Stephen Juliano, racetrack character, dies at 86

Stephen Juliano, a popular racetrack character in the Northeast, died Wednesday at a hospital on Long Island. He was 86.

Juliano was a trainer and a jockey agent in New Jersey and New York. As a trainer, Juliano won 44 races from 460 starters in a career that spanned from 1976-84. His best horse was Hurricane Carol, with whom he won the Sensational Stakes at Monmouth Park.

As a jockey agent, Juliano worked for, among others, Michael McCarthy, Nick Santagata, and Georgina Frost.

When he stopped working on the track, Julliano worked as a limousine driver, often driving jockeys and trainers where they needed to go.

“Everybody that met him liked him,” said New York-based trainer Robert Ribuado. “He was a true racetrack character. Eating was his passion. Wherever you went with him, eating was the main part of it.”