Inventor of Racing Starting Gate Oversees Product With Pride at 97

At the touch of a button, gates fly open and horses shoot out of stalls onto the race track.

It’s a quick, clean start familiar to most people, but before Clay Puett came around, starting horse races was nothing short of a real mess.

Puett’s own failure as a starter lining up horses on the race track motivated him to invent the modern starting gate. The device did away with nonsynchronized starts and made him a bit of a savior in the horse racing industry.

“I was a complete failure; I couldn’t get the job done,” the 97-year-old Puett said of his starter job in 1928. “You had seven to eight riders and horses and they were all trying to be first, so you had no control.

“Then I decided that I would make me a piece of equipment that would let them out when I want them out.”

Puett’s idea would take 10 years to materialize. Until then, racers would have to settle for handlers holding horses at the start line or for netting-like barriers stretched across the track. Uneven starts were commonplace, leaving jockeys, fans and starters frustrated.

Despite his age, Puett still oversees his invention with pride.

The Phoenix resident is reluctant to sell his starting gates to major race tracks, saying he prefers to lease them because the custom-built gates need tender, loving care.

“People don’t maintain them. I rent them and I service them,” Puett said. “It’s like your automobile: If you don’t take care of your automobile, it doesn’t take care of you.”

An early version of Puett’s pivotal starting gate is displayed in the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, Ky. Last month, the Prescott Downs race track honored Puett to mark the July 1 birthday of his gate.

Puett’s electrical starting gate not only made it easier to get horses in order before a race, it ensured a more uniform start.

“Everybody’s equal--I feel that 101%,” said jockey Thomas Hinojosa of Phoenix. “It’s a great invention. The gate helps you keep a straight course.

“When you come out of the gate and the horse comes out straight, it’s the most beautiful thing.”

Puett’s gate, which debuted in July 1939 in British Columbia, Canada, was met with skepticism when he first introduced the idea.

“People didn’t think you could lock up a thoroughbred,” Puett recalled. “However, I thought different.”

Puett oversees his Phoenix-based business, True Center Gate Leasing Inc., with his wife, Rhea. He spends part of each day supervising repair work at the company shop.

While Puett mainly leases his gates, he occasionally sells them to overseas customers and ranch owners, and sometimes to major race tracks for special reasons, Mrs. Puett said.

Puett, meanwhile, proudly recalls how his days as a failed starter led to success.

“I was a complete failure and I wasn’t used to that.”