Longtime Florida trainer Ralph Ziadie dies at 84

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Longtime South Florida training fixture Ralph Ziadie, best known for developing the multiple Grade 1 winner and $2.5 million earner Sir Bear, passed away last week at the age of 84.

Ziadie, who relocated from his native Jamaica to South Florida 50 years earlier and whose son Kirk followed in his footsteps as a successful trainer on the local circuit for many years, was a mainstay on the Calder backstretch for more than three decades.

He won 1,554 races for earnings of $31.6 million during his U.S. training career and, while he won 78 stakes overall, it was the Barbara and Al Smollin homebred Sir Bear who help Ziadie gain national attention during a career that spanned seven years, from 1996 through 2003. Sir Bear reached his peak with victories in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct in November of 1998 and the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap six months later at Belmont Park.

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“Ralph was a great caretaker, always hired the best help, and he always treated all his horses the same, the claiming horses as well as the good ones like Sir Bear,” said Al Smollin, who served as Ziadie’s primary veterinarian for five years before enlisting him to train his modest stable of homebreds, including Sir Bear. “He was not only a terrific trainer, but a close friend as well.”

A memorial service for Ziadie will be held at Saint John XXIII Catholic Church in Miramar, Fla., on Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

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