Eclipse Award-Winning Trainer Stephen A. DiMauro Dies

Stephen A. DiMauro, a lifelong horseman and the Eclipse Award-winning trainer of 1975, died May 20 at his home in Winter Park, Fla., after a several-month battle with cancer, said his son Stephen L. DiMauro. He was 87.

Born in New Jersey, DiMauro started out as a jockey before shifting to training in 1959. He trained his first champion, 3-year-old filly Lady Pitt, in 1966. His trainees Dearly Precious and Wajima won championships in 1975 when DiMauro earned his Eclipse Award. 

"He gave 110% in everything. Nothing was impossible," his son said. "One of the quotes he used to like to say—I'm not sure of the exact quote—was, 'If you have a fulcrum big enough and a lever long enough, you can lift the world.' That's what he kept telling me about everything. Anything he felt wasn't right, he was going to fix it and make it right if he had to do it himself."

According to Equibase statistics, DiMauro won 1,159 races from 9,794 starters as a trainer with earnings of nearly $23.2 million. From 1975-90, his stable made more than $1 million annually 11 times.

Besides Dearly Precious, other grade 1 winners trained by DiMauro were Croeso, The Very One, Nassipour, and four-time grade 1 winner Nastique.

His son also went into the profession, working for his father as a young man before becoming a trainer. The younger DiMauro won 1,084 races from 1978-2016. He is now a steward at Gulfstream Park.

"There were big shoes to fill in following him, and yet he was still so liked and so respected in everything he did, anytime I walked in, it was as the son of a man that everybody respected," Stephen L. DiMauro said. "It was a lot easier for me to get anywhere and do anything. I'll be forever grateful for that."

The elder DiMauro left a lasting impact on those outside his family, including retired jockey Richard Migliore, a winner of 4,450 races and the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice rider of 1981.

"I'm sad and diminished from the passing of Steve DiMauro," Migliore said on Twitter May 21. "I walked into his barn a 14-year-old boy and he helped mold me into a man. I will always cherish my days in that barn with the amazing people that became my family."

Besides training, DiMauro bred and raised horses, owning farms and training centers in partnership. Some of those horses were trained by him later.

He was active in numerous organizations, such as the New York Thoroughbred Breeding Fund, the New York Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, and the New York Backstretch Pension Fund, his son said.

DiMauro is survived by his wife, Kathryn, and children Kathryn, Joanne, and Stephen.

Arrangements have not been finalized due to logistical complications for funerals amid COVID-19, but a viewing is planned, his son said.