Generazios, Bongard, Cannizzo To Be Honored By NYTB

Prominent regional owner/breeders Patricia and the late Frank Generazio and the recently deceased Ellen Bongard will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in the New York-bred program, officials at the New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB) announced Monday. Former NYTB Executive Director Jeffrey Cannizzo will also receive a special award for his exemplary service to the organization.

“On behalf of our Board of Directors, we are proud to honor each of these noteworthy individuals for their contributions and service to the New York racing and breeding industry,” said NYTB President Tom Gallo. “Each one of them has made significant efforts as owners, breeders and administratively helping to make New York the best and most lucrative state-bred program in the country.”

The honorees will be recognized at the NYTB's annual awards event, to be held virtually Monday, Apr. 5, at www.NYTBAwards.com. New York-bred divisional champion and the state-bred Horse of the Year will also be announced at the ceremonies.

Patricia and Frank Generazio, who passed away at the age of 91 last November, have campaigned the likes of Disco Partner, Discreet Marq, Pure Sensation and Presious Passion, to name a few of their standouts.

“We've always been big supporters of the New York-bred program and will continue to breed in New York year-round,” said Patricia Generazio. “Frank always selected our breedings, and he loved the New York-bred program. I'm very thankful and appreciative to receive this award on behalf of both of us. His loss still hurts and our stable will be reduced substantially, but we already have many Disco Partner babies and we will continue to have a presence in New York.”

Disco Partner stands at Rockridge Stud in Hudson, NY.

Bongard, who died last December at the age of 77, was the daughter of the late attorney Bertram F. Bongard, who played a key role in the formation of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund and New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. Bongard and her sister Barbara owned Rojan Farms in Pine Plains, NY, before moving to Northumberland near Saratoga Springs.

“She would definitely appreciate this,” said Barbara Bongard. “She's certainly done a lot for the New York-bred program. I like to say our father started our family's influential success in the industry and Ellen took the reins and continued on. We're thankful she's receiving this recognition.”

Cannizzo served as the NYTB executive director for nearly 13 years before leaving that position to join the New York Racing Association.

“New York's breeding industry has flourished in recent times and I feel very fortunate to have played a small role in that success story,” said Cannizzo. “I'd like to thank the NYTB Board of Directors for their commitment to those working every single day on the 250 farms throughout New York. The success of the state-bred program comes with the tireless efforts of so many stakeholders.”

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Disco Partner Sires First Foal

Two-time graded winner and track-record setter Disco Partner (Disco Rico–Lulu's Number, by Numerous) was represented by his first foal when Plenty of Chrome (Big Drama) produced a filly at Rockridge Stud in New York, stallion home of Disco Partner. The filly was bred by John Graziano, Sr. and Patricia Generazio.

The latter bred Disco Partner and raced the popular gray with Christophe Clement. The New York-bred was victorious in 11 of his 33 career trips to the post, including the Jaipur S. in 2017 and 2018 when it was conducted as a Grade III and then a Grade II event, respectively. In the 2017 renewal, Disco Partner stopped the clock in Belmont course-record time of 1:05.67 for six furlongs. Disco Partner also won black-type races at 5 1/2 furlongs, seven furlongs and at a flat mile. He was also third in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint in 2017 and 2018 and in the GI Jaipur S. in 2019.

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Prominent Owner, Breeder Frank Generazio Jr. Dies At 91

Frank Generazio Jr., an owner and breeder responsible for some of the most memorable turf runners of the past couple decades, died Saturday at the age of 91.

A resident of Jupiter, Fla., Generazio was a participant in the Thoroughbred business for five decades with his wife Patricia, under whose name their horses usually ran. Their racing operation began in the Northeast at tracks like Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park, and the stable can primarily be seen today in New York and Florida under trainer Christophe Clement.

Generazio entered Thoroughbred ownership after a conversation at his father's birthday party led to a group of friends agreeing to put in money to claim a handful of racehorses at Suffolk Downs. After a few years, he was the only member of the group still in the game.

The Generazios became fully entrenched in the business after the $27,000 yearling purchase of Concorde Bound, a colt who went on to become a Grade 3 winner in the mid-1980s. He then retired to stud, and though he died of colic after a couple seasons at stud, the handful of foals he produced set the roots for his owner's homebred program through their success on the racetrack and in the breeding shed.

In recent years, the pink and green Generazio colors were best known for flying over a pair of homebred high-level gray turf sprinters in Disco Partner and Pure Sensation. Disco Partner set a world record for six furlongs over the turf at Belmont Park when he won the 2017 Grade 3 Jaipur Invitational Stakes in 1:05.67. Pure Sensation, who is still racing in 2020, is an eight-time graded stakes winner, and he won the Jaipur himself in 2016.

The Generazio homebred program has also included Discreet Marq, who won the G1 Del Mar Oaks for her breeders, then sold for $2.4 million at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November sale. They also bred and raced Discreet Marq's dam and granddam.

In addition to owning and breeding, Generazio spent time as a trainer in the Mid-Atlantic, racking up 370 wins from 1991 to 2006. His most notable runners in that span included Grade 2 winner Concorde's Gold and Grade 3 winners Unreal Turn and Play It Again Stan. He also trained the multiple stakes winner Concorde's Tune, who became a successful sire.

Generazio was a long-serving president of the New England HBPA, a member of the New Jersey HBPA, and he was a high-ranking member of the National HBPA.

The Generazios have based their breeding operation at Pleasant Acres Stallions in Morriston, Fla., since the 1990s, and they currently board about 35 horses at Joe and Helen Barbazon's farm, between broodmares and young horses.

Though the Generazios were clients well before the transaction, their relationship with the Barbazons was solidified with the private purchase of Presious Passion, a colt bred by the Barbazons.

Presious Passion went on to to earn $2,694,599 over the course of eight seasons, including two victories in the Grade 1 United Nations Stakes, a win in the G1 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Championship Stakes, and a runner-up effort in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita Park. The gelding returned to Pleasant Acres at the end of his racing career.

Memorial details for Generazio are still to be announced.

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Mischievous Dream Overcomes Trouble To Win Sorority

With a dozen 2-year-old fillies going a mile on the turf in Monday's 65th Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., jockey Joe Bravo expected it to be a bit of an adventure. Trainer Christophe Clement anticipated the same thing – and issued a reminder to Bravo before the race indicating as much.

“Christophe had said to me 'it's going to be a mess out there. There's a lot of horses for a flat-mile turf race. Try to ride a smart race and keep your eyes open,' ” said Bravo.

Bravo wasn't quite able to avoid the expected trouble but he was able to win nonetheless, delivering himself an early birthday present when Mischievous Dream split horses in deep stretch for a half-length victory in a wild finish in the $100,000 stakes race. That marked the third victory on the card for Monmouth Park's 13-time riding champion, who celebrates his 49th birthday on Thursday.

“I thought she was very impressive,” said Clement. “She scared me at the eighth pole (when Bravo had to check severely). I didn't know she was good enough to overcome that and make it to the wire first. But I guess she is.”

Back in the pack in ninth place along the rail early through fractions of :23.20 for the opening quarter and :48.37 to the half, Mischievous Dream was still in ninth entering the final turn. Bravo was able to find room along the rail in the stretch, but had to check in traffic behind Miss Wild and Social Exclusion before swinging his filly outside of both to an open seam.

From there the New York-bred daughter of Into Mischief, bred and owned by Patricia A. Generazio, shot past half the field. Invincible Gal closed for second, a half-length ahead of longshot Tic Tic Boom.

The winning time for the mile on a turf course listed as firm was 1:38.98. Mischievous Dream returned $9.80 to win.

“I had a lot of horse the entire time,” said Bravo. “At first she was hyper but she settled and relaxed. She was in the pocket. I just had to steer her out. I thought I had room in the middle of the lane to go between horses but I had to check big time.

“For a 2-year-old filly to pick herself up after trouble like that is impressive. It happened so fast. A couple of horses ducked in and out and I was able to split them. When a horse is able to pass horses in two or three jumps it's fun.”

After winning her debut on the grass at 5 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga on July 19, Mischievous Dream faltered a bit in her second start, finishing fourth in the Bolton Landing Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 19, also in a 5 1/2-furlong sprint.

Clement felt she deserved another shot a stakes race.

“We always thought she was a nice filly,” he said. “She broke her maiden impressively and we saw that she was better than she had done in her last start. She was training very well at Saratoga. That's why we were trying to be a bit more ambitious with her and it worked out today.”

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