'Trainer to the stars' John Parisella dies at 85
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John Parisella, a man with a big personality, who was dubbed “trainer to the stars,” and a winner of more than 1,200 races in a four-decade-plus career, died Friday in a hospital in Long Island, N.Y., according to his ex-wife Melissa. He was 85.
Parisella was born in Brooklyn and attended St. John’s University. He got into the sport as an assistant to trainer Tommy Gullo on the New York circuit and, according to Equibase, started training horses in 1969. He won 1,241 races and his horses earned more than $23 million purses before Parisella saddled his last horse in 2016.
Parisella trained a large number of graded stakes winners that included Simply Majestic, Chapel of Dreams, Chieftain's Command, Am Capable, Danzig’s Dance, Raja’s Shark, Kamikaze Rick, Fray Star, Don Rickes, Fight Over and Jones Time Machine. Fight Over finished third in the 1984 Preakness. Simply Majestic finished third in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Parisella’s uncle Joe Scanadore was the manager for comedian Don Rickles. Through that relationship, Parisella was introduced to a number of Hollywood stars. He trained for some including James Caan, Jack Klugman, and Telly Savalas.
It was Klugman who dubbed Parisella “trainer to the stars.” Parisella wrote a book with that title. Parsiella twice appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
“I’m not the kind of guy who’s like, ‘Oh, boy, you’re so and so,’” Parisella said in a 2020 article that appeared in the magazine Saratoga Living. “They found me entertaining.”
The Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. rode a lot for Parisella and kept in touch with him, speaking within the last week.
“He was like a father to me and one of my best friends, and he was probably the best customer I ever had,” Cordero said. “Never got mad at me, never gave me any problems. It didn’t matter who was my agent, he always rode me. I talked to him once every two weeks. I really feel bad about it. He was a good trainer, he was a good friend. When you needed something if he couldn’t find it, he would find somebody who could.”
Bruce Levine, a longtime trainer on the New York circuit, was an assistant to trainer John Campo when he met Parisella in the 1970s. They remained friends for about 50 years.
“He’s a friend, he was a really good horseman, he signed for my trainer’s license when I first got started in the late 70s,” Levine said. “I talked to him every week. I used to take him to lunch before his health started to get bad. He lived a good life.”
Trainer Steve Young said he and horse owner Louis Lazzinarro visited Parisella Wednesday night.
“He was a great character that lived an amazing life,” Young said.
Parisella was the stepfather to reality star Bethanny Frankel after he married Bernadette Birk, the ex-wife of Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel. Parisella and his first wife Melissa had a daughter Gabrielle. The basketball coach Rick Pitino is Gabrielle’s godfather.
Melissa Parisella said a funeral service will be held in New York in September after the Saratoga meet ends on Labor Day.
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