Former trainer Richard Lundy dead at 71

Richard Lundy, who trained such outstanding runners as Blushing John, Carr de Naskra, and Opening Verse, died from esophageal cancer on Saturday at his home in Waynesville, Ohio. He was 71.

Blushing John was the champion older male of 1989, the year he won the Hollywood Gold Cup and Pimlico Special and was third the Breeders’ Cup Classic behind 3-year-olds Sunday Silence and Easy Goer. Carr de Naskra won the 1984 Travers and Jim Dandy. Opening Verse won the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Those were among the dozens of significant races Lundy won, including the Santa Anita Derby with Dinard, the Donn and Gulfstream Park Handicap with Jade Hunter, the Hollywood Oaks with Fowda, the Manhattan with Milesius, and the Bowling Green with Uptown Swell.

Lundy, who was most prominent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, left training in 2002 and went to work for an equine veterinary products company. He operated a public stable at times but was best known for his years as a private trainer for the likes of Virginia Kraft Payson – who owned Carr de Naskra -- and then Allen Paulson, who campaigned Blushing John and Opening Verse. Lundy won 403 races, and his runners earned more than $17 million.

“No one knows how good a man he was, because he wouldn’t toot his own horn,” Cathy Riccio, who worked as an assistant to Lundy in the 1980s, said Tuesday.

Lundy, a native of New York state, was involved in show-jumping early in his career, worked for trainer Lucien Laurin in New York, then served in the armed forces before relocating to Southern California, where he gained prominence as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham for six years before being hired by Payson.

Lundy is survived by his third wife, Suzy, and two brothers, Gary and Marty. According to Suzy Lundy, a celebration of life will be held Oct. 26 from noon to 3 p.m., with a service beginning at 3 p.m., at Stubbs-Conner Funeral Home in Waynesville, Ohio.

According to Riccio, the family requests donations be made to Old Friends, where Dinard resides at age 31.