Michael Magee

Actor, comedian and horse racing commenter Michael Magee was born on October 11, 1929 in Toronto. His parents belonged to the Ontario Jockey Club. As a kid, Magee was not so enthusiastic about horse racing, but his father challenged him to learn about the subject before judging. In time, Magee became more and more enthusiastic about horses. He was sent to a series of private schools in Ontario, which was a rough time for him, and he sought refuge at the race tracks. In his adolescence, he worked as a money runner for the mutuels department at the original Woodbine track in eastside Toronto before taking a similar job at Exhibition Park in Vancouver. As a young man, he worked as a janitor, a surveyor, a hotel desk clerk, and on the line of canning factory. In 1956, he became a partner in Triangle Stable, which had only one racer named Brighton Queen, who was named for an English Channel paddle steamer. Magee joked that she was slower even than her namesake. That same year he debuted on