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MASSARO: Hook groomed himself to be horse aficionado

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 15, 2008 at 11 p.m.

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Irving Hook, at his Denver office. As a child, he dreamed of playing baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers - and becoming a bookie.

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Irving Hook, at his Denver office. As a child, he dreamed of playing baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers - and becoming a bookie.

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Irving Hook could be sitting in a rocking chair on a porch someplace sunny.

But he's in his office every day - working. At 84, he's still running around like he has a full tank.

For one thing, he has investments to track. For another, he still serves on the board of the Denver Retirement Plan, the city employees pension fund. He helped get it started when he was on the Denver City Council in 1964.

For all his accomplishments, Hook never fulfilled two childhood dreams.

"I wanted to be a baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers," he said. "I wanted to be a bookie."

He did the next best things: He became a horse player and breeder and an accountant.

He grew up in Brooklyn. He was in college when he joined the Navy in 1943. He was stationed stateside and moonlighted as a waiter. An Italian friend taught him how to tend bar, which Hook continued when he moved to Denver in 1946.

He was pouring at Lindy's Restaurant, next to the old Albany Hotel at 17th and California streets back then. And the old Westminster law school was upstairs from the bar. Lawyer hopefuls would come down on breaks, get a little lit up and chat with Hook. One suggested he ought to go to law school. So Hook did.

He was admitted to the bar - law, not tavern - in 1951. He once took a racehorse as a fee in a case.

The horse was named Your Date, aptly named because railbirds could time him with a calendar instead of a stopwatch. If Your Date faded any faster, he would have run backwards.

"He ran dead last in every race he was in," Hook said. "He was only good for an eighth of a mile. I traded him for an office desk."

Hook is built like a jockey. When he talks, his eyes get as bright as racing silks, especially when he mentions his upcoming trip to the Preakness.

In 1959, Hook joined the Colorado Breeders Association, working for free as a secretary.

"I'd show up at the track at 6 a.m. and muck stalls," he said. "Then I'd go to my office."

He became legal counsel for the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which negotiated purses for owners and also served as a pass-the-hat funeral fund for "the guys in the backstretch" - grooms who cooled out horses.

Hook got involved in politics. He served on the Colorado Racing Commission for 12 years. He helped raise money to help breeders and grooms hammered when the old Centennial racetrack in Littleton was washed out in the flood of 1965.

Hook's office is in a three-story building. There's a nice painting of the Louvre, which sits on the floor, propped against a wall. The wall would be a nice place to hang the picture, but the space is already occupied by photocopies of newspaper articles about Hook's grandchildren and friends.

Maybe an item on his desk is a reminder of all the years of hanging around touts who always know the next sure bet.

It's a spray can of BS repellent. And it's empty.

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271