Steven Crist
Steven Crist retired from Daily Racing Form in 2016 after a 35-year-career as a racing journalist and executive.
Crist, a 1978 graduate of Harvard College, was a reporter and columnist for The New York Times from 1981 to 1990; was the founding editor-in-chief of The Racing Times from 1990 to 1992, where he introduced statistical enhancements that have become industry standards; served on Governor Mario Cuomo’s Advisory Commission on Racing from 1992 to 1994, where he successfully lobbied for takeout and withholding reductions and nickel breakage; and was a vice-president of the New York Racing Association from 1994 to 1997, pioneering in-home simulcasting in New York. In 1998, Crist assembled an investment group that purchased DRF, and he served as CEO and then Chairman and Publisher. In 2010, when the National Racing Hall of Fame added a media wing, he was one of the four inaugural inductees, along with Charles Hatton, Bill Nack and Red Smith. In 2016, he received the Eclipse Award of Merit for his lifetime contributions to the sport.
An enthusiastic horseplayer known as the “King of the Pick Six,” Crist is the author of several books on racing and wagering including his 2005 memoir “Betting on Myself.” Since his retirement, Crist has become an owner and breeder of New York-breds including the multiple stakes-winner Thin White Duke. He lives in Hempstead, NY with his wife, Robin Foster, and their retired racing greyhounds.