Randy Winick, trainer of Brocco and other stakes winners, dies at 76

Randy Winick, who trained Brocco to a win in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and later worked as a racing official in California, died on Sunday in Florida.

Winick was 76. His death was announced by his family. No cause was given.

Brocco was Winick’s leading horse, winning 4 of 8 starts and $1,003,550. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in his third start – and stakes debut – by five lengths, beating a field that included 7-10 favorite Dehere.

“We thought our horse was absolutely made for two turns, so we took a shot and won by five lengths,” Winick said in a 2007 interview with the East Bay Times of California.

Brocco finished second in the Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity in December 1993 and lost the Eclipse Award for champion 2-year-old to Dehere, who won four stakes at Belmont Park and Saratoga but finished eighth in the BC Juvenile.

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As a 3-year-old, Brocco had four starts, highlighted by a win in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby as the 7-10 favorite. After a slow start, Brocco finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby as the 4-1 second choice, losing by 5 1/4 lengths to Go for Gin.

“I still think, to this day, if he had a better start out of the gate, he could have won the race,” Winick said the 2007 interview. “He got in trouble out of the gate, was dead last early, and did run all the way up to second at the quarter pole. But I think he hung a little bit and finished fourth.”

Brocco, who raced for Albert Broccoli, the producer of several early James Bond movies, was Winick’s most successful runner in a training career that spanned 1974 to 2005. Winick won a career-best 40 races in 1976, when the stable consisted largely of claiming horses. That year, Winick raced at Hialeah Park and Gulfstream Park in the winter and early spring, and in Southern California from April to October.

Winick’s stable had an excellent period in the early 1980s, winning 133 races from 1980 to 1985. In 1985, Winick’s runners earned more than $1.28 million, a career-high. The team was led that year by the Dontstop Themusic and Mitterand, who combined to win nine stakes.

Dontstop Themusic won six stakes that year as 5-year-old mare, including two Grade 1 races – the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park and Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. She finished third to Life’s Magic in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Aqueduct.

Mitterand swept the three-race La Canada series for 4-year-old fillies at Santa Anita in the early months of 1985 – the La Brea Stakes at seven furlongs, the El Encino Stakes at 1 1/16 miles, and the Grade 1 La Canada Stakes at 1 1/8 miles. Mitterand was later second against mares in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita.

In his career, Winick won 340 races from 2,346 starters who earned more than $10.2 million. Brocco’s win in the 1994 Santa Anita Derby was Winick’s final stakes victory. Aside from Dontstop Themusic and Brocco, Winick trained La Spia, who won the Del Mar Debutante and finished third in the BC Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs in 1991.

Winick had seven career stakes wins at Del Mar, including the Grade 3 Del Mar Oaks in 1978 with Country Queen, who a year later won the Grade 3 Ramona Handicap there, as well as the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Invitational at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting.

Suivi won the Grade 2 Del Mar Oaks in 1992, Winick’s final stakes win at the track. Suivi was later second to Captive Miss in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland that fall.

Winick’s stable dwindled in the mid-1990s, with less than 10 starters annually from 1996 to 2005. In the mid-2000s, Winick began working as a steward at venues on the Northern California fair circuit, and later at the Los Alamitos evening meeting of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds.

“I was looking for a way to stay in the business, and this opportunity presented itself,” Winick said in 2007. “Horse racing has been in my blood my whole life and this opportunity gave me a chance to stay in the business at a high level.”

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Winick was a steward until 2017.

Randall W. Winick was the son of Arnold Winick, an owner, breeder, and trainer who won more than 20 training titles in Florida and Illinois. Among his many prominent runners, Arnold Winick trained Hold Your Peace, who finished third behind Riva Ridge in the 1972 Kentucky Derby. Arnold Winick was a co-owner of Mitterand.

According to an obituary published earlier this week by a Florida funeral home, Randy Winick worked for his father while attending high school in Miami and as a student at the University of Miami. Randy Winick moved to California at his father’s urging.

As a steward, Winick reflected on his career as a trainer.

“When you have a good, young horse, the mornings were great,” Winick said in 2007. “The high-level racing was fun. The pressure was intense, but it was one of the great highs when you won a race.

“Overall, I do miss it, but there were so many good years. I won over 40 stakes races, so I got a little taste of all of it. I was there.”

Survivors include a daughter, Tierney Rae, and a sister, Stacey. According to the obituary, funeral services will be private.

The family has requested that donations can be made in Randy Winick’s honor to Accent Care Hospice Inpatient Unit, 3600 Washington St., Hollywood, FL 33021.

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