Meeting the right ‘guy’ put Jay Novak on his harness racing path
by Murray Brown
The time was a Saturday morning somewhere in the early summer of 1996. I was at The Meadowlands for baby races. While there, I struck up a conversation with a young man who I had known only briefly. His name was Jay Novak. I had met him through the Antonacci family with whom he owned horses. In addition to speaking about horses, the conversation drifted to what Novak did for a living. He was in the commodity business. He was a commodity broker. He dealt in futures in cotton, orange juice, currencies, and other items.
At the time, I was doing reasonably well financially. I asked Novak if he knew of a company in which I might make a small investment of a few thousand dollars. He said that he had recently invested a small amount in such a company, which thus far was doing quite well. I asked him what do they do? His response was that they sell books through the mail. My answer was something to the effect of, “Why would I want to invest my money with such a company? If I wanted to get a book, all I had to do was go to a local Barnes & Noble or Borders.”
Needless to say, I didn’t buy any stock on Novak’s recommendation. That company’s name was Amazon. Yes, that world-wide behemoth, which with a small investment of a few thousand dollars then would likely have reaped millions for me if I had the smarts to buy it and held on.
It is now 2026 and both Novak and I are in our 80s; older and, at least for this guy, not too much wiser.
Through our wives and mutual friends, we occasionally get together for dinner and at least for the boys, we catch up on horse talk and reminisce about the old days.
Let’s first talk about Amazon. Do you still own stock?
“Actually, I do, but not a lot. I wasn’t near smart enough to hold on to it from the first time I suggested the stock to you. Through the years, I’m guessing I might have bought and sold the stock a dozen or more times. That’s what I do. I buy and sell stocks through my own account. I presently own small equity in likely 200 different companies.
“I live here in South Florida. I used to own horses that would train here in South Florida at Sunshine Meadows —- first with the Antonacci family and later on with Ronnie Gurfein. That gave me something to do. I’d go to the training center and BS with the other guys there.
“After Ronnie passed, I owned Lucy’s Pearl alone, but was approached by Mark Weaver with a view of possibly buying her for the Burke Brigade. I eventually sold a majority interest in her to the Burke Stable, but retained 40 per cent for my wife Elizabeth and myself. She continued racing and then breeding under the ownership of my wife Elizabeth and the Burke partners.
“To say that she has been a great investment, would be very much of an understatement.
“She was a very good race filly and earned $341,213. But, if anything, her success as a broodmare has totally eclipsed her performance as a racehorse. In order of foaling, her first four foals are Lou’s Pearlman [$1,262,271], Loukes Perry [$107,969], Lousain Bolt [$142,292], and My Girl EJ [$1,638,002].
“Unfortunately, personality issues prevailed between Mark Weaver and Elizabeth and myself and we offered all our horses, with the exception of Lou’s Pearlman for sale through Preferred Equine Marketing in the fall of 2024. They all sold well and we were quite satisfied with the results.”
So now with the exception of an 18 per cent interest in Lou’s Pearlman you are not a horse owner any longer?
“Much like everything else concerning Lucy’s Pearl, her son Lou’s Pearlman is another gift that continues to keep giving. He stood stud in 2024 and 2025 at Hickory Lane Stud in Findlay, OH to full books of mares. We anticipate that the same will hold true for the 2026 breeding season. His first foals will be arriving through this winter and spring.”
We’ve spoken about your denouement in the horse business. How about its beginning? When and where did it start?
“In the late ’70s and early ’80s I would go to Roosevelt Raceway on a regular basis. One day I was approached by a man who said his name was Guy Antonacci, but everybody knew him as Sonny. He said he had noticed me being there regularly. I had noticed him as well, but I was too shy to speak before being spoken to by him. We eventually became the closest of friends – not only with Sonny and his wife Mary, but especially with his two sons Frankie and Gerry, who were close to the same age as me. At about this time, my father passed away. Sonny became a surrogate father to me. The Antonaccis not only welcomed me into their family, but also welcomed my now widowed mom.
“One day in 1984, Frankie stood outside the window of their home holding a colt on a lead shank. He said it was a yearling by Speedy Crown, then the leading trotting sire in the world. The colt’s name was Mr Novak. They had named him after me. He wanted me to come into its ownership as a partner with his family. I bought 25 per cent and he turned out to become a pretty good horse earning near half a million dollars.
“From then on, I would regularly buy into horses in the Antonacci stable. I and my mom would often be guests in their home. We would travel together to the races. Gerry was usually at the wheel almost always driving well beyond the speed limit.
“Anytime I was faced with a problem, I’d go to Sonny with it. There was never a time when he wasn’t able to come up with a solution.
“In addition to them being great people, the Antonaccis are great business people. From the good garbage business built by Sonny, the second and now the third generation of the family have diversified, successfully, from that successful business built by Sonny into a multi-faceted empire including recycling, a state of the world golf resort, a family fun resort named Sonny’s Place, as well as a standardbred breeding and racing empire, and now a successful place in the thoroughbred business.
“I doubt that there are any finer people anywhere than them. If there are, I certainly have never met them.”
Is there a future for you in harness racing?
“They say never say never. I’m now in my 80s. However, I think it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that once Lou’s Pearlman’s first foals are yearlings and the right situation comes around that I might be persuaded to get back in. As the guy from the New York Lottery says, ‘Ya never know.’”
