fullname birth_place nationality sport birth_date residence article_title name
catello r. manzi monticello , new york american harness racing 27 june 1950 freehold township , new jersey catello manzi
 catello manzi
catello manzi

catello r. manzi -lrb- born june 27 , 1950 -rrb- is an american harness racing driver and trainer .
manzi 's nickname is ` catman ' .
born in monticello , new york , manzi grew up in sullivan county , new york , in a harness-racing family .
his father alphonso was a horse trainer .
he drove his first race at monticello raceway in the late 1960s .
manzi 's first career win came at pocono downs in 1969 .
in 1974 manzi set a monticello raceway record for most wins by a driver .
the 1994 yonkers trot winner , bullsville victory , was driven by manzi .
manzi also drove sugar trader to victory in the 2003 yonkers trot .
the yonkers trot is the second leg of the triple crown of harness racing for trotters .
on may 27 , 1999 , manzi suffered serious injuries in a spill at freehold raceway .
manzi was inducted into the harness racing hall of fame in july 2002 .
on december 31 , 2005 at the age of 55 , manzi became the oldest harness driver to lead north america in victories .
for two decades manzi would drive afternoon races at freehold raceway , go home to eat dinner , then drive more races in the evening at meadowlands racetrack .
manzi drove his 14,000 th career winner on december 14 , 2010 at yonkers raceway .
at the time , hervé filion and dave palone were the only other harness horse drivers to have 14,000 or more career winners .
on march 28 , 2014 , manzi announced his retirement from driving following two bad accidents .
the first , on september 6 , 2013 at freehold raceway , left manzi with a fractured pelvis .
after recovering , he returned to racing only to be injured again when the starting car at freehold raceway lost control and collided with several drivers and horses on january 10 , 2014 .
at the time of his retirement , manzi was ranked third all-time for wins at 14,812 , and fifth all-time in earnings at $ 158.5 million .
