Owner-breeder Buddy Blass dies at 92

Gus “Buddy” Blass II, who with his wife, Patricia, won the 1973 Travers with Annihilate ‘Em, died Sunday at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., confirmed Pat Tanner, the couple’s racing manager. Blass was 92.

Blass was a prominent Arkansas businessman and a longtime breeder and owner. Tanner said he fought in World War, II and was a patron of the Boy Scouts.

“Mr. Blass loved his family, and he loved his horses,” Tanner said. “We talked horses to the last day. He always stressed integrity, and he said you have to have that in any business, where you can lay your head on the pillow at night and know you’ve done your best. He did a lot of things for people on the backside that he never really wanted credit for, and he was very instrumental getting the chaplaincy [complex] built at Oaklawn.”

Tanner said Blass raced horses with his wife for 52 years. The couple was married for 66 years. Tanner said their foundation mare was Fun Flight, who produced a trio of stakes winners, including the popular Pink Shoes.