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After brief stints as a jockey agent and as an aspiring trainer, Bob Haynes has found his niche in the Thoroughbred business as an owner, certified by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which named his Rob Ry Farm as the state’s owner of the year for 2008.
Haynes, 54, a native of Olney, Md., is a lifelong resident of the state and in his youth was attracted to racing’s gambling aspect. “I grew up closest to Laurel Park, and it got in my blood,” said Haynes.
Haynes owns East Coast Productions, a national professional fund-raising firm for police and firefighters, and also has a real estate company, Robert Michael Haynes Realty, which deals in both commercial and residential properties. Haynes and his wife, Donna, have two sons, Robert and Ryan, for whom his stable is named. His office manager at East Coast Productions is Jayne Marie Slysz, a former jockey who also partners with Haynes in his racehorses.
Haynes claimed his first horse, the hard-knocking plater Key to Riches, in the early 1980s. He remained in the claiming game with his trainer of 18 years, William H. Wolfendale III, until one day when Haynes’ accountant approached him with balance sheet in hand and said, “Look, I think it’s time for you to get out of the horse game.” Instead offinding a new accountant, Haynes bowed out of the business for a number of years, but the itch to get back in eventually won out.
“I’d say he was out of the business for 10 years or so,” said Slysz, whom Haynes offered a job to after she was too injured to continue riding horses. “One day Bob decided to geta horse, and I went in on it, and since then we’ve been partners on every horse. We’ve had a real good run.”
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