Paul Bordogna is one of the luckiestguys in harness racing
by Murray Brown
Paul Bordogna considers himself to be one of the luckiest guys in all of harness racing.
Consider this: He has been involved as an owner for upwards of 50 years. He considers his overall success to be well above the norm in that he has been in the black overall. Lucky, in the sense perhaps that in addition to having financial success in the business, he has made a multitude of good friends, had good trainers, and had far more good, to perhaps great, horses than most owners have been privileged to have been associated.
Among the people, in somewhat chronological order, were his uncle Len Matarazzo, Tom D’Altrui, Jr., Steve Elliott (also a trainer and a great one at that), David Scharf, Steve Arnold, Ray Schnittker (also a trainer and quite successful), Steve Jones, and today with Dave McDuffee, Mel Hartman, and Steve Arnold.
His trainers for the vast majority of his horses, over 50 years, have been only four: Steve Elliott, Ray Schnittker, Richard “Nifty” Norman, and Brett Pelling.
His horses include five millionaires — Donato Hanover ($2,998,777), Riverboat King ($1,234,576), Venerable ($1,187,798), Totally Ruthless ($1,150,964), and Dewycolorintheline ($1,023,841) — and numerous other quality stake performers. There are very few major stakes races where Bordogna was not to be seen in the winner’s circle.
Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into this wonderful game of ours?
“I suppose like with many of my era it began with regular visits to the two major New York area tracks Roosevelt and Yonkers Raceways. There are probably few today that will believe this, but there was once a time when harness racing was not too far behind thoroughbred racing in popularity and both combined, drew more customers than any of the major sports.
“I started going to the races and loved it. A number of years later I had the opportunity to buy into a horse partnership that Tom D’Altrui [DI Farms] was putting together. I believe the price for my piece might have been something like $3,500. The problem was that as reasonable a price as that was, I didn’t have the money. I was a teacher and sports coach earning somewhere in the area of $20,000. I mentioned the opportunity to my Uncle Len who was very successful and also a great fan of our sport. He said, ‘Go ahead and do it. I’ll back you.’ So, I did.
“The horse won one low level race at The Meadowlands and certainly wasn’t one that would encourage you to buy more. At the time, Tom was putting together ownership groups for some of the yearlings he had bred and raised. I bought into a couple over the next few years with no success at all. We had just purchased a home and my wife, Fay, was pregnant. Money was tight and the last thing I needed was another slow horse. I received a call from Tom who said he had two yearlings that he was going to sell privately into partnerships. He invited me to come to the farm and have a look. I wasn’t going to go but Fay said, ‘You love this, go on and do it.’ Tom had them priced at $١٠٠,٠٠٠ and $٤٠,٠٠٠. I had no idea what I was looking at but Tom mentioned Steve Elliott took a piece of the colt priced at $٤٠,٠٠٠. I didn’t know much about yearling selection but I was smart enough to follow someone who did. That yearling was Totally Ruthless.”
What happened next?
“That colt took us on our first great ride through the Grand Circuit. The Meadowlands had opened and was flourishing. We raced there and made visits to Canada, Pompano, The Red Mile, Rosecroft, and Freestate. Totally Ruthless became the [Dan Patch] 2-Year-Old [Male] Pacer of 1988 and I was hooked on buying yearlings. The next year for Totally Ruthless wasn’t quite as fortuitous. He broke a bone in the first major race in Canada and was out for his 3-year-old year.
“In the fall of 1989 there was a Big Towner filly named Sunraycer selling at the Fall Classic Sale. Steve and Tom liked her so we bought her for $13,000. She went on and earned $398,593 and we sold her after her 3-year-old year with her eventually going to Hanover.
“We had several other good ones in the ensuing years. I had more luck with Steve. He was going over to Gaitway to buzz a 2-year-old that was for sale for another owner. While there the trainer mentioned another colt was for sale. Steve took him for a quick spin and came off the track and said we should buy the colt. I had met David Scharf who was also a friend of Steve’s and had horses in the barn. We bought the colt for $60,000 and partnered with David. The colt was Riverboat King who earned over $1.2 million.
“Our next millionaire and likely the greatest horse I’ve ever owned was Donato Hanover. Up to this point all of my horses were pacers. We were at Harrisburg in November of 2005. David Scharf was interested in buying a trotting colt that he absolutely loved. He was out of a mare named D Train that David had owned. He said she had extreme speed was an absolute renegade. David wanted to buy the colt, and have him trained by Steve, but he cautioned that he wouldn’t be cheap. He could bring as much as $100,000. Did we want in? We mulled it over and decided to take the leap as did Steve Arnold. He ended up bringing $95,000 and our stable Golden Touch came in for 40 per cent. He went on to capture just about everything at 2 and 3. He earned just about three million and was partially syndicated after his [2-year-old] year based upon $6 million, $50,000 per share, with the final syndication taking place at 3 at a value of 10.2 million, $85,000 per share, to stand at Hanover.”
Author’s note: In April 2006, I was making the rounds of the various training centers. I met Steve Elliott. I had been a particular fan of Donato Hanover as a yearling, so I naturally asked Steve about him. This isn’t the exact verbiage, but its close. “If that son-of-a-bitch isn’t a top trotter, then I’m getting out of the business,” Steve said. “He’s the best horse I’ve ever trained.” “But Steve, you also trained a horse named Valley Victory,” I responded. “You heard me,” he responded.
What about after Donato?
“The next millionaire was Dewycolorintheline. We had graduated into regularly buying higher priced yearlings. Ray Schnittker was our trainer and owned part of him. He brought $110,000. He was a Deweycheatumnhowe who Ray had trained. He was one of the few high-priced yearlings by that horse who proved to be worth the money spent for them.
“The most recent millionaire was Venerable. As time went on the prices kept getting higher and higher. David McDuffee loved her and bought her for our partnership as a yearling for $210,000. She proved to be worth every penny and a lot more. She was the best 2-year-old filly of her year. She proved that in winning the Mohawk Million and beating the colts. Unfortunately, she contracted EPM [Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis] causing her to miss a substantial portion of her 3-year-old year which didn’t allow her to reach her full potential.
“I do have a remarkable story related to her. Among her other wins at 2 was the Jimmy Doherty Memorial at The Meadowlands. Marvin Katz was making the trophy presentation. He congratulated me on Venerable’s win. I told him that not only was I an owner of Venerable, but I also owned part of Brickhouse Babe who finished second and Delilah Hanover who finished third. He looked at me as though I were crazy. How lucky was I to purchase interests in only three trotting fillies that year and have them finish 1-2-3? Sometimes it’s much better to be lucky than good.”
In recent years, your price points have risen to the point where last year you spent $575,000 to buy Valorous, Venerable’s first foal and $350,000 to buy Day One Dandy, Delilah Hanover’s first foal. I would speculate that there is no way that a school teacher can afford those prices, regardless of how successful he has been in our business.
“After eight years of teaching and coaching, I realized that there was no way I could support a family. So, at the age of 29, I went back to school for an MBA from Rutgers. I took a job at Price Waterhouse in their audit group. After three years I left and took a position with Prudential simply because I wanted to stop commuting to New York City. The group I worked in invested in real estate for large public and private pension funds. I eventually started a unique program that allowed our investors to partner with developers and invest in real estate development without taking actual construction risk. The program was, and continues to be, a huge success raising and investing over $30 billion. I’m now 77 and I’ve been retired for nine years. In addition to my love and investment in harness horses, I’m a big overall sports fan. Right now, I’m enjoying the New York Knicks, but I follow all of the major sports.”
Which brings us to the present. How are your horse holdings now constituted?
“I have nine in total in training. There are four 3-year-olds. They are all racing, but there are no champions among them. Maybe I’m paying penance for all my previous success. If I have any hope for success this year it rests with the 2-year-olds. There are three trotters who are with Nifty Norman and two pacers who are with Brett Pelling. The time is approaching when we will know what we have – for better or worse.”
