Perkins, a self-described "typical Taurus," just celebrated his 57th birthday this past Friday (May 16th) and hails from a little town in the Pocono Mountains known as Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Perkins-who is known to many in the industry as "Billy"-grew up in a harness racing family, the son of father Cy and nephew to uncles Don and Al-all active participants in the sport of harness racing out east.
"As a youngster I migrated from the dairy barn into the harness racing barn," Perkins remembered. "Though my Dad died young in 1969, he did just about everything in the sport a man could do, racing at Hinsdale, New Hampshire, at Harrington and Georgetown Delaware, and at the fairs in Pennsylvania. That's how I first became involved in the business; I was bred into it."
When he turned 18 Perkins got his first "official" job in racing, as the announcer at some of the county fairs in Pennsylvania. As his reputation grew, so did his job offers. He became the assistant racing secretary to Jim Lynch at Libertyville Park and was made racing secretary at Rosecroft raceway in 1977, where he stayed until 1999. During these years he also worked both for Ocean Downs and Freestate raceways, before venturing to the Midwest to serve as the racing secretary for Sports Creek in Michigan. He worked in that capacity for seven years, and when Hoosier Park opened, became a judge at that Indiana facility for seven years as well.
"I did have a very short stint in Chicago years ago," Perkins recalled. "Back in 1969 I was Ted Leonard's assistant at Maywood Park for two months. That was my only experience with Chicago racing until this year at Hawthorne."
Perkins says his job the first week at Hawthorne has been both exciting and trying at times.
"Obviously it hasn't been easy here with the shortage of horses due to the strike at the beginning of the year," Perkins said. "But I see great possibilities here, and we've been doing better in terms of filling the box on a daily basis. Plus, I'm sure that once the slots get set in stone that things could really take off here. Hawthorne is a beautiful race track and the opportunities that slots would provide would only enhance racing here."
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