Delaware Park racing had no better friend than Mike Valiante.

A Delaware native, Valiante could be found most days of live racing at the track: in the dining room, cultivating a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, or at the paddock or winner’s circle, snapping pictures.

He turned those people and pictures into a lively and popular account on the social media site formerly known as Twitter, a bright spot in a site that has become increasingly dismal.

Valiante passed away on September 6.

Though he was an avid handicapper and backed his opinions with his dollars, his social media account focused generally neither on betting nor on horses but on the people of the game: owners, trainers, and especially jockeys. The account had nearly 6,400 followers at the time of his passing.

Starting in early 2021 and extending through late 2023, Valiante also wrote articles and columns for The Racing Biz. Those articles often highlighted people he’d come to know. Among those were jockeys Martina Rojas, Jaime Rodriguez, and Kevin Gomez, along with trainers like Keri Brion and owners like Nick Sanna.

With his work at The Racing Biz, Valiante also honed his focus on what he perceived as the parlous state of the game. Those efforts began with the second column he wrote for the site, a three-parter entitled “What racing should do yesterday.”

He wrote:

Racing in the United States is going to be very different 20 years from now. Its business model, which in many places relies in large part on subsidies such as slot machine revenue to survive, is unsustainable. A change in the winds of political favor or public perception could kill the game in many states.

What’s more, the threat of impending competition from sports betting for the limited gambling dollars is a new storm brewing rapidly. What response does the industry have?

He never received a satisfactory answer to that question; there still isn’t one.

Mike’s passing came as a surprise to many who knew him through racing, but his last two social media posts seemed to presage it. “The end of the race is near,” read one, coupled with a picture of a moon over water.

“Don’t make the mistake I made and allow depression to get the best of you,” read his final post.

About that: Mike was pre-deceased by his wife Nancy, in 2018, and then in 2021, by his daughter Krista, just 32. He was also predeceased by two brothers and a sister-in-law. He struggled with his own health, too, and was weighed down with concerns about other relatives’ health problems.

All of that left Valiante with an abiding sadness that in recent years was as much a part of his personality as his dry sense of humor, ready laugh, and self-deprecating manner.

But the racetrack remained a happy place.

I spoke with Mike several weeks before his passing. Did I remember a certain jockey from years back? I did not; he had a much better memory for riders of years gone by than I do.

Mike and others like him – people for whom racing is not just an entertainment option but an everyday passion – are the industry’s largely unremarked heroes, their money welcomed and their opinions mostly ignored. “The game has to do more for bettors, owners, and horses,” he wrote on social media, and no one who knows anything at all about the racing industry can disagree.

For all that, Mike’s feelings towards racing were a love affair that waxed and waned but never ended, until now.

For those who are believers, as Mike was, the best of existence begins now. Here’s hoping that means reuniting, at long last, with Nancy and Krista, and visiting racetracks where all the participants come home safely and all the wagers are winning ones.

Obituary information for Michael Valiante.

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