Becoming the leading trainer at Woodbine is an extremely tough task. Doing it while also managing stables in Pennsylvania and New York is almost unheard of. Throw in a young family and a passion for music and you have Carmen Auciello.
Story by Keith McCalmont

Long before Carmen Auciello was a name printed ten times a night in your Woodbine racing program, he was a fun-loving teenager serenading the ladies at Main Street Sports Bar in Stouffville with the up-tempo tones of Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5.

A little bit of Monica in my life

A little bit of Erica by my side

A little bit of Rita is all I need

A little bit of Tina is what I see

A little bit of Sandra in the sun

A little bit of Mary all night long

A little bit of Jessica here I am

A little bit of you makes me your man

There was probably a time, way back when, that singing each of those names represented the potential for a little bit of fun at closing time.

“I was always a big karaoke guy growing up and that’s what really developed my love for singing,” says Auciello. “Back when I was 17 or 18, it was fun sneaking into the bar with a few buddies and maybe missing first or second period the next day.”

The now 34-year-old conditioner is still stretching his vocal chords as often as he can, although as he strives to oversee a bulging stable, one can imagine that these days, when he hums along to the catchy old earworm of a tune, that the names of the ladies have changed.

A little bit of Arienne in my life

Hope that Janie Bay doesn’t go off stride...

The son of veteran horseman Rocco Auciello looks back fondly on the good old days at Stouffville District High School where he enjoyed a well-rounded childhood mixing up music, horses and sports to varying degrees.

“I played hockey, baseball and golf growing up,” recalls Auciello. “My first concert was The Tragically Hip’s Roadside Attraction tour back in the mid-90s. It was a great gig. I’ve always enjoyed music.”

And you can still find Auciello out at karaoke the odd night when he has time off from training a busy stable. However, his tastes have changed considerably.

“Now I can get into Piano Man by Billy Joel or American Pie by Don MacLean. I like the classics,” he says.

To be fair, there’s not much time for fun with music these days. His band, ‘2-Down’ (made up of Carmen and his friend Kyle Norton), is on something of a hiatus, but that’s to be expected when a family man who had 102 starts beside his name in 2009, leaps to an incredible 1,626 starts in 2014.

In the process, he earned his first OSS Super Final victory in 2013 when Bugger Bruiser captured the two-year-old pacing colt and gelding division, and he secured his first WEG training title in December, 2014 with 95 victories.

For some, that may seem like accomplishment enough, but it won’t do for Auciello who is determined not to be a one-hit wonder like his old idol Lou Bega.

Auciello tried to have a normal life. His parents encouraged all four of their children to strive for careers outside of horse racing.

“I was the youngest, and only son, and probably the most spoiled,” laughs Auciello.

His sisters, Cynthia, Andrea and Christina, found good jobs outside of the game. After graduating high school, Auciello went to Humber College and picked up a degree in sales and marketing.

“I had a gig doing marketing and sales for a retail IP company,” says Auciello. “I worked summers for them throughout college and then went full time after graduating, but I just didn’t want to sit at a desk with a computer.”

Instead, Auciello, early in his 20s, decided to take a chance on his first love.

“My heart was always with the horses and I thought if I’m going to do it, that it would be better to take the chance when I was 22 instead of waking up at 40 and regretting not doing it,” he says. “Once this game is in your blood, it’s there for good. There’s no use denying it.”

Getting into the game was easy enough. He spent most of his youth following his father around their stable in Port Perry, Ontario, learning the basics, but dreaming big.

“My dad was pretty established, but we were always a smaller stable. I decided that if I was going to do it that I wanted to grow it and be a big stable,” says Auciello.

In the beginning, it was Rocco’s name in the program as Carmen shadowed his father taking something of a first-hand horseman’s course, just soaking up as much information and technique as he could glean from his father’s decades of experience.

“My biggest role model is my father. Growing up I was so passionate about horses and I learned everything from my dad,” he says. “Being able to work with him every day is amazing. It’s something not a lot of people get to do and it means a lot to me. He was always my role model and he always will be. If I can accomplish half of what he has, I’ll be doing well.”

Auciello quickly learned that the little details matter.

“My dad is very patient and very observant and doesn’t miss anything,” says Auciello. “Those are the qualities of a good trainer. You can’t cut corners or let anything slip by. If a horse has a little bit of heat in one leg that wasn’t there before, he knows, and rather than it being neglected and becoming a problem, he takes care of it. He just has a real good eye for a horse.”

From 2000 to 2008, with the horses in Rocco’s name, the stable averaged about 250 starts a year while carving out a modest living mostly on the smaller circuits. It was hard work and often with very little financial reward. In hindsight though, the principles and work ethic bestowed are no doubt paying dividends now.

Success, rarely, is an overnight sensation.

“We struggled through a lot of years in the middle 2000s, working 80 hours a week and losing money. Unfortunately, it’s something of a trait for a lot of horsemen in this business,” says Auciello. “It’s feast or famine and when things aren’t going well you’re scraping to get by and put food on the table.”

In mid-2009, Carmen took over, in name, the training duties for the stable.

“We still worked side-by-side every day, but I took on more of a leading role and we’ve grown every year ever since. The biggest thing is having owners and quality horses in the barn,” explains Auciello.

The rise of the Auciello stable may simply seem like a dramatic jump in number of starters to outsiders, but its really all part of a master plan linked in many ways to the demise of the Slots at Racetracks Program.

“Three or four years ago we got up to 30 horses and maybe half of them were $8K claimers, racing at Flamboro and Georgian,” recalls Auciello. “I finally just made the decision to focus on Woodbine and Mohawk…I told my owners if they’re going to invest then lets try and do it on the best circuit in North America. It’s the only way I thought we could make money and it’s turned out to be true.”

Determination, perhaps even stubbornness, factors into it. One might expect the head of a busy outfit to be a fast-talking high energy guy, but the truth is Auciello speaks with measured conviction. It’s easy to find yourself nodding your head in agreement while he speaks.

“If you don’t have the horses, get the horses,” starts Auciello as he lays out the program. “If you have one that’s not good enough for Woodbine, try to turn it over and get one that is. I wasn’t happy racing $6K claimers at Flamboro. I’m not making money, the owners are not making money and eventually you’ll lose that owner.

“You’ll work the same hours and the cost is the same whether you’re training a cheaper claimer or an Open horse at Woodbine. When you make that initial investment, you want to give yourself the best chance possible to recoup that money and time spent. So, we diverted our attention from the smaller tracks.”

The businessman, and gambler, in Auciello had the conditioner zigging when others zagged as the province brought an end to a once lucrative partnership.

“When the Slots at Racetracks Program ended, it killed a lot of people. We were determined it was not going to kill us and we fought and we fought. We had all these rallies and in the end we still lost,” recalls Auciello. “But I was still determined I could win and make this work in my favour as best I can. I didn’t want to lie down and let the government dictate my future for me.

“I won’t put anybody down. Everyone handles adversity in a different way. We decided no more small tracks. Woodbine still races for pretty decent money and we decided to make a go of it at Woodbine or we go broke. Go hard or go home. I didn’t want to be kicking around just to make minimum wage and work 80 hours a week like I’d done for many years.”

Hard work for little pay is far too often the harsh reality of life as a horseman. The Auciello family has lived through it, time and again.

“Believe me, there’s a lot of people in this business working for next to nothing,” says Auciello. “It’s heartbreaking, but for a lot of people it’s all they know how to do. For us, we’ve just been very fortunate that the past few years we’ve been able to make some money and turn things around.”

And the Auciello family is investing that good fortune back into the game.

“We’ve been on the same premises here in Port Perry for 20 years and initially it was a 15 stall barn. We added on another 10 to make it 25 and then another 5, and eventually we converted another barn, and now it’s up to 45.”

The landscape of racing in Ontario changed drastically after SARP. Owners diminished. Breeding numbers dwindled. Opportunities to make money dried up.

But Auciello recognized room for growth outside of Ontario. The problem for Auciello, as a man with a young family, was trying to figure out how to take advantage of owners reaching out and wanting to send him horses he simply had no room to race.

“We grew to meet demand. If an owner wants to send me horses and I don’t have room, I try to make room,” explains Auciello.

Suddenly, the small family business from Port Perry had gone international.

“If you look at my American starts I went from zero to 321 in 2013 and another 600 last year and we’re on pace for 800 this year,” says Auciello. “There’s not a lot of opportunity for growth in Ontario. I’ve got as many horses as I can possibly race at Woodbine on a weekly basis. But, in the U.S. there’s still opportunity to grow.”

The long term goal is to set up shop in Ontario, New York and Pennsylvania. His home base will continue to peak at about 45 head, with another 20 horses in each of the U.S. jurisdictions.

Armed with spreadsheets, to keep the project organized, and a good team of assistant trainers, Auciello has enjoyed a great deal of success abroad. Key to the U.S. invasion was the hire of horseman Darryl MacCannell.

“Darryl was up here working for Anthony Montini at the time and I was looking for somebody to take a few horses to New York,” says Auciello. “Believe me, when I started I had no plans of it becoming as big as it is now. I just had a couple nice trotters and pacers that were having trouble getting in at Woodbine. They were tripping over each other because they fit in the same class.

“Meanwhile, the purse money was pretty good at Yonkers so why not send someone down there with a few. Darryl went down with five horses and within a couple months it was 10 and then 15. It’s been as high as 27, but we float at around 20. In the last three or four years, everyone else’s stable has been shrinking and we just keep growing. “

The horses were multiplying like bunnies

Of all the numbers that have increased for Auciello over the past decade, the most important number is that of family members.

In addition to his wife, Ashley, and two young children, Leah (5) and Hudson (1), he’s also gained another parent.

“My father in law, Bill Dawson, works with us as well,” says Auciello. “We carpool from Stouffville to Port Perry every day together, and it’s amazing to be able to work with both my dads everyday.”

And Auciello is determined to be a good dad as well, despite an 8-5 day job that features the added bonus of four or five race nights a week and the constant buzzing of a phone that is all part of the joy of training horses across the continent.

“I want to be home. I enjoy being home with my wife and kids,” says Auciello. “I enjoy going to skating lessons and dance recitals and just watching them grow up. I want to be there for it.”

As an added bonus, both his kids like singing.

“When we’re in the car together even my youngest wants me to put on Frozen,” laughs Auciello of the ubiquitous Disney soundtrack.

The success of the past few years and having a staff he can rely on has made a family life possible. Of course, even a night off isn’t truly a chance to shut down.

“If I go home on a night where I have horses racing in two different countries, I can’t just turn the phone off and forget about it,” says Auciello. “You have to be reachable. Anything can happen. Questions come up with regard to equipment or a horse warming up lame. My phone is always on my hip but I try not to be too distracted. It’s tough.”

As the numbers grow, Team Auciello continues to move like a well-oiled machine melded together by family and friends. Assistant trainers and caretakers are important parts of a well-run barn that is trying its best to stay a family business, despite the bustling, industrial façade.

“We compliment each other well,” says Auciello of the father-son tandem. “I’m the guy that goes out to look for the horse to buy and claim and he’s the guy that can bring a horse right. He spends time on fixing them up, rubbing their legs, poulticing and between the two of us we seem to get the job done.”

That Rocco is so hands on, allows Carmen the time to keep the wheels turning on the business side of the game.

“A lot of the time I’m in the office entering horses and my dad is out running the barn. He’s a huge part of this. My dad is 67. He works hard but this is what he loves to do. He’s at the barn every day. We’re committed to each other and making this worthwhile.”

There’s more at stake here than dollars and cents.

“It’s not all about money, but it takes some of the pressure off when you spend so much time away from home,”’ he says. “If it wasn’t about money I’d have a 10-horse stable and my dad and I would do it ourselves. But it also becomes about accomplishment and doing something other people haven’t.”

With the number of starts growing exponentially, one might wonder where Auciello sees himself in five year’s time. Is he trying to be the next Ron Burke?

“That’s beyond what I have plans for,” grins Auciello. “I don’t want 200 horses in five states. He’s taking it to the next level. I might want to get a little bit bigger and I’d love to have the top notch champions that he has…

“Ultimately, I’d love to get my hands on some nicer horses and race in the big races. And that’s our next step. Focus on quality, not so much numbers and starts, but find those nice horses that can take you to the big dance and have a horse good enough to race in the North America Cup or the Hambletonian.”

With 11 two-year-olds currently in training, that next superstar might be just around the corner for Auciello. In the meantime, he’s enjoying the ride.

“I want good quality racehorses that can race every week. I’m having a ton of fun. I love it,” he says. “Every Saturday when the sheet comes out and we have 10 or 11 horses in, I love it. I love seeing my name in the program and you want to have as many opportunities to win as you can.”

And on the nights when his horses don’t win, Auciello, ever the family man, knows he can come home and have a Disney sing-along with his kids and let the stress just wash away.

Let it go! Let it go!

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Ask Me Anything: Carmen Auciello

Last summer, several of Woodbine’s top horsepeople posed questions for Carmen Auciello. Here are a few of their questions, and Carmen’s answers.

Paul MacDonell: Training such a big stable, how do you keep entries straight?

Auciello: It’s a one man show right now. I spend a couple of hours every morning in my office. We get the barn work sorted out and then I spend a couple of hours getting the entries done, checking to see where horses fit. I spend a lot of money on TrackIT every month.

Paul Shakes: What training schedule works for you?

Auciello: We rarely train racehorses right now. When I say that I mean the older campaigners. The younger ones; the two and three year olds, are on a training schedule but it’s dictated by when they race. For the most part, we use the Equicizer a lot. Some of my horses won’t see the track at all in a week.

Mark Bradley: Do you do different things with different horses?

Auciello: Very few. Overall most of them end up on the same routine.

Jason Hughes: How do you keep horses in tip top shape?

Auciello: It’s racing every week. You won’t find anybody that races a horse more than me. If they’re sound and healthy, they’re not making any money sitting in the stall, and on my routine, they’ll get out of shape if they’re not racing every week.

Chantal Mitchell: What do you look for when looking to claim a horse?

Auciello: The biggest thing is back class. You want to see a horse that’s done it before. I don’t want to claim a horse with the hope of making them go faster. I want to see that they’ve done it. If I see a trotter that trotted a mile 1:55 last year I might take a shot to see if he can do it again.

Greg Dustin: Would you rather race at Mohawk or Woodbine?

Auciello: For me, Woodbine is closer to my house and my farm, but you can’t help but love Mohawk with the fans right on the finish line. It’s like asking whether I’d rather drive a Porsche or a Ferrari. They’re both the best places to race in North America, as far as I’m concerned.

James MacDonald: Why don’t you shave very often?

Auciello: I’m surprised it’s not Anthony (MacDonald) asking that question. It’s a look that I’ve gone with. Sometimes it looks good and when it gets longer, it looks like crap. My wife asks the same question and I don’t have an answer for her either.

Chris Christoforou: Where did you get that voice?

Auciello: Both my parents can sing. All three of my sisters are great singers. Growing up with a bunch of buddies in school who liked to play guitar, for me it became second nature. Now my daughter Leah loves to sing as well.