Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Friendship Morphs Idea into Online Service

January 23, 2010

Helping a friend is ultimately what led Tom Barker to developing one of the most popular staking services now available.

Barker, 46, was helping his close friend and trainer, Brian Pinske, one afternoon in 1997. Sitting in Pinske’s kitchen, Barker watched as his friend scattered countless pieces of paper all over the floor, perplexed.

"Brian and I first had a trainer-owner relationship, which later became a close friendship," Barker revealed. "I sat there watching him, with all these different payment schedules for upcoming stake races, and I thought: ‘there’s got to be a better way.’"

Soon, Barker developed a spreadsheet for Pinke, that allowed the green and gold-clad horseman to easily organize all of his stake payments into a simple program.

"Brian told me, after he had used my spreadsheet, ‘Tom, it would be great if you could put this program up on the Internet to allow more people to use it.’ That was all the encouragement I needed," Barker said enthusiastically.

Soon after, SelfStake Services was born. Now one of the most popular staking services around, SelfStake allows horse owners to keep track of payment dates through this simple, on-line program.

"Dr. John Lang and I worked on the development of the website together," Barker acknowledged. "The neat thing about our service is that we’re really not in competition with the other staking services because we don’t make the payments. The owners have totally control over where their money goes and when it goes. But we are different in that we’re the only on-line service."

Barker has been in the eye-care industry for several decades and also manages a Pearl Vision facility, located on the northwest side of Chicago. A resident of Mt. Prospect, Barker was born in Evanston but spent most of his younger years in the city of Chicago, graduating from Lane Tech High School, at the corners of Addison and Western. He attended Bradley University in Peoria for two years, majoring in journalism, but the lure of the city called him back to Chicago and to horse racing.

"I got into the business in the 1990s and had horses with Gerry Longo. My partner—Bob Heintz—and I, were looking, however, to get into racing Grand Circuit horses, so we approached Brian one evening in the Sportsman’s Park paddock and told him our idea. He was all for it."

It wasn’t long afterward that Barker and Heintz began buying yearlings in partnership with Pinske. The year was 1995.

"Bob (Heintz) and I had a long history together, as he and I had gone to Sportsman’s Park when we were kids. His stepfather used to take us and we really liked the horses," Barker recalled.

"We got pieces of two horses that first fall at the Cottonwood Sale," Barker continued. "Brian was really good about partnering you up with other like-minded people and you could get involved as third, quarter or half partner—whatever suited you best. Bob and I were able to get four pieces total that first fall, and besides Cottonwood, got a Walker yearling and a Kentucky yearling."

Tragically, however, Barker’s heavy interest in owning a stable waned when Pinske passed away suddenly six years ago.

"We had 17 horses when Brian died," noted Barker. "It was a real shock and a devastating blow to myself and to all of Brian’s friends and family. It really took the heart out of me in regards to owning horses after that. Brian was our partner, our trainer and our friend, and the horses were something we shared together. His family always treated us well, but Brian and I had been so close, that is was really tough to be involved without him around."

Though he doesn’t own horses anymore, Barker is fully involved in his on-line staking service, with clients throughout North America. The cost is only $7.00 per yearling and $60.00 per racehorse to stake and the web site is easy to navigate and understand. As well, it can accommodate a variety of partnerships on a single horse or a large stable. For more information, go to www.selfstake.com.