3 August 2017
PAUL MICALLEF
THE testimonial of ‘hard work pays off’ is seen none better than through Rossmore trainer Kevin Pizzuto.
He has strived to establish himself as one of Sydney’s leading trainers without the aid of a racing family background.
His work ethic has him now firmly entrenched among the leaders in the State and Metro Trainers' Premierships with ambitions of heading to the top.
And tonight at Penrith he should reach a milestone in his career by bringing up his first century of winners after going terribly close last season with 96.
Pizzuto goes into the meeting sitting on 99 wins and believes he won’t have long to wait before he cracks the ton.
He rates former Kiwi pacer Sir Macador a top chance of winning the opening race when he makes his Australian debut.
Sir Macador has drawn barrier one which is the same barrier he scored from at his last start at Forbury in New Zealand on June 22.
After settling behind the leader he gained an inside run to win narrowly rating 2:00 for 2200m.
“I really, really have a lot of time for this horse,” Pizzuto said.
“He has high speed and he is just going to keep improving under my training regime.”
Pizzuto has three other representatives tonight and should he not achieve his goal it will happen this weekend.
The strength of Pizzuto’s team will be going around at Menangle on Saturday night where he expects the flying Egodan to keep on winning.
Pizzuto is proud of his achievement and is full of praise for the team which has supported him.
“It wouldn’t have been possible without Karen Crouch, my daughter Courtney Lee and Joe Bugeja,” Pizzuto said.
“It’s been bloody hard. I have 25-30 in work and at the moment I have a 90 minute return trip to Bankstown every day, sometimes twice.
“I’m looking to buy a property to save all that travelling and devote more time to the horses.
“I believe if I can do that I will get even better results and take me to the top.”
Pizzuto’s passion for horses started at a very early age.
“I’ve always loved horses. I actually wanted to be a jockey but my weight put an end to that,” he said.
When Pizzuto left school he went to work for the late Maurie Selems who had great success with Disco Adios and horses that carried the prefix Veiled.
“I was with him for 10 years and worked seven days a week. He was a good man,” Pizzuto said.