Joe Rizzuto, local pizza supply king-turned-horse trainer, dies at age 92
Joe Rizzuto, a local businessman who ran circles around regional competition in the pizza supply business before stepping aside to watch horses he trained run successfully around the oval track at Playfair Race Course, died Dec. 1 at age 92.
Rizzuto was born in Hillyard, attended West Valley High School, and worked in his father’s cantaloupe and watermelon fields as a child, eventually serving in the U.S. Navy, according to his obituary. After working various other jobs, he created Joe’s Pizza Restaurant in Spokane Valley. In 1960, he established Joe’s Pizza Supply, which became a service-industry giant .
Joe’s Pizza Supply was making more than a half-million pizza crusts a month in 1986 even before a major expansion aimed at taking advantage of the take-and-bake pizza market. Two years earlier, Rizzuto had sold the business to Pasquale Foods in Alabama, though the Rizzutos continued to run the operation.
“We’ve filled a void between the frozen pizza and the pizzeria,” Rizzuto said in 1986.
After Rizzuto and a partner had owned a horse or two for a decade, he began accepting outside clients in 1972. With 10 head in his care, he achieved immediate results. Led by Red Mustard and the revitalized sprinter Toro’s Judge, he shared sixth place in the standings of trainers with the most wins at the track, saddling 14 winners in competition with several lifelong public trainers.
Rizzuto vaulted into third place in 1973 with 20 wins, took second with 21 the next year and in 1978, after Playfair had expanded its calendar to 68 race dates, just missed the title with 41. He came close again with 39 in 1979 and joined the list of champions when he sent out 48 winners in 1980.
In a profile in the Spokane Daily Chronicle in 1973, Rizzuto explained his passion for horses and racing.
“They are all different, of course, and you have to treat them like babies or children,” he said. “We make pets of all of them and I talk to them just like they could understand. I don’t know, maybe they do.”
In 1979, as he was vying for first place, he said he didn’t feel pressure and was satisfied that 60% of his horses finished first, second or third.
“You have to treat horses as individuals,” he told The Spokesman-Review. “You can’t train them all the same way and expect them to run well.”
Rizzuto’s horse Kam Tam Kan, a Florida-bred gelding, joined the ranks of the most successful thoroughbreds in Playfair’s century-long history. In the space of three seasons, he won 13 local races, most of them in top company, including the 1980 Playfair Mile. Kam Tam Kan had 28 victories lifetime and earned $111,256. Rizzuto charges won six major Playfair stakes races.
In 1981, he took a handful of his best runners to Seattle, where Kam Tam Kan had another profitable season.
That fall, after police thwarted a highly publicized plot to have him killed, Rizzuto disbanded his stable and focused on his family business. In that case, Rizzuto’s son-in-law Donald J. Gorman and Gorman’s friend Dennis R. DeBill were caught on tape attempting to hire an undercover officer to kill Rizzuto. Superior Court Judge Harold D. Clarke told The Spokesman-Review at the time that the case may have been the first time a Spokane County judge had approved the use of a wire tap.
Gorman pleaded guilty after his trial began, admitting he had embezzled money from Joe’s Pizza Supply and tried to hire a hitman to kill Rizzuto. He was sentenced to two 1-year terms and ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution for the theft. DeBill also pleaded guilty and testified against Gorman.
In 1989, with the national racing industry facing new competition for the wagering dollar, local thoroughbred breeders, owners and trainers turned to Rizzuto. Playfair’s owner, Jack Pring, no longer wanted to operate the track. Rizzuto invested and served two years as the president of Eastern Washington Racing Inc.
“This was our last stand,” Rizzuto told the Spokane Daily Chronicle in early 1989. “We were either going ahead with this thing or racing basically was dead here. It was a fumble rolling around out there. I’ve just been the guy who picked it up.” He left and sold his stake at the end of the 1990 season.
Playfair did not operate in 1996. It opened and closed once more and conducted its final season in 2000.
Rizzuto remained active at Rizzuto Foods, his latest endeavor, well into this century. His memorial service has been scheduled at Millwood Presbyterian Church at 11 a.m. on Jan. 16.
Rizzuto’s wife of 62 years, Marilyn Rizzuto, died in 2023. She worked and kept the books for the pizza and horse businesses. He is survived by his three children, Wendy Rizzuto, Pam Young and Tony Rizzuto, according to his obituary.