A former student of the late, great cornet soloist James F. Burke, Mark O'Keeffe began his storied career at Belmont Park in 1987. Since that time he has performed the traditional "First Call" over 57,000 times at 42 race tracks in 19 states and Canada, both as a soloist and with his popular group The All-Star Buglers. In addition to being the NYRA bugler for 5 years, Mark was the bugler at Delaware Park for the final 3 seasons of the millenium and since 2003 he has found a home with the NJSEA as the official bugler at The Meadowlands as well as the assistant bugler at Monmouth Park.
Career highlights include 10 performances at the Belmont Stakes (G1) - two of which were before crowds of more than 101,000 people including former President Bill Clinton; 9 performances at The Breeders' Cup (G1); 8 performances at The Hambletonian and a "walk on" appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" during the monologue. Mark has performed at "The Derby" in 7 different states, none of which were in Kentucky. He has also performed the national anthem at numerous major league baseball games in Tampa and Philadelphia.
Mark is the subject of chapter 7 of "Beyer On Speed", authored by legendary handicapping guru Andrew Beyer. The chapter documents Mark's legendary score at Aqueduct in January of 1992 where he was the sole winner of a multi-race wager called "The Pick 6". The payoff: nearly $133,000.00.
Mark has composed and arranged numerous fanfares and songs for various trumpet and brass ensembles. In 2004, he authored an article for the International Trumpet Guild . He is the author and webmaster of four websites: The James F. Burke Tribute Page and The Del Staigers Tribute Page as well as this website and that of The All-Star Buglers.
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