Parkland nightmare touches racing family

Nick Vaccarezza remembers the moment he knew it was not a drill. The pop-pop-pops coming from the freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., were the real thing – gunfire – because Nick had fired a gun before. With his younger brother Mike safely under his wing, Nick and a friend turned to each other and said, “Let’s go.” They bolted away from the ballfield dugout that was their shooter drill evacuation zone and hit the eight-foot fence at the school’s perimeter on the fly, then made a beeline to the Wal-Mart Supercenter a long block to the west.

“It was the easiest eight-foot fence I ever cleared,” Nick said. “Once we jumped the fence a whole posse of kids started going over. The worst part was not knowing where my brother was when the shots were fired. That’s my baby brother. Thank God he was sharp enough to get to me.”

It was Thursday afternoon, eight days after 14 students and three teachers were killed by a former Douglas student wielding a high-powered, rapid-fire rifle. In the wake of the killings, reactions have whipsawed back and forth between student protests over the availability of such weapons and the psychological and emotional toll paid by the families and schoolmates of the dead.

Nick is the son of Carlo Vaccarezza, a wellknown member of the Florida racing community as an owner, breeder, and trainer of a stable of horses at Palm Meadows. Little Mike, the family’s most famous horse, won the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita.

Vaccarezza also owns the popular Frank and Dino’s Restaurant in Boca Raton. His family is steeped in both worlds, and Nick, who turned 18 in December, has made it known that he intends to become a Thoroughbred trainer when his college days are done.

For now, however, Nick Vaccarezza finds himself as not only one of the survivors of the Douglas tragedy, but also a young person mourning the sudden, senseless loss of friends.

“Thank God I didn’t have to see everything. I just heard everything,” Nick said. “Even that has me shook. The main thing is I made it out and my brother made it out, and God bless the 17 lives that were lost that day because of one kid’s demonic actions.”

As he spoke, Nick was on his way home from a workout, a routine that grants him at least a few moments of peace.

“I’ve been going to the barn, the gym after the barn, and then if we have horses running I go to Gulfstream,” he said. But as for his school? “I don’t really think I want to go back to that place,” he said. “I think that place is just going to haunt everyone now. Sam happened to be in the building. He said, ‘How can I even think of going back in there?’ ”

“Sam” is Nick’s good friend Sam Zeif, one of the Douglas students who journeyed to the White House earlier this week to share the horror of the experience, and beseech the adults in the room to do something about the proliferation weapons like the one used to attack their school. Zeif’s passionate pleas and naked emotion were viewed far and wide.

“To see Sam like that breaks my heart into even more pieces than it’s already in,” Nick said. “Sam did a great speech, and I hope people are listening to us. We owe it to the rest of the country, and not just children and students.

“I don’t think anyone should be able to get their hands on these weapons of war unless you’re law enforcement or in the armed forces,” he said. “Those guns were made for only one reason – modern warfare. But with those guns out there, we’ve got war in our backyard.

“Like Sam said,” Nick added, “he can’t be walking along the street now without jumping when a car drives up behind him. My brother slammed the toilet seat the other night and I jumped. It’s going to have a really long effect on everyone involved.”

Nick will be attending the University of Kentucky beginning this fall in the equine program and work at some local farms on the side. His future as a trainer seemed destined from the start.

“Ever since I was a little kid, the horse has been my favorite animal,” Nick said. “Other kids had a bunch of toys. I just played with my toy horses.

“My dad used to put my crib in his office at home,” he said. “He’d put me in front of the TV, and he’d always be watching TVG. A race would come on, and I’d grab the bars of the crib, stand myself up, and cheer on the horses. My first word was ‘go.’ ”

On Sunday, Carlo Vaccarezza is closing Frank and Dino’s to regular business and opening the doors to the community in support of the families and friends who suffered such terrible losses in the Douglas killings. Food and drink is on the house, and contributions will go to the families.

“I’m at the lowest of the lows right now, and I’ve been at the highest of the highs, winning the Breeders’ Cup with Little Mike,” Nick said. “I feel more than lucky. I feel blessed. And I’m looking forward to a different kind of interviews once I start my career.”