06/12/2026
RON SPATZ: All About the Horse, by Cynthia McFarland
For trainer Ron Spatz, a long-ago summer job turned into the career he was destined to have.
Ron has called South Florida home for many years but was born and raised in New Jersey. He grew up in the city – not around horses – but everything changed after he went to college.
“In 1972, when I was in my second year at Monmouth College and wanted a job, I was told to go to the track,” recalls Ron. “I went to Monmouth Park and started as a hot walker. By the time the summer ended, I was a groom. I fell in love with horses when I got that job.”
As a groom, Ron worked for Buddy Lepman, a leading trainer at Monmouth Park multiple years and then Warren “Jimmy” A. Croll, Jr., trainer of such standout graded stakes winners as Bet Twice, Holy Bull, Housebuster and many more.
“After being a groom, I worked in the racing office for three years, but I missed the backstretch, so I went back as an assistant trainer with Greg Sanders and worked with him for three years,” says Ron.
For a decade, working in the racing industry meant going back and forth from Monmouth Park and Atlantic City Race Course to Florida.
“When I came back to Florida in 1982 as Sanders’ assistant, I picked up a couple horses of my own and we mutually agreed I’d get my own stalls,” says Ron.
Since going out on his own, Ron has become a multiple graded stakes winning trainer of more than $22 million.
One horse he trained who will always hold a special place in his heart is Carterista, the multiple graded stakes winner of $753,599.
“Carterista won at just about every distance on turf except a mile and a half. He was tough and wanted to do things his way, but he got better as he got older,” says Ron of the hard-knocking Florida-bred son of Dr. Carter who ran in 102 races from 1991 to 1999.
“Carterista was Florida-bred champion turf horse,” says Ron. “He was also the first horse at the Florida Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s Second Chances Farm in 2001 when they started that program at Lowell Correctional Institution, the women’s prison in Ocala.”
When evaluating a racing prospect, Ron considers the whole package.
“When I go to a sale, I like a horse to be attractive, and have good conformation and some pedigree, but it’s all an educated guess until they actually race,” he says. “Are they going to fight or quit when the bell rings? It’s really all about heart, and by heart, I mean ‘soul.’ You don’t know how competitive a horse will be until they get out there and do it on different surfaces. It’s all a learning game.”
Part of a trainer’s job is figuring out on which surface a horse will run best.
“Our job as trainers is to get the horses fit so they’re ready to run and point them where you think they can do their best work,” says Ron.
At the 2023 OBS March Two-Year-Olds in training sale, Ron bought a Florida-bred gelding by NEOLITHIC out of Love Itself (GB), bred by Joe and Helen Barbazon.
“I named him Private Thoughts and called a few friends to see if they wanted to partner with me on the horse; David Romanik did,” says Ron.
“He won first time out on the dirt and then won on turf and synthetic,” says Ron of the bay gelding who continues to race and has current earnings of $371,414 (as of 6-10-26) with a record of 8-4-3 in 20 starts.
Private Thoughts was his first Neolithic, and it lit a spark.
“Because of that, David got very interested in Neolithic, so we bought a few more as yearlings privately. David also became a shareholder in the stallion as a result,” says Ron.
“I’ve trained probably a half dozen Neolithics to date and they all run,” he says. “Some are very fast at short distances, but most seem to want to run at longer distances. Neolithic is what we call a dead honest sire; he gets winners.”
Around the same time, Ron was contacted by Tandra Downs, owner of Oxygen Advertising, who handles the marketing for Pleasant Acres Stallions. Tandra was seeking a new trainer for her Long on Value c**t, Song on the Radio.
Ron took on the c**t and Song on the Radio won his next race before a non-racing injury led to his retirement and a second career as a pony horse.
“Tandra wanted to learn more about racing as a breeder and owner and got a Langfuhr broodmare from the Barbazons,” says Ron. “I trained her next horse out of that mare, a Curlin’s Honor filly named Boombox Betty, and bought her after her first start.”
Ron and Tandra decided to go in as partners on the mare’s 2024 filly by MAGIC ON TAP, now named Jukebox Jenny.
"I have been marketing the Thoroughbred industry for nearly four decades, but in 2020 I became an owner of a broodmare and decided to take my first foal to the track to experience that side of it firsthand. The idea was to understand what breeders go through so I could market to them more effectively,” says Tandra.
She continues, “Ron has been an incredible mentor through all of it. He has taught me that patience is everything in this sport and watching how he handles every horse as an individual has given me a whole new level of respect for what great trainers do. After becoming a breeder and now a racehorse owner, I am literally hooked!"
“There’s an old saying, ‘Nothing makes a horse more valuable than ownership.’ It’s all trial and error; that’s the fun part for me,” says Ron.
Ron has been impressed by what he’s seen from Magic on Tap whose first foals are two-year-olds of 2026.
"Jukebox Jenny is athletic and her conformation shows she should stand up to training. Now that she's here, we're excited to get her fit and find the right spot to run her. Looking at her, I think she’ll like longer distances," he said.
Ron makes it a point to have no more than 25 to 30 horses in his stable. This allows him to provide the hands-on attention that made him fall in love with the sport in the first place.
“I never wanted to be the big trainer who has horses at multiple tracks and has to have assistant trainers,” he says.
Of course, being a public trainer includes the business aspect of managing the barn and employees and working with clients. But for Ron Spatz, the horses have always been his favorite part of the job.
NEOLITHIC (Harlan’s Holiday – Swingit, by Victory Gallop) stands at Pleasant Acres Stallions for $5,000 (live foal stands and nurses)
MAGIC ON TAP (Tapit – Aubby K, by Street Sense) stands at Pleasant Acres Stallions for $5,000 (live foal stands and nurses)
