Photo Courtesy of NYRA Communcations
Carl Lizza, co-owner of Highcliff Farm in Delanson and, as Flying Zee Stable, a long-time leading owner on the NYRA circuit, died early Friday morning at his home in Rockaway, N.J. He was 73.
Lizza’s Flying Zee Stable. represented by those familiar light blue silks adorned with double zee’s, was NYRA’s leading owner at the time of his death with 31 victories in 2011, including three-year-old Street Game’s dominant triumph in the Grade 3 Hill Prince on June 18. The leading owner in New York in 2004 and 2005, Flying Zee Stable was also among the top 10 owners from 2006-2010.
A horse owner for more than 30 years, Lizza campaigned dozens of stakes winners, notably Wayward Lass, who won the Grade 1 Mother Goose and Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks en route to an Eclipse Award as the nation’s top 3-year-old filly in 1981. Lizza also campaigned multiple stakes winner Cosmonaut, who won the 2006 and 2007 Arlington Handicaps, becoming the first horse since Round Table (1958-59) to take consecutive editions of the race, and Noble Nashua, who in 1981 won the Marlboro Cup, the Dwyer, Jerome, Swaps, and Whirlaway Stakes. Other stakes winners included Key Contender, Screen King, Thunder Achiever, I Lost My Choo, Golden Commander and Kevin’s Decision.
Lizza's Street Game wins G3 Hill Prince S. 6/18/2011 (Photo: Adam Coglianese)
Lizza purchased his first horses in 1976 and had his first winner at Aqueduct in March that year with Bag of Beans.
“Carl was a wonderful owner who was very passionate about horse racing,” said NYRA President and CEO Charles Hayward. “He celebrated many terrific victories in New York, and his presence at the racetrack will be sorely missed.”
Lizza, owner of several construction companies in New York and South Carolina, purchased the 800-acre Highcliff Farm in Delanson, N.Y. in 1989 with his business partner, Joseph Bartone, and operated it as a commercial breeding establishment. Among the stallions standing at Highcliff are Congaree, Key Contender, Stonesider, Western Expression, and Cosmonaut.
“He will be missed,” said Suzie O’Cain, who with her husband, C. Lynwood O’Cain, managed Highcliff Farm for Lizza. “He was a delightful man to work for, and with. He had made all his plans for Saratoga and was looking forward to the meet.”
Lizza is survived by his wife, Vianne. Funeral arrangements are pending.
