Gary Weir, who was Bozo to many fans, delivers Oaklawn Report on TV.

From Central Arkansas Baby Boomers to Gen-Xers, Gary Weir was famous for being Bozo the Clown. He was KATV, Channel 7's most well-known character starting in 1966 in a TV clown career that spanned 25 years.

For the past 15 years, though, Weir has been the host of "The Oaklawn Report," a nightly look back at the races during the live meet at Hot Springs' Oaklawn Park. Just as Bozo was a perfect fit at the time, he said, because Weir liked to have fun and loved children, "The Oaklawn Report" allows Weir to be around something he's loved for many years: horse racing.

ArkansasSports360.com caught up with Weir, a Russellville native, between tapings of "The Oaklawn Report":

 

AS360.com: How did you get "The Oaklawn Report" started?
Gary Weir: Back in 1994, I was at Oaklawn talking with Eric Jackson. He mentioned that Oaklawn didn't have a replay show like a lot of other racetracks had. He kind of looked and me and said, 'If I knew somebody that knew the television business and the horse business and could kind of get out and sell their own show, I would ask them to do a horse racing show for me." And I looked at him and said, "Are you talking about me?" He said, "Yes, can you do it." We got it started in time for the 1995 season. It just kind of happened out of a conversation with Mr. Jackson.

 

The folks who grew up knowing you from Bozo and the "Clown Town USA" show you did in the early 1990s probably didn't know you were into horse racing. When did you become interested in the racing business?
I've been in the horse business since 1971. My dad got a horse and through that I became more interested and interested in race horses at Oaklawn for 20-something years almost. The more I was around it the more I enjoyed it. After retiring from Bozo and all, I thought, this would be something that fit me and with my background of having been around horses for a long time and background of television The show just kind of rose from that. My association with thoroughbred racing all those years.

 

So, you've owned horses?
My dad and I owned several together starting out. We would race here and after Oaklawn was over, we'd send our horses to Keeneland, Churchill Downs, Arlington Park and various tracks ... we kept a horse going all that time. It was something that didn't require a lot of my time because we had a trainer and various people who take care of that stuff for you. It's something you can have a full-time job at one thing and have another interest in the thoroughbred business as something again to do.

 

Did you have some success?
The very first horse that my dad had was named Boranda. My mother named it after Bozo, after Randy, my brother, and Amanda [Weir's oldest daughter]. She was a nice little horse, won 10 times back in those days. That's the first horse we started with and 1974 was the first time it ran. Then I had a filly named Amanda Boranda, there again named after my first daughter, Amanda, and going back to the other horse. She was real successful, she won four straight. Pat Day, who was one of the really up-and-coming jockeys back in those times, that was back in like '82, he rode her every time, and Pat turned out to be one of the greatest ever

Amanda Boranda was the best one I've had personally. I've had some others that won five races here, six races there. I bought a weanling filly in 1992, she was 6 months old, and I named her Cami's Continental after my second daughter, Cami, who was a flight attendant for Continental Airlines.

She was a fun little horse, she won six times. Believe it or not, after having bought her at 6 months old in 1992, I've still got her. She's 16 now. She's raising babies. I bred her and she's had a couple who have been pretty good so far. I'm still waiting on her to give a really good one, though.

[At this point, Weir notes that his daughters have made him a proud granddad - Amanda has a 6-year-old boy while Cami has boys ages 13 and 11. "Cami is real, real horse-crazy, she's kind of like me. We take a bus to the Kentucky Derby every year and she's the hostess on the trip. She fits right in there."].