Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — John Ciocca Jr. recently went on his own as a trainer and currently has five horses in his barn. He has no helpers, no grooms; and literally does it all by himself.

“It’s some long days,” the 29-year-old Ohioan said, “but I get to hang out with horses all day so it could be worse.”

It’s a refreshing attitude and a necessary one for a guy who wants to make his living in harness racing. And the fact is, it actually was worse at one point.

After two years of college, Ciocca left school for a job in the mortgage industry. The money looked good, but the way of earning it was pretty boring.

“I had a desk job, working nine to five, doing a bunch of cold calling and looking at a computer all day,” he said. “One day I just got kind of sick of it. I liked being active and being outside. I just decided to go the horse route and see if it works out, and I’ve kind of been running with it ever since.”

That was five years ago, and Ciocca has been making steady inroads. He got his trainer’s license in 2021 and has a barn of five horses at Sahbra Farms in Streetsboro, Ohio, which is 20 minutes from MGM Northfield Park. He owns pieces of all five with his high school friend, Tim Kiernan, and their operation is named Kick It Stables.

“The first horse we ever owned, we claimed it,” Ciocca said. “Her name was Kick It In Kate, she won the first two races for us, and she got claimed. We wanted a stable name, so why not Kick It Stables, since she was the first one. It didn’t sound bad, so we went with it.”

John Ciocca Jr. drove Vague Traces to victory on June 26 at MGM Northfield Park. Photo courtesy of John Ciocca Jr.

Since kicking it in gear, Ciocca has 32 wins and $296,117 in earnings. Several months ago John got his driver’s license and notched his first win shortly thereafter. He now has two driving wins for $34,545 in earnings.

“I finally got comfortable sitting behind a horse and getting used to him, and I was thinking ‘Why not just drive?’” he said. “I sit behind them every day and train them everyday; why not just drive them in the race too. I fell in love with it my first start. It’s an adrenaline rush. It’s fun.”

The fun was lacking, however, when John was growing up in Northfield, just scant minutes from Northfield Park. And while he didn’t mind going to watch races there, delving into the profession didn’t excite the youngster.

“My two grandfathers owned horses, my mother worked as a groom, she grew up with horses as well,” Ciocca recalled. “I always loved watching them, but I never really got into doing the work during the week. I was always around them as a kid, but I never pursued or thought about it. My dad had a couple horses, he taught me a few things and I enjoyed working with them but I never really got into it.”

After high school he ran the 400 and 800 meters for the track & field team at Mount Union, known for its perennial national championship teams in Division III football.

“I remember the first day I walked on the campus, I figured it was D III, a small school, but there were some big boys on the football team,” he recalled. “They looked like Division I athletes. I ran track with a couple of good ones. (NFL receiver) Cecil Shorts was a sprinter for us, he was quick.”

Ciocca’s college career was also pretty quick, as he left after two years for a good job in the mortgage industry. But drudgery set in after four years and John opted for the horses. At age 21 he worked in the barn of late Ohio horseman Barry Langley.

He also hooked up with Northfield Park trainer/driver Larry Ferrari, who “helped me a lot and taught me a lot, him and Craig Stein.”

In 2021 Ciocca moved out to Sahbra Farms, where he met Sam and Jodi Schillaci.

“They taught me a tremendous amount about a horse, how to take care of one, giving me pointers here and there,” John said. “They’ve been in the business so long, they’ve had so many horses, they’ve come across so many different scenarios — a horse injury or something like that, and what to do. I’ll forever be grateful to the amount of information they taught me about horses. That’s when my career kind of started going up.”

Ciocca has remained in the Schillaci barn but now runs his own operation. He currently trains and drives his own horses but wouldn’t mind handling those of other owners if the opportunity presented itself.

His first training win actually came in his first training start at Northfield with pacer Vague Traces, who is now 11.

“We had the two hole, we actually got locked in,” Ciocca said. “He shook free right past the three-quarter pole and he was able to get to the outside and the rest was history. He won by two or three lengths going away when he got out.

“I was pretty upset going down the backside because I thought he was never getting out. And then he shook free and I was like ‘Oh my God he got loose!’ I was actually ecstatic, It was a good feeling.”

Especially because it came with that particular horse.

“I’ve got a special bond with that one,” he said. “He’s got a home for life with me. He’ll be my forever horse. He’s a classy old man. He’s got about $600,000 made on his card. We bought him four years ago. He’s one of the first horses that we had.”

Ciocca’s first driving win came a few months ago with 5-year-old pacer Not Today at Northfield.

“We quarter moved to the front, and we dropped down in class and he just kind of overpowered those horses,” he said. “He made my job a lot easier than probably what it should have been. He did all the work, I was just a passenger.”

When it was suggested he shouldn’t get used to that, Ciocca laughed and said “I learned that real quick. I should probably have a few more (driving) wins, and they would have been wins if someone else was driving them.”

John termed both wins “exciting” but felt that “it was a little more exciting getting my first win as a driver. It was pretty much I trained him all week, I went out there and drove him too. It was a good feeling just to get the monkey off my back.”

Ciocca drives two of his other horses — 5-year-olds Beach Forecast and Victory Move — while one is undergoing rehab. All his races have been at Northfield but he hopes to start racing at Scioto Downs at some point.

While he has dealt strictly with older horses, John is hoping that he and Kiernan may soon invest in a baby.

“I’m actually in the baby barn of Sam and Jodi’s,” he said. “I never worked with babies at the track or anywhere else. Watching them start the process and teaching a horse how to race, teaching them and breaking them, it kind of perked my ears. It seemed like fun. I talked to (Kiernan) and we actually talked about buying a baby this year.

“It would be great to get a Grand Circuit horse, but those are hard to come by. It would be a wild ride to be able to get one. I always pray for it anyway. It only takes one horse if you get a special one. I feel like the only way to do that is to go to a baby sale and buy one and get lucky.”

But as things stand now, Ciocca is pleased with where he is at in his third year on his own.

“I’m happy, but never satisfied,” he said. “You learn something new every day in the horse business.”

Especially when doing it all on your own.