Prince Lost to Sport of Kings

Horse racing, which could ill afford it, took a blow to the body this week. It lost Laz Barrera.

Lazaro Sosa Barrera was not a household name in the world of sport. But it was around the backstretch of almost any race track in North America.

He is one of the few trainers who can boast of having trained a Triple Crown winner (there have been 11, trained by 10 men). He came within 3 1/2 lengths of having another in 1976 when Bold Forbes, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont, lost the Preakness because of a too-aggressive ride and a leg cut in the stretch.

Laz won 2,268 races, $50 million and four Eclipse Awards as racing’s best trainer. But it was not his way with horses that made him a beloved backstretch figure, it was his way with people. People simply liked Laz Barrera. Because, he liked them.

He was a kindly man, a simple man, capable of acts of great compassion. He is remembered here for one he performed when I needed it most.

It was in 1979. Laz Barrera was the king of racing. His Affirmed had just won the Triple Crown and 20 other races, including the Santa Anita Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Woodward and Jockey Gold Cup. He was as near to a wonder horse as the track produced, a great gold chestnut who could run--and win--anywhere.

Laz was as in demand as a Heisman Trophy winner, his time monopolized by racing forms, radio programs, TV hosts and magazine writers. That fall, I’d had a bit of bad luck. My eyesight was almost totally affected, but I was trying to resume a career. I was about 99-1 on the morning line.

An interview, if it could be effected, had to take place away from the finish-line bustle.

Laz had plenty of things to do, horses to condition, trips to the farm to prepare, appearances to make, but he never hesitated. He consented to a painstaking lunch over an open tape cassette.

We sat at lunch for more than three hours. Laz described animatedly every step on the race track Affirmed ever took. In his mind, Affirmed would have been even money, maybe odds-on, in a race against Man o’ War and Secretariat. I got enough material for five columns.

It was a typical Laz Barrera performance. Laz, too, was a thoroughbred. He always went the distance and never hung in the stretch. He was a man of great empathy.

He was also a man of great pride. Usually, when a horse trainer gets to Louisville for a Derby he dons the blue jeans and cowboy boots and pearl-buttoned shirt and greasy hat of the Chisholm Trail cowpuncher. You can’t tell if they are going to the rodeo or the Derby.

Not Laz. He looked more like the Secretary of State stopping by the races on his way to Geneva. Even at dawn around the barn, Laz had a three-piece suit, felt hat and matching tie. He’d have a manicure and a shave.

His English was hardly Churchillian. Laz had this arrangement with English. It went its way and he went his. It was part of his appeal, really. Laz had been in this country since coffee was a nickel, but the language always ran him down in the stretch. Affirmed he could handle, but Bold Forbes always came out “Bo Forbus,” and his last year’s Derby favorite, Mister Frisky, was “Mid-ter Fricky.”

But, in any language, Laz was a great gentleman. A couple of years ago, a terrible story circulated out of the racing board. A few trainers had been accused of racing their horses on cocaine. Inconclusive tests indicated Laz was one of them. The story surfaced.

I couldn’t believe it. Neither could anyone who knew Laz Barrera. It was an edge he didn’t need and, even if he needed it, wouldn’t take. I have known some conditioners who would use illegal drugs to win, but Laz Barrera wasn’t one of them.

I have never seen a man more overcome with horror over an accusation. Laz almost visibly aged. He felt dirtied, disgraced. His brown eyes brimmed with tears and indignation whenever he discussed it. His friends worried about him.

I offered to do a story recounting his side of it. I felt it was not the least I could do for Laz, it was the least I could do for the truth.

It was decided by his advisers that it would be best to fight the distortion through the system, not the press.

The charges were dropped. The tests were found to be inconclusive. I don’t think the episode did Laz’s health any good. He had two heart operations in recent years.

He was born on a race track (in a house in the middle of the infield) in Havana. He migrated first to Mexico, then California. He was a man of great warmth and, if humans sometimes had trouble understanding him, horses never did. Two of the best conditioning jobs in Derby history were turned in by Laz Barrera. In 1976, he had a graduate sprinter, Bold Forbes, who, like all Bold Ruler horses, tended to think the race was over at a mile-and-an-eighth. Laz got him ready with long gallops rather than bursts of speed. Bold Forbes got to thinking he was Whirlaway before Laz got through with him. He was even able to win the 1 1/2-mile Belmont.

He did the same thing with Affirmed two years later. He knew Affirmed needed the stamina to hold off Alydar. Affirmed did it through the Triple Crown, and the only time he lost to Alydar was on a disqualification.

The Derby will be without him this Saturday. It will be the poorer for it. So will the rest of racing.