by Jeffrey R. Pocaro

Fanwood, NJ — There is a memorial race for Ralph J. Pocaro, this Friday (Aug. 2) at the Meadowlands.

Pocaro was a long-time harness horse owner (1964-2006) and horse attorney (1959-2006).

He was at the Meadowlands’ opening night and fell in love with the facility. He longed to have a great horse race there and when he was the owner of Guts, a Meadowlands fan favorite, he made certain that the horse was stabled and raced there often.

Guts won his first 10 starts for Pocaro, including the New Faces series legs and finals in 1984 and the Oliver Wendell Holmes (both the heat and finals from post nine, defeating On The Road Again, who had the rail in both races).

Pocaro founded the first fan club ever for any Standardbred race horse and he would carry shopping bags full of buttons that said “I Love Guts” and “I’m Nuts 4 Guts” and he handed them out to hundreds of racing fans at the Meadowlands, Freehold, Brandywine, California and tracks in Canada.

Pocaro was a director of the NJ-SBOA for many years and worked with Lou Babic to institute the NJ Sire Stakes program. He helped write the racing rule in New Jersey that tracks had to withhold five percent of purses for the trainers, who used to have to wait for their owners to pay their percentage.

He was also involved in several legendary horse cases, including the Hambletonian dead heat between Park Avenue Joe and Probe, as well as the Sweetheart Pace and Savilla Lobell and the infamous 33 second slow quarter race at the Meadowlands.

The presenters will be his son, horse owner and horse attorney Jeffrey R. Pocaro and his significant other, Lynn Wolf; and his grandson, Russell S. Pocaro and his fiancee, Jennifer Kempton.