At 92, Handy still has winning touch
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Earlier this season, 94-year-old Jerry Bozzo gained nationwide attention by becoming the oldest trainer to saddle a stakes winner, sending out Flutterby to capture the Sea Lily Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Bozzo, who turned 95 last month, went on to win three stakes this year with Flutterby while falling just short of earning a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup when his homebred filly finished second at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney, a Win and You’re In qualifier for the BC Filly and Mare Sprint.
But Bozzo isn’t the only nonagenarian trainer stabled at Gulfstream who is winning races in south Florida this year. George Handy, a mere 92 in comparison, sent out a pair of winners at Gulfstream Park West on Sunday, registering a popular half-length victory in the fifth race with Kimchi’s Strike before coming back an hour later to upset the seventh race with the 6-1 Storm Warnings. Both horses are owned by Barbara-Ann McDonnell, the wife of Handy’s longtime client, the late Skip McDonnell.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve won two in one day,” said Handy, who has saddled more than 1,350 winners since beginning his training career after getting out of the Navy in 1946.
Handy was a mainstay around New England early in his career before moving to the New Jersey-south Florida circuit in the mid-1970s. He was elected to the New England Turf Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2008. Handy’s most prominent horse over the years was Impecunious, who won the 1973 Arkansas Derby and was third that year in both the Blue Grass and behind Secretariat in the Bay Shore. A quarter crack kept him out of the Kentucky Derby. Known over the years as a flashy dresser and a ladies’ man among his peers, Handy still maintains a penchant for fast cars and has plenty of bounce in his step for a guy pushing 93.
Kimchi’s Strike and Storm Warnings amount to Handy’s entire stable at the present time.
“I have 2 1/2 horses right now, but the half will ship out soon,” said Handy, who has no plans of retiring anytime soon.
“What else would I do?” Handy said when asked about retirement several years ago.