Queen's Plate-winning owner-trainer John Cardella dead at 90

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Queen’s Plate-winning owner-trainer John Cardella died last Dec. 25 at 90, according to owner Paul Cooper.

Cardella was best known for campaigning 1983 Queen’s Plate victor Bompago, a gelding he had claimed from trainer Gord Huntley as a 2-year-old at Fort Erie for $40,000. The hard-to-handle Bompago won the Plate Trial Stakes at 25-1 before his authoritative 4 1/2-length score as the favorite under Larry Attard in the $175,000 Queen’s Plate.

Cardella took on the role of assistant trainer to Frank Merrill in 1964, went out on his own in 1976, and won the Woodbine summer meet training title in 1980. He earned the nickname “Coldwater Kid” from Toronto Star sports columnist Jim Proudfoot for his liberal use of the hose on ankles, knees, legs.

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From 1976 to 2019, Cardella won 896 races from 7,592 starters for earnings of just over $18 million. The majority of his wins were at Woodbine, which is near where the Toronto native resided.

Known primarily as a claiming trainer, Cardella conditioned eight other stakes winners, including Grade 3 Eclipse winner Lil Personalitee and Olympian, who captured the Grade 3 Play the King in 2000 after Cardella claimed him for $40,000 in 1999.

Cooper and Joe Pirone owned the last stakes winner trained by Cardella, San Nicola Thunder, who took the Bunty Lawless and Sir Barton stakes in 2014.

“My first job in high school was working for Frank Merrill,” Cooper recalled. “John was his assistant. That’s how I came to know him. We reconnected in 2011, which was good for John because we had San Nicola Thunder with him and it gave him a new lease on life.”