A Career In Thoroughbred Horse Racing

Horses have been my passion since I was 15 years old. I grew up on Long Island and spent the weekends at either Aqueduct or Belmont Park.  When I was 19, I decided to get a second job walking horses on the weekends.  It turned into full time and I landed a job with Calumet Farms who was trained at the time by David Whiteley.  

Moving up the ranks from Hot Walker, Groom, Foreman and finally Assistant Trainer, I stayed in the NY-FL circuit, but was determined to leave NY and be in the bluegrass state of KY.  I worked for such trainers as D. Wayne Lukas, Richard Lundy and Bill Hirsch.

 I was fortunate enough to work around some fine athletes.  I was the groom for Cherokee Run when he won the Breeders Cup in 1994.  Cherokee Run was trained by Frank Alexander.  I worked for Bill Mott as a groom and foreman, taking HOY Cigar off the van upon his arrival at the Mott barn at Hialeah Racecourse.  Finally, I decided to train horses in California for a year. Won my first race at Del Mar in 1998.  In 1999, I was offered a job to train the babies at Pomona and Hollywood for Toffan and McCaffery.  Their trainer, J. Paco Gonzalez, was one of the best horsemen I had ever worked for.

I stayed with them for 7 years and was around such horses as Bienamado, Bosque Redondo and my personal favorite Came Home.

While in Cali, I also worked a second job with the Santa Anita Broadcast Center and eventually moving to HRTV.

In 2005, I ventured back to Kentucky to be closer to my mother. I found work with Dallas Stewart at Churchill Downs.  I was fortunate enough to have Lemons Forever in my care at Louisiana Downs & Oaklawn Park during the Katrina Meet.

Due to knee arthritis, I have left the hands on world and am currently doing payroll, social media and other jobs for Brad H. Cox, the trainer of Champion Monomoy Girl.