America’s Best Racing has launched a monthly series to celebrate women in racing, explore the challenges they face in what has been a male-dominated industry, and highlight their achievements.

Nancy Underwood was seemingly born to serve.

Her parents, Elaine and Anthony Girard, emphasized the importance of community involvement and caring for others in various forms as she grew up in Glens Falls, N.Y.

For her late father, that meant serving his country as a Marine rifleman during the Vietnam War and earning the National Defense Service Medal. He went on to volunteer as a board member of New Beginnings Community Church in Queensbury, N.Y.

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For Underwood, that means employment as executive director of New York’s Backstretch Employee Service Team (BEST) since January 2024 after 10 years as the nonprofit organization’s program director.

In one sense, that landing spot for Underwood, 47, is surprising because she was never particularly drawn to racing. To her, the demanding post that requires so much of her time and all of her energy makes all the sense in the world.

“I’m not a horse person,” she said. “I’m a human person.”

Whether it is providing medical care, a path to sobriety for someone with substance abuse issues, or merely bringing a smile to the face of a backstretch worker far from home who may feel isolated during the holidays, Underwood and her staff are there.

“I love to look at a situation with an individual or group and say, ‘OK, how are we going to fix this?’ ” Underwood said. “There is not a better feeling in the world than coming up with a solution and watching someone thrive based on your guidance or your team’s guidance.”

She added, “I can’t imagine doing something with my life where you don’t really see impactful outcomes.”

BEST, founded in 1989, assists 740 backstretch employees who live and work at Belmont Park. There is housing for a little more than 1,000 workers at the track. Among other gains BEST has made over the years, it opened a health-care clinic on the Oklahoma side of Saratoga Race Course that is dedicated to the memory of the late Mary Lou Whitney, a great philanthropist. The clinic features six examination rooms and a blood laboratory.

Nancy Underwood (Francesco D'Amico photo)

BEST is funded by the New York Racing Association, the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, the New York State Department of Health, and as Underwood put it, “a fair amount of begging.”

Iris Roberts and prominent owner and breeder Aron Yagoda, co-chairs of the board of directors, did not have to look far for a successor when Paul Ruchames retired in December 2023 after serving for 14 years.

“We were very sure we wanted Nancy,” Roberts said. “She is unbelievably capable. She is passionate.”

Roberts added, “If I was away from home and didn’t have a lot of people around me – family and friends – and I had to work long hours and I had to worry about my health and mental health, there is nobody else I would want to take care of me.”

The same can be said of Stephanie Garthwaite, in her 22nd year as a licensed mental health counselor with BEST, and Judy Beck, a licensed clinical social worker who has been there for 20 years.

Underwood works closely with them and leans heavily on their experience and expertise. “They’ve seen it all,” she said. So have some others on a staff that can number as many as 20 employees at the height of the season.

There also is much to be said for the fresh perspective Underwood brought.

“It infused a kind of energy we didn’t have before,” Roberts said, adding, “She has really energized the staff. She encouraged people to literally get out of the office.”

Underwood is a considerate leader. At the bottom of her emails, there are a couple of lines that say much about her. “My work hours may vary from yours. Please do not feel obligated to respond outside your normal work schedule,” the messages read.

Underwood’s own schedule is as demanding as can be. The needs of backstretch workers, indispensable members of the racing community, are as incessant as the needs of the horses they care for.

Roberts said of Underwood’s role, “It’s not for the faint of heart, that job, because you are constantly working and constantly available, emotionally and physically. But she is very skilled at crisis management and keeping everything together, keeping other people together, making sure everybody is OK.”

That includes her husband, Phillip, and their two sons, Colin, 28, and Ethan, 21.

Underwood views efforts such as BEST and Thoroughbred aftercare as obligations the racing industry must meet.

“We have to tell people that we are taking care of our workers. We have to tell people that we are taking care of our horses, that they are going to beautiful aftercare lives,” she said. “We have to tell those stories. … Part of our social contract is to let them know we are doing the right things.”

Sometimes great things are done. Underwood tells of a female backstretch worker who received a mammogram at a mobile clinic in Kentucky before she fell off the radar. When the test revealed that the woman had cancer, an intense search for her began. She was located and received treatment in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

“She is cancer free,” said a triumphant Underwood.