Joe Fiorello’s talents are showcased at River Run Racehorse Retirement with Dr J Hanover

by Murray Brown

One Saturday last March, I was at Sunshine Meadows watching the babies going through their routines when this young man on horseback came alongside the deck. Wanting to make conversation, I asked him the name of the horse which he was riding. His response was “Dr J Hanover.” Only half believing him, I said, “Really? I go back a long time with that horse. I remember him as a yearling named Stepenwolf Hanover. He was one of the highlights of our [Hanover’s] 2014 yearling sale selling with that name. He was bought for $300,000 by clients in the Tony Alagna stable who subsequently changed his name to Dr J Hanover, to honor Dr. Bridgette Jablonsky, then the farm manager at Hanover Shoe Farms.”

Following his relatively undistinguished 2-year-old season, he was gelded. Doing that likely marked the turning point in his racing career. He went from being a disinterested colt to becoming a very significant racehorse.

After a few starts at 3, he was purchased by Hall of Fame, Ontario-based owner Brad Grant who kept him in the Canadian division of the Alagna Stable under the supervision of Tony’s mother Donna Lee. There began a lifetime association between the horse and Donna, which only was interrupted by Donna Lee’s passing in February of 2025.

On the racetrack, Dr J Hanover became a world champion and earned over a million Canadian dollars. When his racing career came to an end, Dr J Hanover followed Donna Lee, first to Sunshine Meadows in Florida and then to her newly purchased home in Kentucky where she was overseeing the Kentucky division of her son Tony’s racing stable. Fate then stepped in. Donna Lee had been valiantly fighting cancer for a few years. Sadly, it was a battle she was destined to lose. After Donna’s passing, Tony adopted Dr J Hanover. I asked the young man, whose name is Joe Fiorello, how he happened to come together with Dr J Hanover. It’s a long story that has a somewhat happy ending.

Would you tell us a little about yourself?

“I’m from New Jersey. I began drinking when I was 13 and went from there to also using illegal drugs. I was an alcoholic and recovering drug user. I’ve now been sober for 31 years. At 19, I realized that I desperately needed to turn my life around. I moved to Florida and have been living here ever since. I began working in a hospital working in an area where I can provide outreach help to people facing the same demons that I’ve overcome.”

How did that relate to harness racing and more specifically to Dr J Hanover?

“The fact is I had no background or experience with horses or more specifically with harness racing. I was in the slots area at Pompano Park one night and hit it big. I won several thousand dollars after investing $20 in a slot machine. As luck would have it, I was on my way home from my windfall, when I received a phone call from a friend of mine. He wanted me to invest in a racehorse that he was considering buying. What did I know about horses? Nothing, but I had a bunch of money that was burning a hole in my pocket. I told him that I was in. The horse’s name was Janet. She was to be trained by Richie Silverman who was also going to be part of its ownership group. I started hanging around the stable area and the Silverman Stables. Within three months our partnership owned five horses. I became friends with Richie’s dad, Jerry, who was to became my mentor and somewhat of a surrogate father. Jerry told me that he would teach me everything there was to know about harness racing. He did teach me a lot, but I’ve still got a lot to learn, some of which even Jerry didn’t know. I hung around the stable, often times coming before work early in the morning or later in the day after work. After some time, I was allowed to jog and even occasionally train. Being around the horses became a compulsion. I’d sometime follow them up north when they began racing. Then in February of 2024, Jerry died. I was lost, but my love of the horses was far from satisfied.”

Then what happened?

“I started hanging around Tony Alagna’s stable. Tony had nearly 100 horses on the grounds at Sunshine Meadows. I asked Tony’s mom, Donna Lee, if I could help out and perhaps learn. Over time, she became one of my dearest friends. Donna’s favorite horse was Dr J Hanover. Most of the horse’s success was achieved under the guidance of Donna. When Dr J’s racing career came to an end, Donna took him with her — first to Florida and then to Kentucky when she set up camp there. It was while he was in Florida that I first met him. My friendship with Donna continued and I visited her and Dr J in Kentucky while they lived there. Then Donna sadly passed away in February of 2025. Of course, Tony took over the care of Dr J.”

How did you come to take over his stewardship?

“It’s kind of a long and involved story. One of the original group of five horses that our group was involved with was a trotter named Thirty Eight Special. One day, out of the blue, I received a call telling me that Thirty Eight Special was in a kill pen in Virginia. If he wasn’t rescued, he was going to slaughter. I called my partners and we put together enough money to rescue him. I had met Denise Molina, a woman who was an expert at converting former racehorses to saddle and the show ring. Together with her, we transformed Thirty Eight Special into an excellent riding horse here at Sunshine Meadows. We lost him to colic more than a year ago. I had regularly kept in touch with Tony since Donna’s passing. I’m not sure whether it was Tony or me, but we talked about Dr J possibly becoming a substitute for Thirty Eight Special in my care. I also had another rescue, a horse called River who had not raced, that we converted to saddle. Dr J joined River and River Run Racehorse Retirement was founded. River Run is small, now consisting of only Dr J and River out of necessity. It’s a one man and two horse entity. I still have my day job and am only able to work with the horses in the early morning and after work hours. I get proposals from trainers and owners all the time asking me to take their usually non-competitive racehorses and help adapt them to a situation where they can lead a secondary useful existence. Sadly, I have neither the time nor the means necessary to take over more than what I now have. But I am still young and willing to work at it. If I am able to achieve the necessary means to do so, our horse holdings will expand. Who knows what the future will bring?”