July 02, 2025
Fiction
Date Published: February 28, 2025
Publisher: MindStir Media
The Belmont is a tale of a young man's struggles with a heartbreak he cannot get past, set against the backdrop of a bacchanalia-filled weekend centered around the 1998 Belmont Stakes horse race, which ended with a Triple Crown bid thwarted by a photo finish. During a long "weekend" spread out over six days and in three different states, a weekend fueled by alcohol and sexual tension, but also filled with reflective, heartbreaking, exhilarating, hilarious, and heartwarming moments, Tommy Cippolini embarks on a journey of self-discovery, experiencing just about every single human emotion along the way. In between episodes filled with anger and frustration, anticipation, anxiety, disappointment, sexual arousal and temptation, binge drinking, daringness and trepidation, hilarity and debauchery, and longing and sadness, Tommy confides in good friends, casual friends, strangers, and family members about his feelings and past trials and tribulations.
About the Author
My name is Anthony Cocco. I’m 59 years old and a native of Malden, Massachusetts, but I’ve spent most of the last 21 years living about 20 miles north of Boston. Since 1997, I’ve worked in the financial services industry (some asset managers and some retirement services providers), in various roles, and recently started my fifth different job in that industry in February of 2025. Prior to that, I worked (out of college) in the health insurance field, mainly in customer and provider relations (three different companies in two different states—Massachusetts and Florida).
I am the fourth (and final) child born to the late Morris and Dorothy Cocco. I have two living (and one recently deceased) siblings, one brother and one sister (my eldest sister passed away suddenly in July 2024 at age 72).
I have no children of my own and have never been married, but I do have five nieces and nephews (3 of the former and 2 of the latter), two of which are the daughters of my late sister. Since I’m the only one of our parents’ kids to have remained living (for the most part) in Massachusetts, the rest of my family (except for some cousins) is somewhat spread out across the country.
I attended the State University of New York at New Paltz from 1984-88, where I earned a (largely unused) degree in Journalism (I wanted to be a sports broadcaster but got sidetracked when someone convinced me I needed to be a sportswriter instead). It wasn’t long before I realized that vocation wasn’t a good match for me, but my years at New Paltz weren’t entirely wasted because it was during that time when I met one of my lifelong friends, the guy who introduced me to the “Belmont Stakes crew”—his friends from his youth and from his undergrad college years. One of the main characters in my book is based on him, and all of the characters that make up the entire Belmont “tribe”, as I call it in the book, are based on his friends and other acquaintances.
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