Manfried Wolf, racing horse owner, dies at 81

Manfried Wolf, a racing horse breeder and owner for decades and a real estate developer in New Jersey, died Oct. 27 in Florida at 81.

Wolf had been raising racehorses since 1978.His first horse, Rockville Paul, owned in a partnership, won five times in eight weeks at Meadowlands Raceway that same year. He bred and owned more than 300 harness horses, mostly trotters with the first name of Wolf’s. Many competed in New Jersey and New York Sire Stakes races.

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Wolf was born in the rural German Rhineland town of Mertloch and escaped from Nazi Germany with his family to the US in 1936. The family became dairy farmers and livestock ranchers in New Jersey’s rural Raritan Township and later switched to raising Standardbred horses for trotting and pacing races. Wolf attended Rutgers University and became a real estate broker and developer before moving back to the family business of horses.

Last year, Wolf asked the managers of Vernon Downs Raceway in New Jersey to schedule a Friday evening race involving a promising filly, Wolf’s Jann, as early as possible, as it was the evening before Yom Kippur. An entertaining article on a harness racing website captured the way the racetrack accommodated the request: “I was watching the clock as we waited, and I watched the sun,” said the racetrack’s Nick Salvi “But because some of the drivers were late arriving at the track Friday we decided to hold up the races, so it began to get closer to sundown for post time of the first race, so I didn’t know what would happen with Wolf’s Jann. But we made it in time.” The daughter of Majestic Victory won the $37,354 Sire Stakes.

The Eulogizer highlights the life accomplishments of famous and not-so-famous Jews who have passed away recently. Write to the Eulogizer at eulogizer@jta.org.