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Prominent Owner-Breeder Marty Wygod Passes Aged 84

After a long lifetime marked by notable wins on the racetrack and in the business world, prominent owner-breeder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Marty Wygod has passed away aged 84.

“I have so many good memories of Marty Wygod. I was telling Emily [Bushnell, Wygod's daughter] this morning, one of my favorite things about Marty was he had a great sense of humor,” said trainer John Shirreffs, who conditioned some of Wygod's heaviest hitters on the track.

Wygod, said Shirreffs, was also something of a prankster.

“The first time I met him at the barn, he was standing in front of this horse, and he's studying it very carefully. I remember thinking to myself, 'I wonder what he's doing,'” recalled Shirreffs.

“He then leaves the horse and he walks down to me, and he says, 'John, that horse has a headache.' I didn't know what to think–that's Marty Wygod. He told me the horse had a headache. I'm not going to question that!” said Shirreffs. “From that moment on, we had a really good relationship.”

The hub of Wygod's breeding empire-which he owned and operated with his wife, Pamela-was the 250-acre River Edge Farm, in California's Santa Ynez Valley, close to Santa Barbara.

There, they stood several successful stallions, like Bertrando, Tribal Rule, Benchmark and Dixie Chatter. But it's the many talented performers Wygod bred, owned and co-owned that he's arguably best remembered for in the racing world.

The Wygods bred Life is Sweet (Storm Cat), a two-time Grade I winner who took the 2009 GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic. Sweet Catomine (Storm Cat) won the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Tranquility Lake (Rahy) was a seven-time graded stakes and dual Grade I winner and went on to produce a $9.7-million Keeneland September sales-topper. Idiot Proof (Benchmark) claimed the 2007 GI Ancient Title S. at Santa Anita and was runner-up in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

In 2010, Harmonious (Dynaformer) took two G1 scalps: the American Oaks at Hollywood Park and the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. at Keeneland.

“Harmonious wins the Queen Elizabeth and Marty and I are the two out of towners. We go up to the director's room for a celebratory drink, and I think we were off standing by ourselves in the corner after that!” said Shirreffs, who trained both Life is Sweet and Harmonious, among several Wygod-owned luminaries, remembering that win as one of their sweetest.

The Wygods' latest work of art is the Kentucky Derby-bound GII Wood Memorial S. winner Resilience (Into Mischief), co-owned by Bushnell.

“That has been one of the best things for him these past few years–he was very excited about that,” said jock's agent, Tom Knust, who struck up a firm friendship with Wygod stemming from his days as Del Mar and Santa Anita racing secretary.

Over the years, Wygod's list of trainers included Julio Canani, Dan Hendricks, John Sadler, Clifford Sise and Bill Mott.

Wygod sat on or was involved with several prominent racing boards, including the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, as a trustee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and as a member of The Jockey Club.

“Marty's inclusion on our board proved to be a blessing over and over again,” said DMTC's longtime CEO Joe Harper. “His insights and feel for both the world of business and our racing game helped us repeatedly make the kind of good decisions that have seen us rise to the top of the national racing community. We will dearly miss him.”

As a businessman, Wygod's fortunes were forged through various successful companies, perhaps most notably WebMD, a widely used online repository for medical news and information, through which he rose to the position of chairman.

“He'd come to the barn at Del Mar because he lived at Rancho Santa Fe, and he'd sit on a chair at the front of the office and conduct his business over the telephone,” said Shirreffs.

“It was kind of a thrill for me to sit next to him and listen to him on the phone talking to whoever he was talking to about his business. He was such a logical person who appreciated all sides of every conflict or interest,” said Shirreffs.

“Anybody in the horseracing industry that had any medical problems, he was right there to help them. It didn't matter if you were a groom or a hotwalker,” said Knust, who credits Wygod for twice saving his wife's life, connecting her with much-needed medical advice and help.

Like Shirreffs, Knust remembers a man with a wicked sense of humor.

“About 10 years ago, Marty brought a really good 3-year-old into Del Mar. He was by a $300,000 stallion out of his best mare,” Knust remembered. “He said, 'Tom, I'm giving you a share of this horse, it'll be your retirement. I just want you to call Pam, tell her that I'm giving you a share in this horse, and to figure out the paperwork.'”

When Knust called Pamela Wygod, he said she seemed a little confused, but assured Knust that she would straighten it out with her husband.

“I just kind of felt strange about something,” said Knust. “So, I went and looked up the papers and it was a gelding. That was Marty's sense of humor. He had a great sense of humor.”

Said Shirreffs: “He was just a great guy. We was a fantastic individual. A brilliant man. A great horseman. He was something special to be around.”

Aside from his daughter Emily and wife Pamela, Wygod leaves behind his son Max.

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Cary Grant Result Scripted Perfectly For Filmmaker/Trainer Librado Barocio

There's a reason it took Librado Barocio a couple of decades with his training license before scoring his first graded stakes victory in the Nov. 21 Cary Grant Stakes at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

“I'm a filmmaker,” Barochio explained in the winner's circle afterward. “I make a film, I'm away for a year or two and then I come back. Last time I took three years off and came back in June. I've been working with Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx on some things.”

Barocio, a 1987 graduate of the UCLA film school, got his racetrack education working with/for the late trainer Julio Canani and Canani's assistant Miguel Delgado. He's trained thoroughbreds, when not fully engaged in the business of his Culver City-based New Latin Cinema Productions, off and on since 1999.

He currently has seven horses in his stable. Principe Carlo ($39.00) nosed out favored Positivity in a photo to provide Barocio with his first stakes victory anywhere. “I prayed so hard,” Barocio said of the moments when the result hung in the balance. “But I felt good about it.”

Principe Carlo had been claimed for $20,000 in October of 2020, went unraced for more than a year, and came back with a creditable runner-up at Santa Anita before the Cary Grant.

The owning Mi Familia Racing Stable, which translates from Spanish to “My Family,” is indeed the family of Barocio, his wife two daughters and a son. Barocio has had runners at Del Mar over the years, he said, but not last summer

“I didn't come to Del Mar this (summer) because I was finishing up a film I was doing in Los Angeles,” Barocio said. “The guys (racing secretaries) Chris Merz at Santa Anita and David Jerkens here have been good to me. They gave me a chance and that's all I needed. David said I could come here any time.”

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Retired Trainer Julio Canani, Winner Of 1989 Big ‘Cap, Passes At Age 83

A native of Peru and a longtime trainer in Southern California, Julio Canani passed away at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena following a lengthy illness Friday morning at age 83, according to his daughter, Lisa. Retired for the past several years, Canani trained the longshot winner of the 1989 Santa Anita Handicap, Martial Law ($130.60), who was ridden by Martin Pedroza and owned in part by Jeff Siegel and Barry Irwin's Clover Racing Stable.

Self-made, Canani came to America as a teenager, initially working for a landscaping company before making his way to the racetrack, where his betting instincts and innate guile enabled him to establish a social and economic base from which he would eventually become a multiple stakes winning conditioner who forever spoke fractured English while readily dispensing a wide variety of nicknames—some complimentary, some, not so much.

Although the 1989 Big 'Cap surely helped to put him on the map, Canani gained national recognition by winning three Breeders' Cup races. The Mile, in 1999 and 2001 with Silic and Val Royal, and with Sweet Catomine, who won the 2004 Juvenile Fillies and was subsequently named Eclipse Champion 2-year-old Filly.

Although the truth quite often escaped him, Canani had an instinctive feel for what reporters were looking for and he often attracted notice by wearing a variety of hats, including natural fur chapeaus that were better suited for a Siberian Winter but nonetheless helped facilitate dozens of interviews, print and broadcast, over a career that spanned roughly 50 years.

Canani, who cut his training teeth via the claimbox, won his first stakes race in the 1975 Oceanside at Del Mar with Willmar, who he had haltered for $20,000. His lengthy list of stakes winners included Bruho, Putting, Silver Circus, Davie's Lamb, Tranquility Lake, Tuzla, Silent Sighs, Ladies Din, Special Ring, Amorama and others.

Canani, who saddled his last horse, Fantastic Mizz, to a second place finish on Oct. 23, 2015 at Santa Anita, finished with 1,137 wins and purse earnings of more than $49 million.

Divorced from his first wife, Jane, Canani is survived by their two children, Lisa and Nick, as well as his current wife, Svetlana and their two children, Isabella and Alexander. Julio Canani is also survived by two grandchildren and one great grandchild.

There are no funeral services planned at this time, but the Canani family has requested donations be made to the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation.

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Trainer Julio Canani Dies

Julio Canani, a three-time Breeders' Cup-winning trainer who came to America from his native Peru in 1954, died Friday morning at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, according to his daughter, Lisa. He was 82.

The news was first reported by the Daily Racing Form's Jay Privman, who quoted friends as saying that Canani had been suffering from dementia and had recently contracted COVID-19.

He was 16 when he came to America, and worked for a landscape company before heading to the racetrack and taking a job with trainer Tommy Doyle. He took out his own license in 1968. He won the 1989 GI Santa Anita H. with Martial Law, the 1999 and 2001 GI Breeders' Cup Mile with Silic (Fr) and Val Royal (Fr), and the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with Sweet Catomine, among numerous other top stakes races on the California circuit.

Val Royal's owner, David Milch, based a character in his HBO series LUCK on Canani; the trainer Turo Escalante was played by actor John Ortiz.

Canani was remembered as a colorful, flamboyant character by those who worked with him. “His horses were well trained,” said Victor Espinoza, who won the GI Eddie Read H. at Del Mar in 2004 aboard the Canani-trained Special Ring. “I always knew they would be 100% going into the race. It was fun to work with Julio Canani.”

Fun, certainly–but Canani also wasn't one to keep his feelings hidden, said Espinoza. “For me, that's what I always liked about him, that he wasn't afraid to share what he thought,” he added. “That's how the old-school trainers were.”

Added veteran California handler Eddie Truman: “He was a Damon Runyon type, wasn't he?”

Truman remembered Canani from his early days as a groom for trainer Hurst Philpot, when future handler Ross Fenstermaker was an exercise rider there.

“I don't think either one could speak the other's language, but they always knew how to go to the windows! He loved to gamble, boy that's for sure. What a character, and what a horseman.”

Jeff Siegel raced horses with Canani dating back to Martial Law in 1989.

“He was very loose with the truth but in a good, funny way,” said Siegel. “I once had a first-time starter with him, and she was 30-1. I didn't know too much about her. I said, 'Julio, can she run?' And he said, 'not really–she's a router not a sprinter. She's going to need the race. Maybe down the road after she's had a few races, she'll be okay.'

“Anyway, she got beat a neck or something, and I was thrilled because I was cold-watered by the guy,” Siegel continued. “I told him I was delighted. He said, “I wasn't–I'd singled her in the pick six.' He couldn't even tell me the truth! He was a very, very, very good trainer–especially good with fillies. He never really got the chance to have a big horse–I think he would have been great if he'd gotten that chance, but he lived a life that movies are made out of.”

Former jockey Corey Nakatani, who rode Sweet Catomine to victory in the 2004 Juvenile Fillies, describes Canani as “one of the last of the great horsemen.”

“He worked hard for what he got. He started life selling carrots and ended up a world class horseman,” said Nakatani. “We had a tremendous amount of success together. I believed in what he was doing and he believed in me.”

His career was forever tarnished in 2015 when he was suspended for 13 months for conduct detrimental to racing after a California jury found him liable for fraud over the sale of horses for owner Jeff Nielsen of Everest Stables, who was awarded over $80,000 in damages stemming from the suit. Canani trained Island Fashion (Petionville) for Nielsen. Canani applied for reinstatement in 2016, but was denied a license by the California Horse Racing Board.

According to Equibase, Canani's runners won 1,137 races and $49,274,820 in earnings.

Divorced from his first wife, Jane, Canani is survived by their two children, Lisa and Nick, as well as his current wife, Svetlana and their two children, Isabella and Alexander. He is also survived by two grandchildren and one great grandchild.

There are no funeral services planned at this time, but the Canani family has requested donations be made to the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation.

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