Thoroughbred trainer Leon Blusiewicz died on Sunday at the age of 92. The Baltimore, Md., native suffered from kidney failure, according to Daily Racing Form.
Known by virtually everyone who met him as “Blu,” Blusiewicz said he was on hand at Pimlico as a young boy to watch the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race in 1938. But his first job after school took him to the ocean, not the racetrack. Andy Beyer, writing in the Washington Post, said Blusiewicz had a “romantic vision of going to sea,” and at 16 was hired to work on a ship headed to South America. He spent years as a seaman, but a union work stoppage in 1966 convinced him to seek a job at the racetrack, where he found work as a hot walker and groom.
“I liked it so much,” he told Beyer, “that I decided, 'This is what I've got to do.'”
According to Equibase, which includes data from Daily Racing Form, Blusiewicz saddled his first winner in 1976. Over the next four decades he would win a total of 184 races from 1,243 starters. While certainly not Hall of Fame material, Blusiewicz endeared himself to other horsemen, gamblers, and media members with his horsemanship, his impassionate advocacy for the game, and his openness about betting.
A few years after his first win, Blusiewicz spent $35,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale on a Washington-bred filly named Snow Plow, who trained well enough at her Maryland base for the trainer to send her to Belmont Park to debut in a maiden special race for 2-year-old fillies in 1981. She won by a nose under Angel Cordero Jr. at odds of 3-1.
Blusiewicz, who was known to wager enthusiastically on his horses when he liked their chances (and advise others to do the same), was asked by Andy Beyer if he bet on her that day. “Is the Pope Catholic?” Blu said to Beyer. “That's the name of the game.”
Snow Plow went on to win the Selima Stakes at Laurel and Demoiselle at Aqueduct – both races then Grade 1.
When he ran Snow Plow in the Selima, Blusiewicz told the social media site The Real Players Inside the Backstretch, the Hall of Fame horseman Woody Stephens, who entered unbeaten Larida that day, said, “When you come to New York, I'm going to drop the hammer on you, Blu.”
To which Blusiewicz responded: “'Woody, we can take them down Whiskey Bottom Road right now and you can't beat this filly'” – a reference to the road adjacent to Laurel Park where the Selima was run. Snow Plow won easily that day and defeated Larida again in the Demoiselle the following month.
Snow Plow finished the year unbeaten in three starts, with two of the victories Grade 1, but she fell short of an Eclipse Award, which went to Calumet Farm's Before Dawn, winner in five of six starts, her only defeat coming against males in the G1 Champagne.
Snow Plow would be one of two G1 winners trained by Blusiewicz, the other being 1988 Ashland Stakes winner Willa On the Move. He also won the G3 Barbara Fritchie Handicap in 1981 with Skipat; the G3 Federico Tesio Stakes in 1991 with Tong Po; the G3 Aqueduct Handicap in 1996 with Mighty Magee; the G3 Laurel Futurity in 1998 with Millions; and the G3 Tom Fool Handicap in 2017 with Spartiatis.
Blusiewicz preferred owning the horses he trained, which made things more challenging for him, and he went through lengthy slumps, winning just five races over a four-year period in the late 1990s.
That's when, Beyer wrote, Blusiewicz took out an ad in a Maryland horse publication, seeking new clients. “Looking to get into the business the right way?” the ad stated. “With over 25 years in breeding, buying, training and consulting, Leon Blusiewicz is your answer.”
According to Beyer, Blusiewicz didn't receive a single phone call as a result of the ad.
Blusiewicz was outspoken about how changes in recent years have made the game worse than it used to be.
Trainers in previous decades were “more dedicated to the horse,” Blusiewicz said in his interview with The Real Players Inside the Backstretch. “They trained 40 horses. Everybody had a good horse. Everybody had a chance to get a good horse. Now the good horses are between two people or three people who have 200 horses. That's why the game is going downhill.”
While his last starter came in 2017, Blusiewicz stayed engaged in racing as a fan and gambler in the ensuing years. “I love the game,” he said in the Real Players interview. “I'm retired now but I wish I was young enough to participate. Had a lot of fun. Met a lot of interesting people.”
Few could have been as interesting as Blu.
Funeral arrangements were unknown at this time.
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