Charles “Chip” Reed and Mike Zanella first met on a gambling trip organized by a mutual friend.

“He said to me, ‘I want you to meet my friend Chip. I think you’re really going to like this guy,’ ” recalled Zanella recently. “That’s how it started.”

It was, as they say, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Reed, now 67, had lived in Maryland his whole life; he owns the iconic Corner Stable restaurant in Cockeysville, recently opening a second one in Columbia. A New York native, Zanella moved down from his upstate New York home about 30 years ago; his A to Z Looseleaf printing company is based in Baltimore. Both of them now live in Reisterstown.

Zanella had grown up going to the races in Saratoga, while Reed discovered the racetrack when he began his first job.

“I was right out of high school and working at Fort Meade, about 15 or 20 minutes from Laurel Park,” he recounted. “I was working for the Department of Defense, and it takes about a year to get your final clearance. In the meantime, you don’t have a whole lot to do.”

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