What kind of car do you drive? Chevy Impala. What do you listen to when driving? It depends: WFAN, ESPN, Sirius XM’s E-Street Radio and Underground Garage. Favorite dinner meal? Snack?     Lobster; Haagen-Dazs ice cream. What is your favorite track to race at? It’s a hike for me, but I love Saratoga because I love the town. I only go up for New York Sire Stakes, but I always try to make the trip. What is your favorite big event in racing? The Hambletonian. It is the best race we have; the most historic. It is one of the few events, like the North America Cup, left in racing. How often is racing on your mind? Seven days a week. All the time. What is your favorite thing to do outside of racing? Golf and fish. What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? Hockey; New York Giants, New York Rangers, New York Yankees – in that order, probably. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don’t know? That I won the Punt, Pass and Kick regional when I was 12 years old. I still have the trophy. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Hard. How did you get started in the sport? I went to the track with my brothers as fans; we weren’t born into it. I started walking hots at The Meadowlands in 1978 and decided not to go back to college. I stuck around when the harness horses came in and worked for Tony Quartorolo, who is now a thoroughbred trainer. When did you get your trainer’s license? The first horse I had was in California, named Quick Larry. It was probably 1982. He was 12 years old. He trained me. In 2006, your career really took off. What changed? I bought a horse for my really great owners Joe and Mary Alice Smith named Pacific Renegade for $40,000 at Harrisburg. He won legs of the Levy, He was second in the big race at Harrington and he raced in the Haughton. Joe has been very supportive, always buying at least one nice horse a year. Maybe after that people took notice, and with some luck, the barn expanded from 6-to-8 horses to 23 now. Is it hard to survive training 6-to-8 horses? Absolutely. That was real pressure because every check meant something. It was a truck payment or an insurance payment. We were starting a family at the time. That was tough because we were living month to month and worried about paying bills every day. You have over 1,180 training wins. What does that number mean to you? It means I’m getting old. We’ve had a lot of success the last several years. We’ve stuck it out and survived while a lot of other guys just got run over by the bigger barns with owners spending a lot more money. Obviously with slots at the tracks, I ‘ve been able to reap some of the benefits. You drove nine career races. What’s the deal with that? I realized I had to give it up when I got away in the two-hole at Los Alamitos and the guy on the front made a break at the head of the stretch. I put my head down and started whipping. When I got to the wire, I looked up and I was fifth. I couldn’t believe it. That’s when I realized, that’s it for me. I was too big and it cost too much money to practice. At least I got the nickel and finished fifth (5%). I got my “Q” license because I wanted to see what it was like. It’s nothing like you see on TV. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten about harness racing? Cat Manzi told me years ago to start taking pieces of the horses that I train, because that is how you reap the real benefits. You can’t train for a day rate and five percent. You can’t make any real money. What was your favorite moment in harness racing? Racing in the North America Cup with Betting Exchange. We finished third and the people in Canada treated us tremendously. They couldn’t have treated us any better. Wakizashi Hanover won it and Wiggle It Jiggleit was second. Which is the best horse you ever trained? I guess Betting Exchange in his prime as a 3-year-old. He was a beast. Which horse is/was your favorite? Live On. He set a world record of 1:48 at Pocono as a 4-year-old gelding. He was a little horse who didn’t even like me. I had him his whole life and he was just one of those horses that liked to be left alone. He broke his leg in the paddock about a month ago and we had to put him down. I was actually resting him because we weren’t racing. He survived eight or 9 years of racing wars at The Meadowlands, Chester, Yonkers and that is how he goes. That was tough. He was my favorite because he was an overachiever. He never should’ve been able to 1:48 at Pocono. He’ll probably be the only world champion I’ll ever train. What’s the one race that you haven’t won but really want to win? The Hambletonian. We had a couple of horses in there, but they were outsiders. Do you have any Hambletonian prospects? I have one 3-year-old trotter this year. He is a nice horse, but not that caliber. Which are the horses you are most looking forward to racing in 2020? This time of the year, it is always the 2-year-olds. We have six 2-year-olds, pretty much all ready to qualify. You work on them all winter, so you look forward to that. I like both of my New York horses. I have a Roll With Joe filly that I like named Sundried Tomato and an American Ideal filly named Chanel Beach. They act like they are going to be ok. I have a Captaintreacherous filly, big girl, too, Mackie Hanover. We have a Sweet Lou filly, who we trained in the bike the other day in 2:02, that was really handy. Her name is Double Tested. You never know, especially with the pacers, where their bottom is. Will it be (1:)59? Will it be (1:)54? A lot of them give you hope when training well, but you don’t know where the bottom is. If you could choose any horse in history to train, which horse would it be and why? I think it would be Niatross. I saw him race at Hollywood Park and The Meadowlands. We were just in awe of that horse. How has COVID-19 affected your life and business? My life: everyone I know has stayed healthy and we’ve worked through it. Staying home every day is boring. You can only go for walks on the beach with your wife so many times. Business has been very rough. My staff has stayed healthy and all of Gaitway Farm has stayed healthy. I think we’ve had only one case there out of 200 people that show up every day. But business has been tough. It has thrown off our whole year. I doubt we’ll recover. I just couldn’t understand why these other states could go on with racing, like Florida, Nebraska, California and Arkansas, but we couldn’t do it in New Jersey. Though, I’m sure they had their reasons. What are your thoughts on how racing went on opening weekend at The Meadowlands and during the qualifiers off-site with the new protocols? The qualifiers at Gaitway have been great. People have been social distancing and they have gone on smoothly with no issues. At The Meadowlands, we had four in opening night. I thought things went really well. I think as things go along and there aren’t any issues, they’ll relax restrictions a little bit. I was disappointed in the handle. I thought it would be significantly higher. Your wife Moira is a prominent figure with the Hambletonian Society. Is it tough to be married to a Hall of Famer? What am I going to say to that? It’s paradise. She’s a great person. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? Get a central ruling body with a marketing arm. How do you view the future of harness racing? We have our work cut out for us. I don’t like to be pessimistic, but I think we have to get some good strong leadership, somebody with good ideas. The status quo isn’t working. I was watching bowling and they have a young enthusiastic CEO named Colie Edison. Maybe we could use someone like that? It’s funny you mention bowling because bowling, boxing, harness racing, and even the Yankees at one point were supposedly dying. They used to talk about how the Yankees could never survive in the Bronx and look at them now, they are the wealthiest franchise. Similarly, bowling and boxing have been marked as dying for years, but they are still here. Like Harness Racing, it is easy to write them off, but there is a certain stubbornness to them. They all stick around. If you had one wish in life, what would you wish for? For my children to live long, happy lives, long after I’m gone. Time for the stretch drive: Best Horse You Ever Saw: Niatross Best Driver Ever: John Campbell Lasix – Yes or No?: 100% yes Best Race You Ever Saw: Sonsam winning the Meadowlands Pace when he swooped the field from like ninth. I think it was a 12-horse field. George Sholty drove him. He just uncorked him and looped the field. It was unbelievable. Favorite TV Show?: Seinfeld. I still haven’t seen all of the episodes. I was always racing when it was on. I also love The Honeymooners. Trotters or Pacers?: Right now, trotters.