You can bet this fan will be at Breeders' Cup

Porter Ranch resident and USC alumnus, 61, is poised to attend his 42nd Classic in a row.

- BY JOHN CHERWA

BOBBY ELLIS Getty Images TRAINER BOB BAFFERT, third from right, and the owners of Authentic celebrate after the horse won the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2020. Porter Ranch resident John Wawee owned a microshare through MyRacehorse.

The difference between an obsession and a hobby is often determined by how you choose to view it. There are many factors, most of all the lengths to which you will go to satisfy your desire to do something about it.

In 1984, John Wawee, then a student at USC, was reading The Times and ran across an article about this new event to be held at Hollywood Park where the best horses in the country were coming to Southern California to race for a lot of money. It was one day and only seven races.

Wawee, who just had a friend teach him how to read the Racing Form, was intrigued. But there was a problem. It was the same day that No. 14 USC was playing No. 1 Washington with a Rose Bowl berth in the offing.

"I had to make a decision as a USC student and I decided to pass on the USC game," said Wawee, 61, who lives in Porter Ranch. "I went to the Breeders' Cup and I had a little Sony Watchman, so I was watching the USC game in the box I had at the Breeders' Cup. It was worth it. USC won and I went to an unbelievable event."

Fast forward 41 years to this Friday and Saturday at Del Mar, and Wawee will be there, both as a fan and a microshare owner of Distaff favorite Seismic Beauty, attending his 42nd consecutive Breeders' Cup. He's been to 12 different tracks, two countries and defied the odds of attending a no public spectators event at Keeneland in 2020 because of COVID. His streak has outlasted two racetracks, Hollywood Park and Arlington Park, two total rebuilds, Gulfstream Park and Belmont Park, and rising prices that mostly exclude the casual fan.