As a rule, Frank DeLiberti is a pretty even keeled guy. But Magnum Kosmos turned his owner into Cosmo Kramer, or Kosmos Kramer, as the case may be.
At Saturday’s Hambletonian eliminations, DeLiberti looked like he was reenacting an episode of “Seinfeld,” when a frenzied Kramer beat himself silly with a racing form
in an OTB parlor as his horse came home a winner.
Magnum Kosmos came in second in his Hambletonian elim, getting edged by Manofmanymissions by one length at odds of nearly 34-1. But the scene was the same.
“I thought fourth or fifth would be the best we could do, but we came awful close to winning,” DeLiberti said. “Coming down the stretch, fighting Manofmanymissions, I thought we had it and we lost it by a little bit.
“That was really exciting. I don’t show many emotions. But I had the program in my hand and I was just whipping on my leg.”
Like Kramer (from Seinfeld)?
“Yes, exactly,” he said with a laugh.
A special agent for the federal government, DeLiberti retired at age 50 and got into the racing business in 1998 by owning a share of a horse at Rosecroft Raceway. Horse racing always appealed to the Brooklyn native, who went to Yonkers regularly as a child.
“That was always the biggest excitement of the day, going there with my parents,” he said. “After I got out of the government I wanted to do something and since I enjoyed the racetrack so much, I got into it.”
Five years after entering the business, DeLiberti started his Dover, Delaware-based The Wiz Kids Stable. He owns some three dozen horses.
Because Dover is near Philadelphia, many locals think DeLiberti named his stable after the 1950 Phillies Whiz Kids pennant winner. But it actually resulted from when he was based in California.
While in Silicon Valley, DeLiberti noticed that a street named “Wiz Kids” was named in honour of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the co-founders of Apple Inc. who were known as the Wiz Kids.
“I named my stable going on the theory of bringing in trainers on the bottom end who want an opportunity to go up the ladder,” DeLiberti said. “The one thing I try to find in these trainers is that they want to work hard and they’re honest. We’ve had a variety of trainers who have stepped up to the plate and done great things with limited resources.”
Trainer Tony Dinges purchased Magnum Kosmos for just $6,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sale. Since then, Magnum Kosmos (SJs Caviar-Mega Magic Vita) has won $230,250 and is DeLiberti’s first Hambletonian finalist.
In keeping with his common practice, DeLiberti gave Dinges a $10,000 cap and sent him to market.
“Ever since then, I said ‘Here’s $10,000, go shopping,’” DeLiberti said. “Tony’s got a knack for picking out horses, breaking them, training them down. He also has a knack of not only going forward, but knowing when it’s time to quit. That’s very valuable.”
Last year, Magnum Kosmos won a division of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and finished fifth in the final. This year, he has won four of eight starts, including divisions of the sire stakes and Reynolds Memorial. He was riding a three-race victory streak entering the Hambletonian elims.
In the elim, Magnum Kosmos took the lead at the halfway point and held it into deep stretch before yielding to Manofmanymissions.
“He has been a nice horse all along,” Dinges said. “We just skipped the [Stanley] Dancer, trying to miss the good ones. We didn’t want to beat him up before the Hambo. We are just trying to prep him the right way.”
DeLiberti said that was the plan from the beginning.
“We wanted to stay below the radar until we knew we’d be in competition,” he said. “We wanted to stay low; now we’re like a stealth bomber coming in.”
The only question at the start of this week was who would be piloting the plane. George Brennan drove Magnum Kosmos in the elimination, but will drive Broad Bahn in the Hambletonian final. Broad Bahn won the other elim.
Whoever ends up driving Magnum Kosmos, one thing is certain. If he makes it exciting, someone better take DeLiberti’s program away from him before he hurts himself.
Here is a look at the field for the $1.5 million Hambletonian:
PP - Horse – Driver – Trainer - Morning Line Odds
1. Broad Bahn - George Brennan - Noel Daley - 4-1
2. Manofmanymissions - Andy Miller - Erv Miller - 9-5
3. Fawkes - Yannick Gingras - Jonas Czernyson - 15-1
4. Chapter Seven - Mike Lachance - Linda Toscano - 7-2
5. Whit - Tim Tetrick - Homer Hochstetler - 8-1
6. Whiskey Tax - Randy Waples - Thomas Durand - 15-1
7. Opening Night - John Campbell - Jim Campbell - 10-1
8. Magnum Kosmos - Brian Sears - Tony Dinges - 15-1
9. Luckycharm Hanover - David Miller - Thomas Haughton - 15-1
10. Pastor Stephen - Ron Pierce - Jimmy Takter - 10-1
(Meadowlands Racetrack)