by Debbie Little

The name Andrew Morgenbesser may not be familiar to you, but over the last two months, no one has spent more time in The Meadowlands’ winner’s circle than him.

Morgenbesser, 30, was born into this business and became The Big M’s winner’s circle attendant in October of this year.

Morgenbesser comes from a well-known Big M family, that of his mother Bridget, whose maiden name is Fusco.

“My mom is one of the 11 [siblings],” Morgenbesser said. “Well, now one of eight.”

The tight-knit, New Jersey-based family made news in 2020 when eight of them went into the hospital with COVID-19 and only three came home. Morgenbesser lost his aunt Rita, uncles Carmine and Vinnie, grandmother Grace and her sister Maria to the virus.

Morgenbesser’s earliest memories of harness racing were the times he spent with grandfather Vincenzo, who died in 2017.

“I’m 7, 8 years old getting in a truck with him to go to the farm and help him out,” Morgenbesser said. “He was the type of guy that if you’re at his house and he’s outside, you gotta be outside working with him.”

Morgenbesser also cleaned stalls for his uncle Vinnie back in the day, and just like his father Marc, he owned horses in the past, but harness racing has never been his main source of income.

Andrew previously worked for Local 731 underground on the railroad and currently is in the customer service department of owner Bill Pollock’s Trinity Solar.

When Andrew was informed earlier this year that The Meadowlands needed a winner’s circle attendant, he felt he would be a good fit.

“I understood the job before I took it,” he said. “It wasn’t like [the job] had to be pitched, because I’ve been watching The Meadowlands since I was like 9 or 10, just a young kid.”

Although the job seems straightforward enough, Andrew knows it can be a dangerous gig if you don’t do it correctly.

“Every job’s easy as long as you work as a team and communicate,” he said. “The first thing I ask [the caretaker] is ‘Would you like me to take the horse off the track?’ and if the groom gets out [of the van] and he’s like, ‘The horse doesn’t like standing,’ they’ll take over. So, it’s just all about communicating.”

Although he is quite comfortable doing the job, the occasional curveball does get thrown his way.

“If you watch a video of my first night at The Meadowlands, the first horse, it was raining and they told me to stop the horse on the track and he didn’t want to stop,” Andrew said. “So, yeah, the first one was the hardest.”

As with any job, Andrew knows he just has to take this one in stride.

“The other day, I was putting the horse into the winner’s circle and the horse gave me a flat tire and took my shoe and my sock off and I just continued to walk the horse out of the winner’s circle and then I got my shoe,” he said with a laugh.

For Andrew, the most important thing is making the winner’s circle experience a good one for everyone, including the winning horse, no matter what the weather conditions might be.

“Listen, a job’s a job,” he said. “You gotta go through the weather. Like, when I was in the union, you know, snow, rain, sleet, sun, you’re out there working. So, you gotta deal with the weather, you know, you gotta just do what you gotta do. 

“You can just tell if a horse doesn’t like standing like that. As soon as it starts to do anything, like try and jump back or up, you’re just like, let’s just end the picture. It’s time to go.”

In addition to the winning horse and its connections, Andrew’s nightly communication involves guests making a presentation, track photographers Mike and Jim Lisa, as well as winner’s circle host, Gary DiLeo.

“[Andrew] loves the sport and knows what’s going on during a race,” DiLeo said. “He listens to directions great. He knows when it’s a first-time win headshot, birthday, etc. He learned on the job. He is a keeper.”