Janine Starykowicz, founder of Barn to Wire, passes away
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Release: Saturday, April 9, 2016-900p
Janine Starykowicz, the creator and proprietress of the popular Chicago-area horse racing website "Barn to Wire," died after a brief illness Saturday morning. She was 56.
Ms. Starykowicz, the daughter of a steelworker and a Roman Catholic rectory secretary, had been admitted to a northwest Indiana hospital earlier this month complaining of chest and abdominal pains. Originally, she suspected she had broken ribs. No cause of death has been released.
Her passing has rocked the world of Chicago racing. Intelligent, passionate and extremely well-liked, Ms. Starykowicz started "Barn to Wire" in June, 2000, as a forum primarily aimed at fans of regional Thoroughbred racing. By popular demand, she later added more national and harness racing content to the website.
"This one really hurts," said Jan Ely, the veteran Thoroughbred trainer and a close friend of Ms. Starykowicz. "Janine finally checked into a hospital about ten days ago, so we knew she was really hurting. Still, when one of her sisters called [Saturday] morning with word of her passing, it was just really, really shocking. And sad."
"It's a horrible day for Chicago racing," said Ron Uchman, the long-time Chicago-based horse racing expert. "Janine was such a vital, vibrant person. There's no point in trying to figure something like this out."
"Terrible," added Jim Miller, the assistant general manager of Hawthorne Race Course. "We hadn't seen her in the press box for a couple of Saturdays but nobody knew how serious it all was. She was a wonderful person."
Ms. Starykowicz was also a relative late-comer to horse racing. A 1977 honors graduate of Bishop Noll High School in Hammond, Indiana, she earned a merit scholarship to Indiana University through her father's membership in the Steelworkers Union.
At Indiana, she carried the dual major of political science and journalism, the latter with an advertising emphasis.
"Politics always fascinated me," she once told a Chicago-area newspaper columnist. "I think when I got out of college, I knew the Kentucky Derby was in May and Secretariat once won it, but that was about the extent of what I knew about horse racing."
Her long and winding road to winner's circles encompassed career segments in marketing, political fundraising, governmental administration and information technology. A centerpiece of her vitae was an extended association with the organization of Richard Lugar, the one-time mayor of Indianapolis who later served six terms as a United States Senator from Indiana.
"Because of my time with Senator Lugar, I guess you could say I'm a Republican," Ms. Starykowicz said in a 2003 conversation. "But just seeing major Congressional business up that close, regardless of affiliation, was something that I found incredibly engaging."
Her focus and engagement turned to racing with the start of Barn to Wire in 2000. While a goal - never fully realized - was always maximum monetization, the closer she got to the game and the more people in it whom she befriended, the deeper her commitment and passion grew.
Eventually, monetization became a secondary concern, especially when humane-seeded issues such as anti-horse slaughter legislation and increased efforts to fund comfortable Thoroughbred retirements began to command marquee attention in Illinois in 2002.
"Janine's efforts to help with 'Galloping Out' and the anti-horse slaughter legislation can't be measured," Ely said. "Her media, political and marketing expertise were of invaluable help. And her passion was a consistent."
Ms. Starykowicz's passion extended so deeply that she became a volunteer assistant on busy racing days for the publicity staffs at Arlington Park and Hawthorne, running quotes from the paddock, assisting in transcription and serving as a general Jill-of-all-trades.
All she was assured of receiving for her efforts was full media accreditation and the smattering of peripheral considerations from the race tracks that went with it.
She will be best remembered in Chicago racing circles for her creation and on-going "moderation" of Barn to Wire. She took pride in the intelligent discourse that evolved on "BTW," put up with much of the satirical content (as long as it was not obscene) and reveled in the fact that both racing professionals and major-league media became regular contributors.
"I could live without the name calling and the personal [stuff]," Ms. Starykowicz said in 2014. "But, horse racing is a game of opinions and an emotional game. I think as long as reasonable fairness and general civility are in evidence on the site, we're doing well. I try to watch it very closely."
Repeated attempts to stabilize the financial underpinning of Barn to Wire through sponsorships by the race tracks, the Illinois Racing Board and horsemen's groups were inevitably met with vapid tap dancing by the entities approached. Still, Ms. Starykowicz soldiered on.
"Every year, we learn a little more and I hope the site gets a little better," she said from the basement of her East Chicago, Indiana, home, which served as corporate headquarters for Barn to Wire. "If the game in Illinois weren't in such dire straits, maybe the powers would see more clearly the value of a site like Barn To Wire."
Ms. Starykowicz is survived by three sisters, a brother and a menagerie of cats. Services are pending.
