By Francis LaBelle
David “Chief’’ Alcaro gets around pretty well for a big guy.
A late summer weekend saw him at Delaware Park to watch Striker Has Dial win the $150,000 Endine Stakes and then immediately ride down to Dulles International Airport in Virginia to catch a flight to Ireland to see another one of his horses race at The Curragh.
As part of his 49th birthday celebration, Chief remained in Ireland for a week, visited trainer Joseph O’Brien’s Carriganog training center and then headed back to New York to resume his role as a commodities trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On December 11th, he had a much easier trip when he went to Aqueduct in Queens, NY to watch Time To Roll win for the second time in four starts.
He lives a fast-paced life, which also includes heading his Thoroughbred racehorse syndicate, Chief Horse Futures (CHF), LLC, producing award-winning documentary films, rooting for the Bendigo Spirit, an Australian professional women’s basketball team of which he is part owner, and co-hosting a weekly sports radio program in Australia.
Yet, for all the territory he covers, Chief always makes time for worthy causes. And Chief has certainly made time for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF).
This past summer, Chief attended several fundraisers in support of former racehorses, including three TRF Saratoga Springs events: Gumbo with jockey Kendrick Carmouche at the Principessa Elena Society; LALO for Jocks & Horses at the Adelphi Hotel that benefitted the TRF and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF), and the Backyard BBQ at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital.
A true racing fan, Chief has made aftercare a priority as a horse owner.
“I’m not sure specifically when I learned about the TRF,’’ he said. “I knew of the importance of aftercare generally as a fan of the sport, and then it was hammered home in the required viewing of the video by the New York Racing Association (NYRA) before granting an owner’s license.’’
NYRA, which operates Saratoga Race Course, Aqueduct Racetrack, and Belmont Park, has worked with the TRF and other Thoroughbred aftercare organizations over the years. NYRA television paddock reporter and analyst Maggie Wolfendale-Morley is a current member of the TRF Board of Directors, as is jockey Katie Davis McCarthy.
Although Chief has owned both Thoroughbreds and standardbred horses “off and on for two decades,’’ three years ago he dropped the vowels from his nickname and started CHF with three Thoroughbreds purchased at Keeneland.
Chief reached out to Horacio De Paz to train his horses. According to De Paz, Striker Has Dial illustrates Chief’s understanding of how to be a responsible horse owner.
“In addition to being a lot of fun, Chief is very patient and very low maintenance,’’ De Paz said. “When Striker Has Dial was a two-year-old, she came back from a breeze with a minor problem. Chief was a new owner for me and some new owners would have pushed to run her right back again because it was a minor injury. I told him that she might give one great effort, but there is no guarantee that she would give that effort again if that injury got worse. Instead, we agreed to give her some more time. With Chief, the welfare of his horses always comes first.”
The result is that Striker Has Dial became Chief’s first stakes winner for De Paz. The Endine Stakes was her third victory in six starts this year and pushed her career earnings to more than $300,000.
Chief – “A co-worker gave me that nickname when I worked as a clerk on the trading floor because he said that I looked and sounded like Chief Wiggum on The Simpsons.’’- is used to success. Born in Bristol, TN, he grew up in Orange County, NY, about 60 miles north of The Bronx, where his Italian American family has its roots. It was his Aunt Yola who fostered his love for racing, as she routinely brought her nephew with her on forays to Off-Track Betting. He became fascinated with racing and with numbers. An exceptional student, Chief attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School as a finance major.
“I completed the course work in three years, but failed to pass the foreign language requirement, so I didn’t graduate,’’ he said. “I worked on the New York Mercantile Exchange trading floor as a summer intern after my senior year of high school and through college. I returned back to my home base in New York City, became a trader in February of 2000 at 23 and was on the trading floor until it was replaced by electronic trading and the primary market for commodities trading in 2010. I have continued to trade commodity futures electronically ever since.
“Going to OTB with Aunt Yola, I loved the numbers and racing. I would follow horse racing through Sports Illustrated articles and sports radio. I was lucky to join a work trip that went to the Kentucky Derby in 1999. I was 22, just a clerk and really had no business being on the trip aside from being with a couple of older friends. I’ve been to every Derby since. ‘’
Chief was also in attendance five weeks after Charismatic won the Kentucky Derby in 1999 to see the colt’s bid to win racing’s elusive Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes. Charismatic finished third after suffering a career-ending injury. Jockey Chris Antley immediately pulled his mount up after the finish, jumped off Charismatic, kept him calm and held his injured leg until medical help arrived. Antley’s quick actions were credited with saving Charismatic’s life.
“The Belmont is when I saw how much the horse means to everyone involved,’’ Chief said. “It was not about the financial aspect. It was the connection and the emotions from everyone.’’
Certainly, Chief has shown connection and largesse to meaningful causes. The two documentary films he produced –Trouble the Water (2008) and The House I Live In (2012) – were both Grand Jury Prize winners at the Sundance Film Festival, with Trouble the Water receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. The films dealt, respectively, with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, and America’s losing effort with the war on drugs.
For more than a year, Alcaro has been increasingly involved with TRF and other Thoroughbred aftercare programs.
“All of them are excellent,’’ he said, “As far as fundraisers, my favorite was the Gumbo because of the location and Kendrick now becoming a friend and not just my primary jockey.’’
The TRF is lucky to count Chief as a friend. He is a horse owner who not only gets around but simply gets it.