from Meadowlands Media Relations

When racing resumes at the Meadowlands on Thursday night, Richard Annunziata will be on the top of the owner standings.

The 40-year-old from Mahopac, New York, has found his bliss in harness racing.

He comes into the final three programs of the 2005 Meadowlands Fall Harness Meet with six wins, seven seconds and three thirds from 28 starters for earnings of $135,947. He leads by two wins over Fred and Anita Fialkow, Kenneth Jacobs, Adam Victor & Son Stables and Mark Silva, all tied with four wins each.

Annunziata, whose horses are trained by his 71-year-old father, Ettore, and Rick Bilach, has not always found success so easily.

“I was involved in a restaurant on Staten Island a few years ago that ended up closing,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was one of my many failed business ventures. When I was young, my father was a builder and really didn’t like doing it. He started playing with racehorses, and he enjoyed that. We were always broke. He didn’t make a lot of money at it. I saw a lot of my father’s friends making money building, but I was too young to realize money wasn’t everything. I stayed in the construction business, and I wasn’t happy doing it either. I looked around and everybody in it was miserable, too. So, I went into the horses, and it’s really exciting. I discovered my father had the key to life.”

Finding personal happiness in harness racing has extended to the way he handles events off the track.

“I have a two-year-old son, Vincent, and he just had a seven-hour operation on his leg,” he explained. “It was a birth deformity where one of his legs was longer than the other. Only one hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, does the procedure. Our health insurance wouldn’t cover it. The doctor said he needed it right away, and it costs $55,000. That’s exactly what our horses made [that] week.

I felt really bad for my son until I got to that hospital. Kids fly in from all over the world with brain cancer and heart problems. I saw that my son doesn’t really have it that bad. He’s doing great. He’ll grow up on the farm, and maybe he’ll be a harness driver some day.”

The farm is another part of Annunziata’s dream.

“Last year, I purchased a 150-acre farm in Millstone, New Jersey,” he said. “It’ll have a five-eighths mile track, 150 stalls, Equiciser, and a swimming facility. That will be an indoor pool, by the way. It will be a public facility and smaller version of Gaitway. I’m building my house there, and it’s going to be fun. It’s been quite a leap for me, but I’m enjoying every minute of it. I just love the business. There’s no better excitement than winning at the Meadowlands and standing in that winner’s circle. It’s just a great feeling. I can’t explain it. I like the constant week-to-week action and the hands on aspect of it.

“I have a trainer’s license and help my father, but he trucks them in and does a lot of the work,” he noted. “He lives in a converted apartment right above the barn, and the horses are downstairs. My mom helps him and comes down to watch them race. They’re around them day and night, seven days a week.

“What’s so great about this game is you can say there’s always next week,” he added. “You get excited about the post position draw, and if you draw good, you have the weekend to look forward to. Even if you don’t win or do well, it starts over again. My father would always say we’ll get them next week. His optimism rubbed off on me.”

This fall has been particularly successful for the Annunziatas.

“The way this goes the higher end horses are safer to claim,”

said Annunziata, whose recent claims included Hop Sing for $125,000. “I thought he was a real good claim. It should be exciting in the next couple of weeks. Todd Weir [husband of the previous owner, Donna] called and told me ‘game on,’ so there might be a little claiming war.

“I love the New Zealand horses,” he added. “They don’t start racing until they’re three and sometimes four. They’re sound and last a long time. I bought the brother and sister, Our Galvinator [the seven-year-old has earned $92,000 this year] and Miss Galvinator [a six-year-old who has banked nearly $86,000 in 2005], from Eric Cherry.

He promised me they were sound and strong horses, and that’s exactly what I got. They’re iron horses that race every week. My father swims them and never trains them. He built the swimming pool himself. It’s outside and he heats the water with a boiler. In the past 10 years I haven’t had one horse break down with the way he cares for them. I just hired Rick Bilach, and we split the stable between him and my father.

Rick is at Gaitway Farm. We rotate the horses.”