Born: July 26, 1970 in Syosset, NY
Record at Keeneland
Total wins: 15
Stakes wins: 4
__________
First Grade 1 Win: 
2008 Hollywood Starlet with Laragh.

First Stakes Win/
First Graded Stakes Win:  Star of Valor in the 1998 - Aqueduct Handicap (G3).

First Career Win:  April 7, 1993, at Keeneland - with I’m no Quacker

 

 

• Stable won 26 races and earned $1,568,683 in 2012.
• Stable won 41 races and earned $1,887,155 in 2011; highlights including winning the   Central Bank Ashland (G1) in 2011 with Lilacs and Lace at 48.70-1
• Finished in a tie for sixth at the Keeneland spring meet in 2011
• Won four stakes with Franny Freud in 2010, including the Prioress (G1).
• Won the 2009 Darley Alcibiades (G1) with Negligee.
• Won the 2008 Hollywood Starlet (G1) with Laragh.
• Became a trainer for Team Valor in 1997.

 

 

 

Background:

His father John Sr. owned Thoroughbreds and took the family to Saratoga every summer. He started out working for Dominic Imperio, one of his father’s trainers. Attended Boston College to study business, but he took a leave of absence after 2 1/2 years to work at the track and never went back. 

He began dating eventual wife Tonja in New York in 1991, following her to California. He took out his trainer’s license in 1992. Tonja had worked as an assistant for trainers Brian Mayberry and Bob Baffert.