Leon Blusiewicz, Runyonesque trainer of multiple stakes winners, dies at 92

Leon Blusiewicz, a trainer of multiple stakes winners during a 40-plus-year career and a Damon Runyon-type character, died Sunday in a Maryland hospital due to kidney failure. He was 92.

Blusiewicz, a native of Baltimore, won 184 races from 1,243 starts from 1976-2017, according to Equibase statistics. He conditioned graded stakes winners Willa On the Move, Snow Plow, Spartiatis, Mighty Magee, Skipat, Millions and Tong Po as well as many other listed stakes winners.

Statistics, however, don’t tell the full story of Blusiewicz, a well-respected horseman who was passionate about pedigrees, loved to tout his horses and was an avid horseplayer.

“He was one of the most knowledgeable guys I’ve been around,” said trainer Ed Barker, who shared a barn with Blusiewicz at Aqueduct many years ago. “The little things that he would say or teach you - I’m talking back 30 years - I never forgot. Nobody sweats horses the way I do and Leon taught me that 30 years ago.”

Trainer Jimmy Iselin also shared a barn with Blusiewicz and the two remained friends for decades even after both retired.

“He was just a very special person, the people that knew him really respected him,” Iselin said. “He wasn’t afraid to argue or stand up for what he believed in. He was a great horseman and he was very much opposed to the super trainers having 200 horses.”

Blusiewicz had the courage of his convictions. In 1981, Blusiewicz trained the 2-year-old filly Snow Plow, who won the Selima and the Demoiselle, both Grade 1 stakes at the time. In the Demoiselle, Snow Plow beat Larida, the 3-2 favorite trained by Woody Stephens.

Blusiewicz, in an interview with the “Real Players Inside the Backstretch” in 2022, recalled a conversation he had with Stephens prior to the Demoiselle.

“Woody said, ‘When you come to New York I’m going to drop the hammer on you Blue,’ “ Blusiewicz said. “I said, ‘Woody, we can take ‘em down Whiskey Bottom Road [near Laurel] right now and you can’t beat this filly.”

Snow Plow won the Demoiselle by 1 1/4 lengths.

In 2010, in Saratoga, he touted the 3-year-old Admiral Alex, who was making his career debut at 1 1/8 miles. The lone first-time starter and breaking from the outside in a field of 8, Admiral Alex won by a length at odds of 5-2.

Four weeks later, Blusiewicz ran Admiral Alex in the Grade 1 Travers, in which he finished last of 11. Admiral Alex would become a stakes winner two starts later at Belmont before getting injured and retired.

Admiral Alex was out of the dam Madam Lagonza, who was an example of Blusiewicz’s success as a breeder. Madam Lagonza was purchased for $22,000 - the day after Blusiewicz was unsuccessful in trying to buy the yearling who would become Lemon Drop Kid. While Madam Lagonza did not make it to the races, she produced the graded turf stakes winner Woodlander as well as the mare Miner’s Secret, who became the dam of the Grade 1 stakes winner Coal Front.

Nick Zito, the two-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer, was very close with Blusiewicz, the two sharing a passion for pedigrees.

“He and I would tick off the pedigrees, we knew all the mothers and daughters way back when,” Zito said. “He and I would go crazy over the pedigrees. Blue knew all the pedigrees inside and out.

“He was some horseman, he was sharp as a tack,” Zito added. “There’ll never be another one like him. He’s one of the characters when you say Damon Runyon and you say racetrack he fits the bill.”

Blusiewicz loved to wager, mostly on horses, but sometimes he would bet on other games of chance. On Aug. 10, 2022, Blusiewicz had a dream that the pick-4 lottery number in New York the following day was going to be 1122. Blusiewicz purchased $30 worth of tickets for the Aug. 11 afternoon and evening drawing with that number. The number didn't hit Aug. 11, but 1122 was the winning number on the evening of Aug. 12, 2022.

“If he had played it two days in a row, he would have won $300,000,” Barker said.

Blusiewicz passed away with his longtime girlfriend June Rogers by his side. Blusiewicz is survived by his twin sister Leona.

Services are pending.