Dan Silver '02, Communications Director for the New York Racing Association, holds a master's degree in the race track industry and once rode a horse around Haverford's campus.
Dan Silver '02, the newly named director of communications and media relations for the New York Racing Association (NYRA), is the only Haverford alum to hold a master's degree in the race track industry. He is also the only Haverford student to arrive at baseball practice on a horse (more about that later).
Silver became captivated by horse racing as a child, watching all the big races on television. In high school, the Philadelphia native would drag his friends to Delaware Park on a regular basis. At Haverford he continued to introduce friends to the world of racing.“I find that when you bring almost anyone out to the track, they have a fantastic time,” he says.
During his sophomore year at Haverford, Silver started a sports newsletter with Mike Mansi '02 called“On the Bubble,” which included articles from a number of different Haverford sports enthusiasts. Silver also wrote a weekly“Real World Sports” column for the Bi-College News that often featured horse-racing news, including suggested picks for the Kentucky Derby.
Silver said his Bi-Co column helped prepare him for his current job.“If I had a 20-page English paper due the next day on James Joyce, I still had to write for my column,” he says.“It's a work ethic that you must have to succeed in the world of communications.”
After graduating from Haverford with a major in English and a minor in music, Silver got a master's degree in broadcast journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University, and took a job as a broadcaster for a minor league hockey team, the Missouri River Otters. Not long after, he found out that the University of Arizona had just started a graduate program for the horse racing industry and he decided to apply.
The Race Track Industry Program (RTIP), says Silver, gave him a base of knowledge about the business.“The great thing about the horse racing industry is that it's incredibly multifaceted,” says Silver.“A racetrack is like a city unto itself.” He took marketing classes, law classes, and business classes—all about racing.“A racetrack has many different departments that all serve different purposes, but are all integral to the proper functioning of the track,” he says.
After graduating in 2007 as a member of the first master's degree class at the RTIP, Silver became communications manager in the marketing department at NYRA. His youth and experience helped him reach out to potential Thoroughbred racing fans in the cyber world through YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. He also helped NYRA increase its web presence through the creation of new websites.
In his new position as director of communications and media relations, he will serve as NYRA's official spokesperson, in charge of the organization's publicity and communications and public affairs strategies.
“I love my job,” says Silver.“I get to work at three of the best racetracks in the world, including Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course. The great thing is that because we move from track to track, depending on which of the three we have live racing at, there is always something to keep it fresh.”
Regarding that horse incident on campus, it happened during Silver's senior year when some of his friends rented a Thoroughbred for his birthday; they blindfolded Silver and presented it to him by the duck pond. At one point while Silver was riding the horse around campus, he was stopped by a security guard who asked what was going on. When the guard was unable to come up with a good reason why a horse couldn't walk around campus, Silver and his friends continued their journey down towards the baseball field.
“The look on Coach (Dave) Beccaria's face was absolutely priceless,” Silver says.“The only thing that would have made it cooler is if I could have shagged fly balls on the horse.”
