Joe Bongiorno, age 17, isn’t old enough to place a bet at the track yet, but he’s already had quite a few winners
there.
Bongiorno, a junior at (what else) Colts Neck High School in Colts Neck, New Jersey, was the winner of the Eastern Regional final of the Billings Series for amateur drivers on Sunday at Harrah’s Chester with the horse Winterleebrook. The 11th-grader got a license to drive a horse before he got a license to drive a car. He has 12 starts and five wins to his credit since he started driving in August, including three wins in Billings competition.
The young Bongiorno comes by his interest in the sport naturally.
“My dad (Robert Bongiorno) was a trainer when I was young and my mom’s maiden name is a very big name in harness racing – Dancer,” Bongiorno said. Barbara Dancer Bongiorno is the daughter of Harold Dancer and thus a great niece of the late Hall of Fame trainer/driver Stanley Dancer.
Robert Bongiorno now works outside racing, but is still in the sport as an owner. He was among the owners of Pilgrims Taj, who started in this year’s Hambletonian for three-year-old trotters and won last season’s Breeders Crown for two-year-old male trotters.
“I was really young when he was training, so I didn’t go there (the stable) much,” Joe Bongiorno said. “Since he’s owned horses, I’ve always gone to the barns to see the horses and a couple years ago I started to get into it and started driving. I started (as a groom) with Buzzy Sholty and I took care of a couple horses for him. I jogged and everything like that over the summer, every day. I was 15 then.”
The young Bongiorno used to play baseball in school but dropped it when, “I got in love with horses and it was just too time consuming.” He is an A and B student who says he’s heard “a couple times” that trips to the barn are contingent on good grades for the 5-foot-9, 130-pounder.
Bongiorno will race in the Billings championship, at The Meadows on December 6, in the $25,000 Delvin Miller Gold Cup.
“We decided we’re going to use the same horse (Winterleebrook, trained by Chris Scicluna); most likely that will give me the best shot at winning that race,” Bongiorno said. “We asked if we could use his horse and he said that was no problem and plus, the purses are so good in this series, it’s actually working out better.”
Bongiorno, who will also compete in the American Harness Drivers Series final at the Meadowlands on December 10, plans to continue advancing in the sport.
“I have a qualifying and fair license and I’m going to get a provisional license in September (2011), my next birthday,” he said.
He sees an all-equine future right now.
“Driving horses, that’s it,” Bongiorno said when asked about career plans. “I’m going to try to get right in the horse business after high school. I’d like to start out with a 10-horse stable, drive my own horses and pick up some catch drives and try to start a catch driving career from there.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.