by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Matt Zuccarello had some alternate plans in the works, and was starting to worry he may have had to use one of them.

“Mighty Matt” had an engagement ring that was burning a hole through his pocket for a month, and he wanted to get it out of there before he burst into flames. The ring had seen more of the country than some airline pilots, having gone to New York, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Pennsylvania proved to be the charm, as Zuccarello won the C.K.G. Billings amateur driving series $25,000 Gold Cup at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Nov. 23. While in the winner’s circle, he dropped to one knee, pulled out the diamond and slipped it on the finger of Kim Velardi, who at that moment went from Matt’s girlfriend to his fiancée.

And his sigh of relief probably could have blown Kim over.

Charlie Longo photo

After he won the Billings Gold Cup Championship, Matt Zuccarello got down on one knee and proposed to his longtime girlfriend Kim Velardi.

“I had been planning it for a while; to do it when I could get a win and she would be there,” Zuccarello said. “I had it in Saratoga and she was there and I finished third. I won two weeks before at Vernon but she wasn’t there. I was down in Pompano, she was there but the horse faded so it didn’t work out there.

“So it happened on the last race of the year. And what a better time to do it, than on a bigger stage?”

And if he didn’t do it then?

“I had some back-up plans but I was hoping it didn’t come to that,” Zuccarello said. “But it worked out and I didn’t have to use the back-up plan. It was nice to be able to do it that way. I wanted to try something different, I didn’t know if it had been done in the industry before. And it was great because parents were there, her brother was there, one of my close friends was there.”

Matt added that Kim was expecting to get engaged “but she didn’t think it would happen at that time and that way. She got very emotional. It was good.”

It capped an emotional week for the 39-year-old Zuccarello, whose horse was the favorite two weeks earlier at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs “and got parked the whole mile” and wound up seventh.

In between that race and the Gold Cup, Zuccarello’s good friend, Joe Luparello, passed away from leukemia at age 42. Matt dedicated the race to Joe and Kim, a cancer survivor from Hammonton, N.J., who is six-plus years in remission.

“Kim and Joe had that bond,” Zuccarello said. “She offered help in any way she could as far as what to expect and things like that. I had known him for 10 years and he really had an impact on my life. I told his brother I was racing for him. To be able to dedicate that race to him and then the proposal — if it wasn’t the biggest day of my life it was right up there in the top two.”

The victory was Zuccarello’s fourth this year after he won one in each of the two previous years.

“(Owner) Mike Simons and I were ecstatic after the win (behind 9-year-old trotting gelding Rebel Strike),” Zuccarello said. “I am really appreciative to Mike Simons and I thank him for the opportunity.”

The Mighty One was a latecomer to harness racing. He grew up and still lives in New Hyde Park, N.Y., just 10 minutes from the old Roosevelt Raceway. He and his dad went to Roosevelt on its closing night and a 13-year-old Matt was bummed to find out it was never opening its doors again. He actually procrastinated about getting into the business and finally went to the USTA Driving School in Delaware, Ohio, six years ago.

He learned the business on Saturdays at Yonkers under the father-son trainer tandem of Dennis J. and Dennis A. Laterza.

“I was cleaning out stalls, I learned how to harness a horse, then started jogging horses,” Zuccarello said. “Then they gave me some inexpensive horses to use for qualifiers. I took some personal days off from my real job to go up to Monticello and qualify up there.”

Zuccarello eventually got his provisional license before gaining his professional license.

“That was my first goal,” he said. “And now the amateur series suits me well.”

Mighty Matt won his first race in his ninth start in 2012, and added a win in 2013 before doubling his previous lifetime total this season. He also got his full license in October.

When he’s not in the sulky, Zuccarello does sales for a heart rate monitor company and just celebrated his 12th anniversary in that business.

As for his future in harness racing, Zuccarello plans on staying in the amateur series for now. He owned a few horses but just sold his last one earlier this year.

“My dream is to be able to do it full time, but right now amateurs suits me,” he said. “My big dream would be to race at the Meadowlands and go against so many of the great drivers we have here in New York and New Jersey. That would be a lifelong dream fulfilled.”

But for now, he has a wedding to plan. Finally.