by Bill Finley, for the Thoroughbred Daily News
When Philip Antonacci begins his training career later this year, he won’t be just any rookie. The 25-year-old who has worked for a number of top trainers has enlisted legendary Standardbred trainer Jimmy Takter to assist him in what Antonacci describes as a partnership between the two.
Antonacci’s family operates Lindy Farms, one of the most prominent breeding and harness racing operations in standardbred racing. Lindy has branched out in recent years and now operates a modest sized thoroughbred operation, which Philip, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, has helped manage. It has long been his desire to go into training thoroughbreds and Takter was looking for new challenges in his life. That’s what brought the two together in what Antonacci calls a “perfect marriage.”
Antonacci has secured 15 stalls at Payson Park and plans on running his first horse at the Gulfstream championship meet. The horses will run under his name and he will handle many of the day-to-day chores, including the administrative duties. But Takter will play a major role, to the point where the two could be called co-trainers.
Takter stunned the harness racing world when, toward the end of 2018, he announced his retirement. Just 58 at the time, he said he was having a hard time getting motivated. After spending much of the first year of retirement traveling with his wife Christina, he found that something was missing.
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