by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications

Freehold, NJ — The literary character Zorro punctuated his successes by slicing the air with three quick slashes of his rapier, marking the letter Z.

Amateur driver Matt Zuccarello, who has a big Z across the back of his black, blue and white colors, hopes his fellow drivers see his Z cross the finish line ahead of them at Goshen Historic Track on Saturday (July 6).

Zuccarello, 38, lives in New Hyde Park, N.Y. and will be driving B B Smash, a horse he recently claimed expressly to drive in amateur races, in race four, a Catskill Amateur Drivers race, for a purse of $3,000. B B Smash, who has five wins in 20 starts this year and a 1:55.4 mark on a half-mile track, looks on paper to be the one to beat from post one.

Zuccarello, who works full time in sales of heart rate monitors and assessment equipment, is still a relative rookie, in his second year of driving as an amateur.

“I grew up five minutes from Belmont and about ten from Roosevelt Raceway,” he said. “I kept telling my dad, “One day (I’m going to drive a horse).’ I kept procrastinating for years and little by little got involved.

“A couple years ago I got small percentages of horses and then I started to go on my own and said, you know, I always wanted to drive. My friends always busted my chops saying, ‘You’re too big to be a jockey. I’d tell them, ‘I’m not a jockey, I’m a driver, it’s totally different.’

“It just went from there. I’ve always had a love for the sport since I was a little kid going to the track with my dad, watching Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds. These are the ones I could actually sit behind and the weight doesn’t matter.”

Zuccarello, who has 60 starts, has just one win so far.

“I got a win last year, just after my 37th birthday. It was a nice young horse and he pulled me around the track.”

B B Smash was purchased by Zuccarello in late May and is trained by Dennis Laterza.

“(I purchased him) for amateur racing mainly, but when I’m working or traveling for sales, I would have a professional drive him,” he said. “I wanted something fast and that I could handle to try to compete.

“I go to the stable on Saturday mornings and jog my horses. I have another racing in the Excelsior Stake (at Goshen) on the same day as this horse. That’s Twin B Bikini. She’s the expensive one, I don’t drive her. She’s got to be the money maker. She’s racing for four times the money, so we have a professional on her. But I go to watch her race whenever I can at the different tracks.”

Twin B Bikini, a 3-year-old pacing filly, competes in race eight, post two, with Greg Merton driving, in the $12,600 Excelsior Stake leg for New York sired horses. She has 11 on-the-board finishes in 18 starts this year, for $13,593 in earnings.

Racing takes place at Goshen Historic Track on July 4, 5, 6 and 7. Post time 1 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and includes a program. Children 12 and under are free. For more information, go to www.goshenhistorictrack.com.