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NICK ZITO - the racehorse trainer speaks about the game that will humble kings

By Frances J Karon
First Published: 08 April 2009 - Issue Number: 12

 “You know what I’m saying?” and “Right or wrong?” are variations of two phrases he grinds out with regularity. “I think that communication is very tough. You know what I’m saying?”, identifying it as the most difficult part of his job. “If I had to choose something, I’d say it’s that.”
“A little bit of a recluse” is how he describes himself, adding, “I’m not in a clique. I’m my own clique.” Yet, there’s nothing standoffish about him. He teases that he has continued to train since he took out his license in 1972 because someone once told him, “You’d better do this because you couldn’t even be a good bartender.” Impossible. It’d be too inviting to perch on a barstool, sipping on a Long Island Iced Tea, listening to Nick Zito preaching his gospel of life, based on 61 years of gathering wisdom.
Firmly established now as a Hall of Fame trainer, Zito hasn’t always had clarity that he would succeed. “I’ll tell you a very good story. In the fall of ’89, I was walking back from the receiving barn at Aqueduct. You know where that is? It’s a real trip, it’s a real treat.” His tone indicates that the location of Aqueduct’s receiving barn is anything but a treat. “I was going back and forth, and I didn’t think I was going to make it. And then I looked over by where the airport is and I walked over. The sun was just coming down and, I don’t know, something hit me. And this may sound corny but it’s never corny when it’s the truth, and what I’m about to tell you is far from corny, but to some people it still may be.”
He fidgets, scraping methodically at the label on a root beer bottle, peeling it off partially before smoothing it back into place. “I had some inexpensive horse I was running in the last race. ‘Well you know,’ I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna make it,’ and I looked up there,” indicating the heavens with his eyes, “and I said, ‘You know, it’s okay, God, if I’m not gonna make it. I’m still blessed,’ and then I swear, believe it or not, something came over me and said, ‘Oh no, you’re going to make it.’ You’re gonna make it. And here comes Thirty Six Red, right after that,” referring to his Wood Memorial-Gotham winner who also placed in the Belmont and Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1990.
Zito’s breakthrough was no lucky spin at the roulette table. On the heels of Thirty Six Red was 1991 Kentucky Derby winner Strike the Gold, “and the rest is history. Here comes [1994 Derby winner] Go for Gin, and everything else,” followed in 1996 by the first of three Eclipse champions, Storm Song. “So there is something to that. A satanic person might not believe that. That’s why I say it’s corny, but, yeah, I didn’t think I was gonna make it, but I was told I was so I kept going. It wasn’t easy. Like everybody else, it looks good on the surface.” Along the way, Zito learned to “be thankful for little things, getting up in the morning. I listen to a lot of creatures. I’m very lucky that way.”
Chief among those “little things” are the calm afternoons, when the trainer spends time “just hanging out” with his horses. After a recent visit to Palm Meadows, Zito’s son Alex says, “When no one was watching, he walked past Da’ Tara’s stall and stopped to give him a pet and a little pep talk. It was just a small moment that illustrates how he really loves his horses. When you come from the sales you see how much of a business racing is. The pressure can be tremendous, so...

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