Music Mogul, Horse Owner Jerry Moss Dies at 88

by Bill Finley and Dan Ross

Jerry Moss, who rose to fame in both the music business and in horse racing, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 88.

Moss owned horses in partnership with then his wife, Ann, and while they campaigned many top horses, none could compare to the superstar in Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}). A winner of a remarkable 19 races from 20 career starts, she was named Horse of the Year in 2010 and champion older mare in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Her lone defeat came in her final start when was beaten a head by Blame (Arch) in the 2010 GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

“She was unbelievable, just unbelievable,” Moss told TVG in 2019. “Everybody felt like they owned a piece of her. Everybody felt she was their girl and she wasn't going to disappoint them and she never did. She never lost to a filly.”

Zenyatta was ridden by Mike Smith in her final 17 starts. On Wednesday, the Hall of Fame rider shared his memories of Moss.

“He was all class, a wonderful man and wonderful to ride for,” he said. He made you feel special. I will miss him dearly.”

Moss, who co-founded A&M Records along with Herb Alpert, was encouraged to get into the racing business by a longtime friend and colleague Nate Duroff. Along with Duroff and Alpert,

they claimed a horse named Angel Tune for $12,000 in the late sixties. Moss took a step back from racing briefly but started to get more heavily involved in the seventies.

One of his most prominent stars was Giacomo (Holy Bull). Sent off at 50-1 and with Smith riding, he won the GI Kentucky Derby in 2005. It was Moss's first visit to Churchill Downs since he won the GI Kentucky Oaks with Sardula (Storm Cat). Moss never worried that few gave Giacomo a chance.

“Critics are entitled to opinions,” he told the Associated Press. “I never let those opinions get in the way. We think he ran a tremendous race in the Derby and had to surmount tremendous obstacles to win the race. We think maybe the best is yet to come. That he's still growing still learning and still relaxing. He can certainly do better.”

Giacomo won just one other race during his career, the 2006 GII San Diego H. Other top horses owned by Moss include GI Santa Anita Derby winner Gormley (Malibu Moon), GIII winner Keri Belle (Empire Maker), two-time GI winner Zazu (Tapit ), and Cozi Rosie, the winner of the GII John C. Mabbee S., the GII Buena Vista S. and the GIII Senorita S.

Along with Alpert, Moss turned A&M Records into one of the country's leading independent record labels. The Police were among the bands signed by A&M, and that is how Zenyatta got her name, It was taken from the Police's 1980 album release Zenyatta Mondatta.

“Jerry was a great, great man and a dear friend to myself and my family,” wrote Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, Moss's long-time racing manager and wife of trainer, John, in a text message Wednesday.

“He was passionate about our sport,” Ingordo-Shirreffs added, about Moss. “Loved every moment of being with his horses. Mornings at the barn was the best way to start his day–then off to the office. He cherished his horses and all of the people who cared for them each day. ”

Trainer John Sadler conditioned a number of top-class runners for the Moss family, including the two-time Grade I winner, Zazu (Tapit). Sadler concurred with Ingordo-Shirreffs's assessment, calling Moss a “great American in every sense of the phrase.”

“So much of his life is well documented on TV in documentaries and biopics,” said Sadler. “He was just a wonderful person, beloved by anyone who knew him. And obviously, he had a great passion for horse racing.”

Sadler highlighted Moss's less heralded efforts in horse racing beyond the flashing light bulbs of the sport's glitziest stages, like his tenure on the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB).

“I still think when I read about him that his philanthropic [largesse] is probably under-reported. He was great at giving back. He was just an amazing man and an amazing American story,” said Sadler.

“I remember some of our conversations. To hear him talk about Joe Cocker. To hear him talk about one of my early favorites as a teenager, Cat Stevens. The artists that he worked with, it was just a who's-who. The other great one is Sting. There was that much depth to him.”

When it comes to horse racing, Moss's most enduring contribution, said Sadler, was his enduring love of the horse.

“He loved his horses with a passion. A passion. Always wanted to do the right thing–that was a given,” said Sadler. “He'll be missed because he was a great man. A truly great man.”

Services will be held in Los Angeles this weekend at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary.

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Laoban Vet Begins Death-Related Suspension

Dr. Heather Wharton, the veterinarian responsible for injecting WinStar stallion Laoban with a so-called “Black Shot” shortly before his death in 2021, has begun serving a 90-day suspension as part of a negotiated settlement with the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners revealed Tim Sullivan with the LEO Weekly. Per the released report, Wharton is also obligated to pay a $30,000 administrative fine, complete at least four hours of continuing education, and has agreed to accept a written reprimand that will serve as a permanent disciplinary mark on her record.

A report prepared on behalf of North American Specialty Insurance Company described in detail the fatal efforts to spark Laoban's interest in breeding. Wharton injected the stallion with a mixture of four substances–three of them expired–and one intended to treat anemia in baby pigs, not horses. Attorney Harvey Feintuch concluded vitamins intended to be administered intrasmuscularly were instead injected intravenously, that expired Vitamin B12 was administered at five times the recommended dosage, and that expired Vitamin B Complex was administered despite a warning of anaphylactic shock.

WinStar attorney W. Craig Robertson provided a prepared statement from the farm's CEO, Elliott Walden, to Mr. Sullivan, and said no other comment from the farm would be made.

“Laoban's tragic passing has had a profound impact on everyone at our farm,” Walden said. “With more than 20 years of experience in the thoroughbred business, WinStar always has placed the utmost priority on the safety of our horses. We've accepted the board's decision, Dr. Wharton will remain on staff, and we will continue to review treatment protocols. Our commitment to our horses is unwavering, and we will work tirelessly to uphold the highest standards of safety and welfare in our sport.”

WinStar's Dr. Natanya Nieman, interviewed during the initial investigation, told the veterinary examiners board that she was unaware of any other horse at WinStar being treated with the combination of ingredients in the “Black Shot,” and that the farm had changed its protocols since the stallion's death.

“Things are much tighter,” she told St. Clair. “We have written a whole standard operating procedure.”

This story has also been reported by the Blood-Horse.

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Pioneering Sportswoman Virginia Kraft Payson Dies at 92

Virginia Kraft Payson, a pioneer with a buoyant spirit who often referred to her life as “a magic carpet ride” woven from a whirlwind of adventure travel, a passion for outdoors journalism, and a mid-life immersion into the world of Thoroughbred racing and breeding, died Jan. 9 at age 92 at her Payson Stud farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

The cause of death was complications from Parkinson's disease, as confirmed by Christian Erickson, a decades-long family friend and the trustee of the Payson estate.

Payson's entry into Thoroughbred ownership was the product of a whim, when her second husband, the late Charles Shipman Payson, bid on impulse on at an auction in the late 1970s. That first horse wasn't an on-track success, but the couple's breeding operation later yielded such noteworthy runners as St. Jovite, the 1992 European Horse of the Year, and the 1984 GI Travers S. winner Carr de Naskra.

Payson Park Training Center in Florida still carries the family's name and a reputation as an idyllic place for developing racehorses. Although Payson sold that property in 2019, for years beforehand she had been a highly enthusiastic participant in its operation. She often visited her horses stabled there by driving a Corvette painted in her family's blue and white racing colors.

A native of New York City, a graduate of Barnard College, and a self-described “outdoor adventuress,” Payson was among the first dozen writers (and the only woman) hired by the fledgling Sports Illustrated when that landmark magazine first launched in 1954.

Competition was fierce and staff turnover was high, but Payson (writing under her maiden name, Virginia Kraft) helped the publication flourish for 26 years as it grew into the era's pre-eminent weekly sports publication.

“Every guy who was hired looked around and figured, 'I can knock her off first,'” Payson once recalled in an interview. “I just did my job and created the opportunities.”

“Opportunities” was an understatement. Payson hunted big game on six continents, including tracking wild boar with General Francisco Franco of Spain, going on the prowl for tigers with the Queen of Nepal, and shooting birds from horseback with King Hussein of Jordan.

She also piloted hot-air balloons and competed in international sport fishing tournaments. Her prowess as a scuba diver led to her election into the Underwater Hall of Fame, and Payson even raced sled dogs through the Alaskan wilderness.

In addition to her work with Sports Illustrated, Payson was the author of five books on boating, training dogs, shotgun sports, and tennis. Siena College in New York State presented her with an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters in recognition of her lifetime body of work.

St. Jovite winning the G1 King George and Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot in 1992 | racingfotos

In a 2013 podcast with the Blood-Horse, Payson detailed the humorous story of how she and Charles Payson acquired their first racehorse around the time they got married in 1977. The two both had experience riding horses, but not in owning Thoroughbreds.

They had taken a trip to Lexington to visit Secretariat as tourists. They then attended a Fasig-Tipton auction and sat down front. Caught up in the excitement, Charles bid on a horse sired by Arts and Letters, whose name Virginia had recognized. Charles even mistakenly bid against himself at one point, but eventually won the bid.

When it came time to sign the sales slip, Charles wasn't aware that a buyer was expected to have first established credit. He said someone he knew at the well-respected Greentree Stable would be able to pay on his behalf.

“We went back to the hotel and ordered a bottle of champagne and stayed up until two o'clock in the morning congratulating ourselves on owning a racehorse,” Kraft reminisced nearly four decades later.

“At about five o'clock in the morning the phone rang and it was the then-manager at Greentree, who, after quite a string of expletives, [wanted to know why] we were buying a horse for Greentree,” Payson recalled with a laugh.

The purchase got okayed, but Kraft said the horse, later named Romanair, turned out to be “absolutely insane” and extremely difficult to train.

“He was a beautiful horse, but he was just absolutely crazy in the head,” Kraft said.

Romanair raced three times in Kentucky before he was ruled off. They first time, Kraft said, he unseated the jockey. The second time he bolted in the wrong direction. The third time he tried to savage the horse next to him soon after breaking from the gate.

The Paysons gave away Romanair, but Kraft was always proud that, after four years off, a patient steeplechase trainer had managed to calm down the horse enough that he competed over jumps, and eventually won a steeplechase race at age nine. After a second retirement, Romanair became a successful sport horse for a number of years, which also delighted Payson.

After Charles's death in 1985, Virginia kept the Payson racing and breeding operations going. Other prominent horses she bred and campaigned included L'Carriere, Salem Drive, Lac Ouimet, Strawberry Reason, Uptown Swell, and Milesius. Her mare, Northern Sunset, was honored as 1995 Broodmare of the Year. In 1997, Payson was honored as Breeder of the Year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

Payson raced most of the horses she bred until 1999, keeping the number of foals each year relatively small, at about 12. In 2000, she decided to make Payson Stud more commercial, selling half her yearlings. The following year, she sold all of them. From those two early crops came a pair of 2002 divisional champions, the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Vindication, and GI Kentucky Oaks winner Farda Amiga.

According to a biography provided by the family via Erickson, Payson's first marriage, to Robert Dean Grimm, ended in divorce.

After being widowed from Charles Payson, in 1994 she married a third time, to the Thoroughbred owner Jesse M. Henley, Jr. After his death, Payson in 2008 married David Libby Cole, a real estate broker from Colorado.

Cole, now of Lexington, survives Payson, as do three daughters from her marriage to Grimm, plus three grandchildren.

Arrangements for services are pending.

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Superb Horseman James Delahooke Dies at 77

James Delahooke, an outstanding horseman who played a key role in the creation of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte empire, died of a heart attack Wednesday morning while grouse hunting in Yorkshire with friends, according to his brother Matthew Delahooke. He was 77.

A large proportion of the greatest horses bred and raced by Juddmonte from the late 1980s onwards have descended from fillies or mares bought by Delahooke on the Prince's behalf. The Juddmonte families which have yielded the likes of Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), Zafonic (Gone West), Workforce (GB) (King's Best), Warning (GB) (Known Fact) and the legendary broodmare Hasili (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}) all trace to the foundation mares selected by Delahooke; while his yearling purchases for the Prince included Rainbow Quest (Blushing Groom {Fr}) and Dancing Brave (Lyphard), winners of the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1985 and '86 respectively.

Another yearling purchase who played a massive role in the Juddmonte success story was Razyana (His Majesty), from whom the Prince bred Danehill (Danzig); while the Prince's first two home-bred Derby winners, Quest For Fame (GB) (Rainbow Quest) and Commander In Chief (GB) (Dancing Brave), were notable for having both of their parents bought by Delahooke.

Delahooke was not on the Juddmonte team from the very beginning in 1978 but he was recruited shortly afterwards by the Prince's original manager Humphrey Cottrill and soon was both buying the yearlings and breeding prospects and managing the original Juddmonte Farm at Wargave.  In these roles he did more than anyone to plant the proverbial acorns from which the mighty Juddmonte oaks have grown. He was obviously working on a large budget, but his genius is even better illustrated by the much less expensive horses whom he bought on behalf of patrons of the Coombelands stable of his friend Guy Harwood (trainer also, of course, of numerous Juddmonte champions including Dancing Brave). Heading the list were the 1979 G1 Derby place-getter Ela-Mana-Mou (Ire) (Pitcairn {Ire}) and the 1981 G1 2,000 Guineas winner To-Agori-Mou (Ire) (Tudor Music {GB}) as well as the 1982 G1 Eclipse S. and G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. winner Kalaglow (Ire) (Kalamoun {Ire}), the 1980 G1 Grand Criterium winner Recitation (Elocutionist), the 1984 G1 Prix Jacques le Marois winner Lear Fan (Roberto) and the 1979 G1 2,000 Guineas place-getter Young Generation (Ire) (Balidar {GB}). These he picked up for 4,500 guineas, 20,000 guineas, 11,500 guineas, $35,000, 64,000 guineas and 9,000 guineas respectively.

While Juddmonte ranks as the most obvious beneficiary of Delahooke's wisdom and judgement, several other great breeders were also recipients of his invaluable assistance.

In particular, the late Gerald Leigh was on record as saying, “James Delahooke has a flair and knowledge. He is an outstanding judge of a horse. He helped lay the foundations of my stud in the early years as a breeder.”

Delahooke also played a big part in the success enjoyed by the late William Barnett, standing High Line (GB) (High Hat {GB}) for him at his Adstock Manor Stud, the stallion covering merely 14 mares in his first year before going on to become one of the most successful sires in Europe, most notably siring four winners in one afternoon at York's Ebor Meeting in 1981, a four-timer which included two Group 1 winners headed by the Barnett home-bred Master Willie (GB), successful that afternoon in the G1 Benson & Hedges Gold Cup (now Juddmonte International S). Adstock Manor was Delahooke's home for 25 years prior to his relocation to Yorkshire in 1992, and while there he owned and trained the 1987 Aintree Foxhunters winner Border Burg (GB) (Perhapsburg {GB}).

James Delahooke played a less conspicuous role in the bloodstock world in recent years but still continued to advise a select band of clients including Bobby Flay, who has paid him a fulsome tribute.

“James's influence on the breed has made an indelible and permanent mark on some of the most important pedigrees in the Western Hemisphere. For the last 15 years I've had the good fortune of employing his knowledge and keen eye to identify my most important bloodstock. I will miss his insight, love of good food and wine and his opinionated teachings. Although James has left us suddenly, his influence will be felt for decades at the highest end of the stud book. I, for one, will do my best to honour his ongoing impact.”

A countryman born and bred who rode over 50 winners in point-to-points or under National Hunt rules in his youth, James Delahooke passed away on the Yorkshire moors on Wednesday and we offer our condolences to the family and friends of a legend of the bloodstock world who was once described by the late Lord Oaksey as “arguably the best judge of yearlings in the world”.

Said his brother, Matthew, “I was fortunate enough to work for him for a few years. He was a mentor for me, a great brother. We had some good times at the sales. He was very well respected and loved and was a good man.”

He is survived by his wife, Angie; his brothers, Matthew and Tom; four children, Amber, Rorie, Holly, and Eve, and nine grandchildren.

Arrangements have not yet been made, but they will be shared as soon as they are available.

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