Condren, Derby-winning owner, dies at age 74

William Condren, who owned Kentucky Derby winners Strike the Gold and Go for Gin in partnership, died Monday in Boston at the age of 74.

Condren had been in poor health for several months.

Condren campaigned the 1991 Derby winner, Strike the Gold, with partners B. Giles Brophy and Joe Cornacchia. The partnership later split after Cornacchia and Condren voted Brophy out as managing partner, and in 1994 Condren and Cornacchia won the Derby again, with Go for Gin.

Condren also raced Louis Quatorze, the 1996 Preakness winner and Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up, in partnership with Cornacchia and the colt's breeder, the late Georgia Hofmann. In partnership with Cornacchia, he also raced Star Standard, who was second in the 1995 Belmont and winner of the 1996 Pimlico Special, as well as Mr. Greeley, who ran second in the 1995 Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Nick Zito trained all of those runners.

"Obviously, the karma was very, very good," Zito said of his relationship with Condren and the owner's string of Grade 1 winners. Zito described Condren as a "throwback" owner who revered the sporting style of the late Paul Mellon and Ogden Phipps.

"I really enjoyed training for him," he said. "He never, ever once got involved in the training. He left everything to us. That's the old-time way, and I think he was proud of that."

Condren graduated from Harvard Law School and became a private investor with interests in real estate, oil and gas, and aircraft leasing. He was a director of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and a trustee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. He is survived by his wife, Mary Jo, a son, Colin, and daughters Elizabeth and Jennifer.

A memorial service was being planned for next week at New York's St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan.