn Series in London at Western Fair Race Track that put his winnings over the $2-million threshold.
“That was this past Friday,” he said.
“We went up there three weeks in a row on separate Fridays.”
And like his father before him, Riley often brings a child or two along.
The four Riley children – 11-year-old Lane, nine-year-old Blake, daughter Kennedy (soon to turn three) and baby Holden – are now enjoying a wonderful childhood of their own around the horses.
And if they're not in the stables, they're sitting with their parents in front of the special TV reserved exclusively for watching races.
“You've got to keep track of the competition, scout horses to buy,” he explained, adding that there's a second TV just to watch for fun.
And the older boys are often along for the races. With his own yearling, Blake holds a horse-owner's license, and Lane holds a groom's license.
“They're able to come to the track and give me a hand and learn the ropes,” Riley said.
The business has changed since he was their age, but they seem to be keenly interested.
“I would like to tell them the same thing my dad told me – 'get your education first, and you will have the horses to fall back on,'” he said.
But if they do follow in his footsteps, he knows there's a wonderful life in store – if they remember a few things.
“It's a hard life. You are constantly going, constantly busy, you have to balance out,” he said.
For example, he actually missed a chance to race in order to make trick-or-treating rounds with the kids.
“You have to be able to disconnect from it a little bit, because it can consume you. You have to know when to disconnect for a day or two.”
A disconnect day for him means time with the kids.
“Both of our boys play hardball in the summer for the Northumberland Jacks, and in the winter there's indoor soccer, and I'm not much for wanting to miss stuff. I try not to miss many of their games or, if I do, I make sure I there the following week,” he said.
“I make sure that family times come first.”
