Howie Tesher, personable trainer and media personality, dies at 90
Howie Tesher, a successful trainer and popular backstretch personality who enjoyed a career that spanned more than five decades, died Friday at the Majestic Memory Care Center in Hollywood, Fla. He was 90.
Tesher, who suffered from dementia, died due to complications from pneumonia, according to his niece Jodie David.
Tesher, a journalism major at the University of Florida, worked with his older brothers Fred and Bobby, who were dentists in South Florida. But Tesher, despite being allergic to horses, made his way to the track.
He saddled his first horse in 1961 at Tropical Park and won his first race in 1962 at Suffolk Downs with a horse named Weeper’s Boy.
Tesher, who had a gregarious personality, trained for some high-profile owners, including George Steinbrenner and Telly Savalas.
According to Equibase, Tesher won 1,302 races from 9,793 starters in his career, which ended in 2014. His horses earned $31,247,483.
He trained a bevy of Grade 1 winners, including Influent, Lieutenant’s Lark, Bull Inthe Heather, Weber City Miss, Plankton, Sondrio, Andover Way and Wolfie’s Rascal. Other stakes winners he trained included Bolshoi Boi, Champagneforashley, Darby Creek Road, and Dr. Blum.
Tesher said one of his favorite horses was Intensitivo.
“I had him until he was 11,” Tesher was quoted in the 1993 NYRA media guide. “He had one eye, his right eye, and an unbelievable personality. Whenever I would go through hard-luck times, I would drop him down, run him and he would win, breaking the bad luck.”
Later in his career, Tesher did some television work for New York City Off-Track Betting, hosting shows from Saratoga during the summer.
According to David, Tesher spent five years in the memory care facility and the staff there grew attached to him.
“Everybody loved him,” David said. “All these ladies that helped him and the kitchen staff and laundry guys, they all came in with giant tears and they all went over and kissed him goodbye. It was really precious. Even in the state he was in, he was spreading sunshine.
“He was a lot of fun. He was a party in a box.”
David said Tesher will be buried at Riverside Gordon Memorial Chapels at Mount Nebo/Kendall Memorial Gardens where his parents and brothers are buried.
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