When the events department at Delaware Park decided to host a handicapping contest in 1992, they surely couldn't have imagined its ripple effects would play out on the track, and throughout the Mid-Atlantic, more than three decades later.
Foard Wilgis and Dave Picarello, Teamsters from Baltimore, finished second in that contest and took home $4,000. Rather than invest that money at the betting windows, they decided to purchase a horse. They convinced another friend, Kenny Ziegler [later bought out by Picarello] to chip in, and bought a yearling filly named Cherokee Wonder for $5,500 at the 1992 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale. With that, ZWP Stable was on its way.
After all this time, ZWP, now owned by Elliot and Melanie Campbell, continues to enhance its legacy. It's Hammertime, owned by Eagle Up Stable, London Reid Thoroughbreds, and trainer Gary Capuano's Non Stop Stable, earned his second stakes victory Oct. 9 at Delaware, taking the 1-mile Rocky Run by 1½ lengths as the 7-10 favorite. Previously, he won the First State Dash by 5 lengths on the same track Sept. 11. He's out of Steady N Love, bred by ZWP along with Capuano, and kept as a broodmare after her racing career. Capuano's prowess as a trainer and purchaser has taken ZWP a long way.
It's Hammertime's story began at the 2002 December sale. Capuano purchased a Maryland-bred Malibu Moon filly for $14,500.
"I was at the sale, and she caught my eye," Capuano said. "Malibu Moon was a young sire just starting out. She was out of a Cure the Blues mare, who I had followed pretty closely, and I liked what I saw. The rest was history, and it turned out pretty well."
Slow and Steady won four of 20 starts, placed in 10 more, and earned $123,510, but left her biggest mark as a broodmare.
"Foard and Dave wanted to keep her and breed her, and that started it," Capuano said. "She could run, had ability. She looked nice, she was built nice, and we thought she'd make a pretty decent broodmare."
Her first foal, a Soto colt named Cappiwino, broke his maiden by 10¼ lengths on debut at Laurel Park in September 2009 and was subsequently purchased by Godolphin for a substantial sum and sent to Dubai. Her next foal, Steady Warrior, captured the 2010 Maryland Million Nursery, was named Maryland-bred champion 2-year-old and earned $253,876. Steady Warrior and Slow and Steady's next two foals, six-figure earners Who Dat Boy and Hanky Doodle, were by ZWP homebred Cherokee's Boy.
Cherokee's Boy was the second and final foal produced by Cherokee Wonder, who earned her auction price many times over on the track, with eight victories, including a pair of stakes, and earnings of $284,010. She passed from colic in 2002.
By Citidancer, Cherokee's Boy carried his dam's legacy with 14 stakes wins [at least two each year from ages 2 to 6] and earned nearly $1.2 million. He put ZWP and Capuano in the national spotlight in 2003, when he competed in the Preakness Stakes-G1. Two years later, he was the Maryland-bred Horse of the Year. Steady Warrior was in his first crop.
Cherokee's Boy's success piqued Campbell's interest in racing. Not long after moving to Maryland from Oklahoma, he walked into Picarello's GNC store in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore. They quickly became friends. Picarello invited Campbell, unfamiliar with racing, to watch one of Cherokee's Boy's races at Delaware. When the colt won, Campbell was hooked.
Even after moving to Ohio in 2008, Campbell, who co-owns a medical equipment company, remained interested in the sport.
"When Foard passed away [in May 2022], Dave came to me and said, 'Hey, would you be interested in buying Foard's share of the horses,' " said Campbell. "Fortunately, my wife and I were in a position to do just that, so we did."
Picarello died in January 2023, and Campbell made the decision to carry on the ZWP banner in tribute to his friend. "Gary and [his daughter] Tori and a lot of people depend on us and that name, so we decided to keep going, rather than disband the stable."
By then, Slow and Steady had become the cornerstone of the operation. All 11 of her foals to start are winners, with seven stakes wins, 20 stakes placings, and more than $2.1 million in earnings between them. She was named Maryland Broodmare of the Year in 2022, the year her daughter Malibu Beauty [by Buffum] won three stakes and placed in two more. Slow and Steady's first filly, Steady N Love (Not For Love), won three times in 18 starts, including the 2014 Caesar's Wish Stakes, and earned $241,305.
"ZWP owned Cherokee's Boy, and when he went to stud [the majority of his career at Murmur Farm], we were doing what we could to support him," said Capuano. "We decided we needed to do a little more commercial breeding, and we wanted to stay local if we could. Not For Love, at the time, was as solid as they come, so we decided to breed to him. Steady N Love was another nice filly. She had a lot of speed, a pretty sound horse, and she was just like the rest of [the Slow and Steadys]."
Steady N Love joined the ZWP broodmare band upon her racing retirement, and delivered her fifth live foal, a Vekoma colt, in May 2022.
"Both mares match up really well with the Candy Ride bloodline, and Vekoma was a pretty nice horse in himself," said Capuano, "and we thought it was a good match."
