Trainer Anthony Quartarolo sets up shop at Churchill Downs

There are several new faces on the Churchill Downs backstretch to begin the 2018 Spring Meet, and one is New Jersey native and veteran horseman Anthony Quartarolo.

“I never thought I’d love Kentucky as much as I do,” Quartarolo said. “I think I came in at a good time and it’s been great so far at Churchill Downs.”

Quartarolo didn’t always have his hand in the Thoroughbred industry. The 71-year-old conditioner started his career in the early 1970s training Standardbreds in New Jersey.

“I’ve come a long way in my career since my time in harness racing and at the Meadowlands,” Quartarolo said. “A couple years ago, during one of their big race days, they had a trivia question on their TVs that said, ‘Who is the only person to win at the Meadowlands as a Standardbred trainer, owner, driver and Thoroughbred trainer and owner?’ Well, you’re talking to him. It’s a pretty fun stat to be able to tell people.”

Quartarolo trained and drove Standardbreds for most of the 1970s and ‘80s until his home track, Roosevelt Raceway in Long Island, N.Y., closed in 1984.

“I sometimes miss driving in a harness race,” Quartarolo said. “I almost drove in a race last summer when I was in Saratoga saddling a couple of horses. I called up my friend who trains harness horses in New York and said, ‘Got any rocket ships in your barn you could put me on for a race? If I come back to the bike, I don’t want to drive any slow ones.’ He told me he had plenty of fast ones. So, it got me thinking about making a one-race comeback but I never pushed the button to do it.”     

Quartarolo switched career paths in the late 1980s to begin working with Thoroughbreds and started his training career in 1993 at Delaware Park. After stepping away from the game from 2003-09, Quartarolo’s training career continued in 2010 at Monmouth Park in northern New Jersey.

Since 2014, Quartarolo has trained primarily for Ron Paolucci’s Loooch Racing. Quartarolo has a string of about 18 horses based in Churchill Downs’ Barn 24 that includes Apple Blossom (Grade I) third and recent $62,500 claim Fuhriously Kissed and highly-regarded Longines Kentucky Oaks (GI) entrant Heavenhasmynikki.