Third-Generation Trainer Mayberry Dies at 60

Trainer Brian Mayberry, a third-generation horseman who had successfully trained on the Southern California circuit since 1985, died Monday in Huntington Beach after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 60.

Mayberry was the son of a trainer and the grandson of J.P. Mayberry, who saddled Judge Himes to win the Kentucky Derby in 1903. Brian Mayberry never started a horse in the Derby, but in 1994, on the day before the big race, he won the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs with Sardula.

“This is the greatest feeling in the world,” an emotional Mayberry said after the Oaks. Sardula, who upset Lakeway, won the 1 1/8-mile Oaks off just one prep race, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint.

Mayberry, who was particularly successful with 2-year-olds, won dozens of stakes at all three Southern California thoroughbred tracks. Among the winners were Sardula at Del Mar, Zoonaqua and Stormy But Valid at Santa Anita, and at Hollywood Park, Mayberry runners won the Landaluce Stakes five times, including four straight starting in 1990.

Mayberry’s biggest day came when Gulfstream Park hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 1989. He saddled the winners--Tasteful T.V., Stormy But Valid and Edgy Diplomat--of other non-Breeders’ Cup stakes races on the card.

Mayberry’s wife, Jeanne, was running the family stable during his illness. Their two daughters--Summer in California and April in Kentucky--are also trainers.