Rachel Pagones with a moving personal appreciation of the longserving West Coast trainer, who died on October 20 after open-heart surgery
Howard Zucker was a dear friend of mine. That makes me not one of a select few, but a member of a large and diverse group of people who knew that in Howie they had someone they could call on when in need of just about anything.
I first met Howie at Del Mar in the mid-1990s, when a mutual friend introduced us. At the time, I was buying horses for people and he was training them, so it seemed like it might be a good fit.
And it was. He was a dedicated horseman and an astute conditioner, but more than anything he was a bringer-together. With a choreographer’s touch, he brought a cast of characters into proximity in meaningful ways, such that they complemented each other.
He did this in an official capacity with CARMA – the charity devoted to the healthy retirement of horses raced in California, of which he was formerly president and was treasurer at the time of his death, on October 20 – as well as other organizations. Unofficially, he outdid any social media or internet algorithm in linking people with who or what they required.
He found farriers for those needing a horse shod, and chiropractors for the farriers. If you needed a box by the finish line for that afternoon, he got you one. If your horse – or you – came up sore in the morning, he had the best sources for magnets, or braces, or supplements.
Howie knew horses and he knew people. He knew them in both senses of the word – if you were wondering about a particular horse (Cigar’s feet, Big Brown’s shoes) or who to call to get something done, he could tell you.
But he also understood the nature of horses and humans, and the particular ways they interact in the racing world. It wasn’t a view that always left him full of optimism, but it was marked by an abiding compassion, especially for the little guy (or gal, or horse).
Once we were due to meet for dinner in the early evening during the Del Mar meet. Uncharacteristically, he was late and then later. He finally arrived, having spent the last hours trying to arrange social help for a hotwalker whom he’d employed only recently.
Howie was a true racetracker. He came from the old New York school, similarly to the late Bobby Frankel – a city kid who began walking hots and rubbing legs and never looked back on his way to Florida and California.
In Howie’s case, there was a degree in finance from City College of New York first, and he maintained a strong interest in that topic: there was never enough, typically for a trainer with a small stable whose official record is modestly successful.
Trainers are generally remembered for the top races they won and the best winners they trained. There are so many other ways to remember, though: smaller victories coaxed out of horses beset by illness and bad luck; a big payout at the windows; and the way a person handles the losses and losers that are more numerous for any conditioner.
Howie was particularly adept with the hard-luck horses. I should know, as I bought him some of them. Perhaps the most successful of these nurture-intensive animals was Madame Pietra, a little filly with a big engine and fragile hooves who I acquired for his longtime client C.T. Grether as a Keeneland September yearling.
It took until her five- and six-year-old seasons before Howie’s patient handling rounded her into peak form, but then she rattled off a series of black-type wins, including the Sunshine Millions Padua Stables Filly & Mare Sprint and the G3 Desert Stormer Handicap. There were other stakes winners, most notably Crafty C.T., Well Monied, and Queen Of The Catsle (none of them my own doing).
The Zucker stable was based in Santa Anita, but I don’t think Howie was ever happier than at Del Mar, upon whose sandy ground he first set foot in 1982. He had a particular knack for winning on opening day at that meet, when the crowds were at their most boisterous.
However, his absolute best moment at Del Mar, he told me recently, came on closing day in 2009. The listed Daisycutter Handicap had been split into two divisions, and he won both, with Queen Of The Catsle and Synnin And Grinnin – with the former scoring in the race for the second consecutive year.
Howie loved his horses. He was intimately acquainted with their habits, their foibles, and their delicate demanding legs. He loved whatever dog was in his life at the time – most recently an avid shepherd dog named Dylan. He loved sunsets at the beach. Most of all, he loved Lorraine, his wife and a Yale-trained biologist, who for decades held him up through the disappointments and the triumphs and the daily grind.
Such a short summation of a life authentically lived. What I really want to say is this: Who will I call now, when I need to know something?
There is a hole where something solid used to be. I do have one small comfort, though – that those of us feeling alone and bereft at the loss of Howard Zucker are brought together once more by remembering him.
Great racetracks we have lost: Rockingham Park – the ‘little Saratoga’ of New England
Special feature: Where the turf meets the surf – but just what makes Del Mar so great?
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires