Frank Di Giulio: Playing the Long Game

Frank Di Giulio, Jr. said his friends still kid him about the pictures he taped to his high school locker. No rock stars or women in bikinis, Di Giulio, Jr. proudly displayed pictures of racehorses.

“I remember having Genuine Risk. That was one of them. She was on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” the 55-year-old owner/breeder from Etobicoke, ON said laughing. “I don’t know whether I should be admitting that, or not.”

Considering one of Di Giulio, Jr.’s favorite hobbies as a teenager was also reading the Daily Racing Form, it’s little surprise he has spent a lifetime in game. This year will mark the 35th anniversary of when Di Giulio, Jr. first became a horse owner. In 1982, he and some friends cobbled together $6,250 to claim a modestly-talented gelding named South of Elba who didn’t win a race that year and earned a paltry $2,500 of career earnings of a little more than $19,000.

Beyond being Di Giulio, Jr.’s entrance into ownership, South of Elba was notable for two other reasons: Di Giulio, Jr. said he didn’t lose any friends over the failed venture and the gelding was conditioned by Bob Tiller, who has trained Di Giulio, Jr.’s horses ever since.

“He’s good. I think that’s number one,” Di Giulio, Jr. said of Tiller. “He’s very honest and couldn’t care more than he does. Caring, honest, fair, good, talented.”

Though he acknowledges being with one trainer his entire racing life is unusual, Di Giulio, Jr. said there’s really been no reason to change.

“You need good horses and that gets frustrating sometimes. When you have them, you wonder how you got them and then when you don’t have them you wonder why you don’t have them. You do everything the same way, you breed the same way, you buy the same way, but sometimes it doesn’t always work out the same way. That gets frustrating, but a trainer can only do so much with what he’s got to work with,” Di Giulio, Jr. said.

“I know that when Bob gets a horse with some talent, he can get the most out of him. It’s like a hockey team firing the coach when the players are no good. They do it, it happens all the time, but it usually doesn’t accomplish anything, because the coach doesn’t go out on the ice and do anything. The trainer can’t go out and run. It’s the horses that are doing the running. It’s a comfortable relationship. I know it’s rare. I look around and I see people with four trainers at the same time, let alone four trainers over a number of years. To each his own.”

Di Giulio, Jr. learned the lessons of loyalty from his late father, Frank Di Giulio, Sr., who also had horses exclusively with Tiller from the time they were introduced by a family friend in 1981.

“My dad was approached by other (trainers), but I remember him always saying, ‘The day I quit Bob is the day I quit owning.’ That’s the way he felt,” said Di Giulio, Jr., who was about 10 when his father started taking him to Woodbine a couple of times a month.

“As I got older, we actually spent a week a year at Fort Erie. That would be a family holiday for the guys to go down,” Di Giulio, Jr. said. “My brothers and father and cousins and friends. We would go down and spend a week in Fort Erie and go to the races every day when the A meet was held there. That was a lot of fun. We’d golf and do other things, play cards at night and go out for dinner. It may not appeal to a lot of people, but there were a lot of good memories.”

After graduating from university, Di Giulio, Jr. took a trip to Fort Lauderdale, FL with some friends. Instead of hitting the beach the entire time, Di Giulio, Jr. decided it was imperative that he make a trip to Gulfstream.

“I had never really been to any track other than Woodbine and Fort Erie… I figured out a way to get (to Gulfstream) by bus while the other guys were lying by the pool. I remember I had to be a third of the age of the youngest guy on the bus,” Di Giulio, Jr. said.

The age gap, which still exists, didn’t deter Di Giulio, Jr.

“I always dreamt about maybe owning a horse and dreamt about naming a horse,” he said.

In 1986, Di Giulio, Jr. went into the ownership business as his father’s partner.

“It really gave us something in common and something to talk about. He was a really good handicapper. I learned a lot from him that way. He was one that was probably more wiling to take a chance than I was, but I think he respected my opinion and as years went on, I think he kind of weaned himself out of it, or allowed me to sort of do more, a more hands on thing and gave me a little more say in things as time went on. It was fun,” Di Giulio, Jr. said.

Just two years into their partnership, father and son hit it big when they claimed 2-year-old Domasca Dan for $32,000.

“He was Ontario Sired and he had finished fourth for $32,000 and looked like he ran a pretty good race. I mentioned it to my dad and he said, ‘Ah, $32,000 is a lot of money. He ran okay, but let’s watch him run again.’ We watched him run again and he won easy and we said, ‘Oh well. There goes that one. We missed that one.’ Shortly thereafter, I remember buying the Form one night and picking it up and seeing that he was back in for $32,000 and I rushed over to my dad’s house. I said, ‘Dad, this horse is back in. What do you think?’ He wasn’t claimed the previous time. He said, ‘Yeah, okay… we’ll put one in.’ We weren’t the only ones that day. There were six other ones. We ended up winning the shake for him and he won that day.”

Domasca Dan earned just shy of $600,000 and was a foil to 1989 Canadian Triple Crown winner With Approval.

“Domasca Dan came third in the Queen’s Plate and that was a thrill. He came second by a nose in the Prince of Wales, which was a thrill and very disappointing at the same time. Winning the Jamaica Handicap in New York, as far as wins, that was his biggest win for us,” Di Giulio, Jr. said. “I still consider him the best horse I’ve ever owned. I’m sentimental that way. I don’t think people realized how good he was, to be honest.”

When asked, Di Giulio, Jr. then lists a string of champions he said he’s been blessed to own.

“Elated Guy, my dad and I claimed him as a two-year-old and almost won a million dollars with him. He was a great thrill. He was a very fun horse to own, especially the way he ran, because he usually came from out of it,” Di Giulio, Jr. said. “Win City was the best horse we ever bred. He almost won the Queen’s Plate and was Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old (in 2001). Brass In Pocket (a winner of $1.1 million) is another one we bred. Winter Garden (a winner of more than $900,000) is one Bob (Tiller) bought us in Kentucky. She was a really nice filly. We owned both of them at the same time. I kid Bob about it now, ‘Remember when we had the problem of having to keep those two fillies apart to try not to run them against each other? I wish I had that problem again.’

“More recently, we’ve had Goodoldhockeygame, Rare Friends, Forever Grand and Top Ten List.”

Equibase statistics say from 2000 to present horses owned by Di Giulio, Jr. have won 280 races and earned about $14.5 million.

Di Giulio, Jr. has seen the industry ebb and flow in Ontario over some four decades. He got in during the tail end of the golden era of racing, watched the game decline until it rebounded strongly under the Slots at Racetracks Program, stuck it out when SARP was cancelled and even absorbed last year’s changes to the Ontario Sired program — though, not happily.

“I was blindsided like everybody else was, as far as what happened. I was as upset as anybody else when it happened because that’s predominantly what I do, that’s predominantly what I buy and that’s predominantly what I breed,” he said, referring to Ontario Sired horses. “I understand there’s a problem with a shortage of horses and races not filling for open horses. I do have the odd open horse, so I’ve experienced it first hand. So, I know that people aren’t blowing smoke when they say that is a problem, because it is a problem.”

Di Giulio, Jr., who is a director of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (CTHS), said the problem with the changes is they came too suddenly and breeders weren’t consulted.

“Racing is a little easier to manoeuvre, but breeding, you can’t turn your program around overnight. It’s like trying to turn a battleship. You don’t turn the wheel and, automatically, you’re going left. It takes time to adjust and there was no time given,” he said, adding he is adjusting by choosing to breed fewer horses.

While he’s pulled back a bit on breeding his own, he said he has no intention of leaving the game and chooses to remain optimistic and positive despite the difficult realities of the industry.

“I think it’s a great game and I wish more people were involved in it, but I realize it will never be what it was because it was the only gambling game in town back then. It will never be that again, but I hope it can be somewhat like it was a few years ago and just get people to come out and experience it,” he said.

Frank Di Giulio, Jr. doesn’t expect many teenagers to tape photos of racehorses to their lockers, but, then again, not many did in his day, either, and look how that turned out.

“I was as upset as anybody else when it happened because that’s predominantly what I do, that’s predominantly what I buy and that’s predominantly what I breed,” said Di Giulio, Jr., referring to Ontario Sired horses. “I understand there’s a problem with a shortage of horses and races not filling for open horses. I do have the odd open horse. So, I know that people aren’t blowing smoke when they say that is a problem, because it is a problem.”