Kentucky Derby-winning trainer David Cross Jr. dies

David Cross Jr., who trained Sunny’s Halo to victory in the 1983 Kentucky Derby, died late Wednesday night at the University of Kentucky’s Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington, Ky., according to trainer Jinks Fires, for whom Cross had worked in recent years.

Cross, 84, had suffered from a series of health issues in recent years and had entered the hospital following a stroke, Fires said. He subsequently was transferred to hospice care.

Services are pending. A representative for Kerr Brothers Funeral Home in Lexington on Thursday said that the hospital was awaiting instructions from next of kin regarding transferring Cross’s body.

Cross – a fiercely proud man with a keen intellect and stubborn personality – had a star-crossed career. The highlight unquestionably was the Derby victory with Sunny’s Halo.

Sunny’s Halo – a son of Halo owned and bred by David Foster – was a four-time stakes winner at age 2 in Canada, where he was born and the country from where both Cross and Foster hailed. He was that year’s Sovereign Award winner as champion 2-year-old.

Cross took Sunny’s Halo to Southern California for the winter of 1982-83 while giving up nearly every other horse he trained. After training at Hollywood Park, where Cross took advantage of the track’s equine swimming pool, Sunny’s Halo won the Rebel and the Arkansas Derby prior to the Kentucky Derby, which he won by two lengths under Eddie Delahoussaye.

Later that year, Sunny’s Halo won the Super Derby.

Also that year, Cross was involved in a controversial medication violation in the Arlington Classic in Chicago that embittered him for decades. He had been treating Sunny’s Halo for a skin rash and said he stopped using medication for the rash well before the stipulated withdrawal time, but the horse tested positive for an overage after the Arlington Classic, and Cross was suspended.

In the 1990s, Cross had a resurgence. He won the Grade 3 Rebel in 1991 with Quintana, the Grade 2 La Canada in 1995 with Diane’s Halo, and the Grade 2 Lexington and Grade 2 Ohio Derby in 1998 with Classic Cat, who was third in that year’s Preakness. All three were owned by Gary Garber or Garber’s wife, Diane.

Cross sent out his first winner at Longacres in 1957. According to Equibase, he had 328 wins from 3,229 starters from 1976 until sending out his final starter in 2012. From 1999 until 2012 he had 26 wins from 306 starters.

Cross, who grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2006. In recent years, he was employed by Fires, simply because “he just wanted to be around the horses,” Fires said Thursday.

“He just wanted to help out around the barn,” Fires said. “He was a good guy. We’d go out to breakfast a lot. All he wanted to talk about was the horses.”