Mia’s Crusade #5 driven by Jockey Jomar Torres and walked into the winner circle by owner Joe Ioia won the $ 85,000 Spruce Fir Handicap. (Ryan Denver/Equi-PHOTO)
IOIA and his stable stable exclusion of the sweater in the title of the owner
The meeting of Monmouth Park will end this weekend
Oceanport, NJ – Joe Ioia had no idea how dramatic his life would change if he bought a house in Colts Neck, NJ in 2004. The building, assessed for horses, came with a single horse – only the beginning of the culture shock for the Brooklyn, NY, Native.
“The following that you know I want to buy horses and I am looking for a trainer,” he said.
On the way to the last weekend of MONMOUTH PARK, Prancing Horse Farm, owned by Ioia and his wife Gayle, at the top of the owner’s classification with 14 more victories, three more than Morici Racing Stable. That victory total could also grow very well, with two horses on Saturday and four on Sunday.
And it was all achieved with a stable consisting of all Jersey-bred.
“It’s great to go against Goliath and kill the giant,” said Ioia. “This year my personal goal was to win the title of the owner. I was disappointed in May when we did not win, so that brought us back a bit. But we have really picked things up since then.”
The 72-year-old Ioia now has 55 horses in the Algemeen-20 of them Renpaarden. They are all bred, broken and covered on a 65 -hectare farm in Colts Neck that he bought in 2019.
His search for a trainer can be credited to Serendipity two decades ago.
“My daughter worked at Riverview Medical Center (in Red Bank, NJ) and she worked with Helen Spina,” he said. “Helen told her that her husband was a trainer if I was interested.”
IOIA and trainer Chuck Spina have been partners for 19 years, although he has also trained a handful of horses by Sergio Rabadan, his farm manager.
But it was a horse that changed everything for Ioia. Bustin Out won nine out of 19 career starting Start from 2014 to 2017 and missed the board only once in her career. She was honored twice as the best older mare of New Jersey.
“The whole thing with owning horses started to get out of hand with Bustin out. She put us on the map,” said Ioia. “That really started my horse racing fever, and I don’t do anything halfway. Things have just started there.”
But it still took time and a considerable financial investment. In 2021, the IOIA stable managed to win only 3 of the 45 races in the Monmouth Park Meet. Then in 2022, with Spina as a subdentor, he won the owner’s title. He tied second place in 2023 and lost to Klaravich Stable and was again bound in second place last year. For the past three years, he has been earned first or second in money in Monmouth Park.
“By inquiring myself about better breeding and buying better horses, we could have the success that we have had lately,” he said. “In the beginning it was a kind of ‘whatever’ when it came to breeding and buying horses. My feeling is that if you spend the type of money that I do, you might as well go into it. That changed the dynamics for us.
“After 2022, when the better breeding and better stock and better buys, it is made.”
A by -product was the pride of Jasper, who raced Haskell Stakes in the NYRA bets in 2024.
“That was great. Just phenomenal for me to be in the Haskell,” he said. “It didn’t matter that we were last finished. We were in it. That was great for me.”
Ioia, who has a public storage terminal for fossil fuels in Elizabeth, NJ – “I am the largest storage of used cooking oil east of the Mississippi,” he said – put everything two years ago under the Horse Farm Banner Prancing. His wife, he said, mentions all the horses after extensive research.
In the $ 85,000 Pinot Grigio Handicap of $ 85,000, IOIA has the lightly raced jewel of the ocean and the ultra-consistent Mia’s Crusade that goes into the five-follow grass race. Mia’s Crusade won $ 534,481 and was the best older mare of New Jersey in 2023.
A victory on Saturday would make her the first horse that seven ever-bred stakes races wins in New Jersey.
“For me, the leading owner in Monmouth Park is a great achievement,” said Ioia. “What makes it even more special is that we have all had the same team, together with Chuck and Sergio and all the help we have on the farm. That means a lot to me.”
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