Dan Perlsweig, trainer of Lord Avie, dies at 91

Dan Perlsweig, best known as the trainer of champion juvenile Lord Avie, died Tuesday. He was 91.

A native of Philadelphia, Perlsweig was a member of the city’s mounted police before serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. When he returned from the war, Perlsweig worked as an exercise rider, and eventually became jockey. He rode for a decade before a spill ended one career and started another.

Perlsweig took up training in the 1950s and became a fixture on the East Coast, winning meet titles in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and cementing himself as a top-10 trainer in those states over the coming decades.

His greatest runner came after three decades as a trainer, when he landed the 2-year-old Lord Gaylord colt Lord Avie at auction for $37,000 on behalf of S.K.S. Stable in 1980. Lord Avie was named champion juvenile male by year’s end on the strength of a campaign that included wins in the Grade 1 Young America and Champagne stakes and the Grade 2 Codwin Stakes.

Lord Avie was a favorite for the 1981 Kentucky Derby at the beginning of his sophomore campaign, and he maintained that position after wins in the Hutcheson Stakes and Grade 1 Florida Derby, before an injury knocked him off the Triple Crown trail.

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Other high-profile runners trained by Perlsweig included Grade 3 winners Arlene’s Valentine, Cadabra Abra, and Willowy Mood. From 1976 to his retirement from training in 2000, he tallied 505 wins, including 38 in stakes races, for earnings of more than $7.8 million. Statistics are not available from before 1976.

After giving up training, Perlsweig remained in the industry as a bloodstock agent, doing business as Dandy Dan Equine Consultants. He spent time between New Jersey and Florida in his later years and was a frequent visitor to Lord Avie as a pensioner at Blue Ridge Farm in Upperville, Va. Prior to his death in 2012, Lord Avie was the oldest surviving Eclipse Award winner at age 34.

Perlsweig was an active advocate for backstretch workers, founding Backstretch Appreciation Days at Monmouth Park and Gulfstream Park in the early 1990s, and largely running them himself until his later years. His efforts earned him the Dogwood Dominion Award in 1999, recognizing unsung heroes in the racing industry.

He also served as chairman of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s Equine Advisory Board and spoke at colleges, including the Universities of Louisville and Arizona.

A viewing will be held Saturday at the Wooley-Boglioli Funeral Home in Long Branch, N.J., from 11:30 a.m. until the service at 1:30 p.m.