by David Mattia, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

New Brunswick, NJ — Montreal Stable, a long-standing harness training facility in Mickleton, N.J., is soon going to close to make room for an industrial building. Sitting on 25 acres of property, the half-mile track with stabling for 50 horses and large, grassy paddocks, is slated for final sale on February 5.

New Jersey horseman Dominic Putorti purchased Montreal Stable in 1964 for $25,000 — a price of $1,000 per acre. Putorti, a native of Italy who came to the United States via Canada nearly 50 years ago, has run the training facility like a mom and pop operation since its inception. Currently the stall rent is a mere $50 and for many years he only charged $40 to the horsemen who stabled there.

Owner/trainer/driver Vincent Gargano, a South Philadelphia native, has stabled there and he’s surprised that the farm is not being kept on as a training facility, owing to its close proximity to Harrah’s Chester.

“I’m just surprised that he never put it out on the open market for horsemen to see if there would be interest from guys like George Foreman or Wayne Chrebet or any trainer who might want a farm so close to Chester,” said Gargano. “It’s less than ten miles from Chester on the Jersey side and that’s where we’re going to be racing for the most money. Dominic (Putorti) sees the kind of money that they’re getting down there for property and he thinks that he’s getting too old — which he really isn’t. I try to tell him that. As a matter of fact, Tim Tetrick just bought a place right near the farm.

“It’s a place where people stabled together and everybody helped each other. A lot of guys who stabled there had day jobs so Dominic would look after your horse until you got out of work. He takes care of all the cats there and he even feeds a skunk that comes around. He’s just a guy who will do anything for you.

“It’s a great stone-dust track that you can train a horse in 2:05 on. You could always get a horse ready there. The track could take water. Even if it rained hard you could wait a few hours and go out there and the track would be perfect. Nobody really knew about this farm because there were always open stalls, but over the years a lot of good trainers have trained horses there.”

Grand Lady, a winner of $235,571, and the dam of Glowing Report ($1,992,269), Perfect Union ($723,598) and Must See ($487,122) trained there during her racing career, as did other noteworthy horses like Town Dreamer ($424,908) and Get The Bags ($151,231), whose foals, chief among them being Roddy’s Bags Again, have earned $842,231.

As recently as last week trainer George Wagner shipped to The Meadowlands from Montreal Stable and won with Tongue Twister. Wagner has stabled at Montreal Stable for many years and is currently looking for a new location for his operation.

“It’s a shame,” said Gargano. “It’s really a great place that’s going to be gone. I know I wish it wasn’t closing, but I guess Dominic can’t turn down the big offer he got.”