TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1056824
difficult to draw connections between the efficiency and ingenuity that established Texas Crude and the principles that have now entrenched Speedway in the Thoroughbred world. Though they each come from an oil background, they took disparate, winding roads into their profession. They also both had horse-related backgrounds, but took de- cades to return to the equine. Now they're in it. For good. Peter Fluor was born in 1947 in Pasadena, California, the son of J. Robert Fluor, who ran Fluor Corporation, an engineering and construction company started by Peter's ancestors. In addition to running his business, Robert was commissioner of racing in California for several years and owned a few Thoroughbreds. "Growing up in the Pasadena/Arcadia area, I could hear the calls at Santa Anita when they would turn the volume up for the featured race," Peter said. With a little enticement, the elder Fluor got his young son to come out with him to the backstretch of The Great Race Place. "He would take me out to the track when I was six, sev- en, eight years old," Fluor remembered. "He'd wake me up at 5:30 and ask if I wanted to go to the training track with him. I asked him if we could get a donut on the way back and he agreed. I didn't know what I was looking at, but it was cool to go out there and I enjoyed it." " This is probably the worst business idea I've ever had in my life, but we'll run it like a business."