Horse racing: 3 trainers ‘honored’ to carry on John Shirreffs’ work ...Middle East

ARCADIA — For a week, people at Santa Anita have been honoring John Shirreffs in every way they can: in the track’s moment of silence between races last Friday, in flowers and cards left at the Zenyatta statue, in sad conversations everywhere you turn.

Now, Peter Eurton, Bob Hess Jr. and Leonard Powell will pay homage to Shirreffs the best way they know: by trying to keep his horses in the winner’s circle.

Shirreffs was a youthful 80 when the trainer of Racing Hall of Fame mare Zenyatta and 2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo died unexpectedly at his and his wife Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs’ home in Arcadia on Feb. 12, having become ill on a trip to Ocala, Fla., to look over 2-year-olds. Dottie and Shirreffs’ owners have completed the sad task of closing barn 47 at Santa Anita and dispersing the horses. Four-year-old Baeza, the barn’s best in 2025, was to be shipped back east to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, but most went to established California trainers with long professional and personal ties to the Shirreffs.

Eurton got the most, including the most accomplished of the Shirreffs horses staying here: Westwood, the 4-year-old gelding owned by Lee and Susan Searing who delivered Shirreffs’ final victory Jan. 31 in the San Pasqual Stakes and is aiming for the March 8 Santa Anita Handicap. Hess got a half-dozen, all competing at the optional-claiming or maiden levels or not yet raced. Powell got a lightly raced colt and filly.

All three expressed shock and sorrow over Shirreffs’ death.

“He had so much life in him. He beat me to the barn every morning,” said Eurton, who gets to his shedrow about 5:30 a.m.

Eurton was speaking Wednesday on the phone from Cortina, Italy, where he and his wife Lisa are on vacation while their daughter Britney is there to cover the Olympics for NBC.

“For (horse owner Lee Searing, of CRK Stable) to entrust me with the horses he has …,” Eurton said, “I just hope we can do half as well as John did.”

Hess called the circumstances “beyond tragic” but said he’s “honored and appreciative” to receive the horses.

“We’ll try to go forward and keep doing what John was doing,” said Hess, who trained for members of Dottie Ingordo’s family as far back as the 1990s.

Powell said it’s “really an honor to have been recommended by Dottie to take over John’s work.”

“As trainers, we always look forward. We don’t have time to look back. We hopefully will honor him by having success with his horses,” said Powell, who worked for Shirreffs after arriving from France.

Powell said with a smile: “The horses are in good shape, as you would expect.”

Taking over horses from Shirreffs, who was famously caring and creative in looking out for horses’ physical and mental well-being, may be different from times when a trainer, say, claims a horse and thinks he’ll have a better approach.

“He was extremely patient,” Hess said of Shirreffs. “He always put the horse first. If a horse wasn’t 100%, he’d wait for another day.”

Said Powell: “You know, for a person of his generation, he was very open-minded, very tech-savvy. Anything that can help the horse. One thing is for sure, it’s going to add pressure when we run them, because we want to make him proud.”

Eurton said he has hired five of Shirreffs’ barn employees, and their advice will help him to continue to train the horses as Shirreffs did.

The first of Shirreffs’ horses to run since his death was Silent Way, a 4-year-old colt who ran third in a maiden sprint for Eurton at Santa Anita on Sunday. Eurton said he looks forward to Silent Way trying longer races.

Delightful Laura, a 4-year-old filly who won once in seven starts for Shirreffs, is the 7-2 morning-line favorite for the third race at Santa Anita on Saturday, with Victor Espinoza riding for Eurton.

The trainers know Shirreffs’ name will come up any time one of his horses wins. As for whether they’ll be responsible for carrying on Shirreffs’ legacy, well, a little humility is called for.

“He’ll be a tough act to follow,” Eurton said. “I’m not going to even try to carry on his legacy. I’m lucky to be in his shadow.”

THIS WEEKEND

Sunday’s Pasadena Stakes, a turf mile drawing an overflow field of 3-year-olds, could be a battle between Doug O’Neill-trained Brigante (Emisael Jaramillo riding) and Powell’s Unrivaled Time (Diego Herrera), who ran second and a troubled third in the Eddie Logan Stakes in January. The Daily Racing Form reported Eddie Logan winner Stark Contrast is skipping the Pasadena because of a bruised foot and Michael McCarthy plans to run him in the March 21 Jeff Ruby, a Kentucky Derby qualifying points race, on the Turfway Park synthetic track in Kentucky.

Saturday’s Wishing Well, a turf sprint for fillies and mares, has Robert Falcone’s bicoastal 4-year-old Gratefully (Florent Geroux) trying to improve to 5 for 5 in her first try at the stakes level. Opponents include Saratoga Special (Hector Berrios), a Irish-bred 4-year-old making her U.S. debut for trainer Richard Baltas after some fast workouts.

DERBY UPDATE

Paladin’s victory with jockey Tyler Gaffalione in the Risen Star Stakes in Louisiana on Saturday lifted the Chad Brown-trained son of Gun Runner to favorite (at 9-1 odds) in Kentucky Derby future wagering and No. 1 in the National Thoroughbred Racing Assocation’s 3-year-old rankings. Todd Pletcher’s Nearly is second in both the betting (at 10-1) and the poll.

SAFETY WATCH

The death of Hero Or Zero, a California-bred 3-year-old colt with one win in two starts, was listed on the California Horse Racing Board website as the result of a musculoskeletal injury in training at Santa Anita on Wednesday. It’s the seventh death in racing or training at Southern California tracks in 2026, one above the average for Jan. 1-Feb. 18 in the previous six years.

SHORTENING UP

• Randy Winick, who trained Brocco to win the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and 1994 Santa Anita Derby for James Bond movie producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, died Feb. 15 in Florida at age 76. After following his father Arnold into racing, Winick trained from 1974 to 2005 and later served as a California racetrack steward.

• The geldings Lovesick Blues and Man O Rose and the filly Om N Joy were named finalists for California-bred Horse of the Year for 2025, the champion to be announced March 2 at the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association awards dinner March 2 in Arcadia.

• In the NTRA’s overall rankings, Forever Young and Nysos moved up to Nos. 2 and 3 behind Sovereignty after running 1-2 in the Saudi Cup.

Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

(Through Sunday)

Jockeys / Wins

Juan Hernandez / 23

Kazushi Kimura / 23

Emisael Jaramillo / 21

Umberto Rispoli / 15

Armando Ayuso / 15

Edwin Maldonado / 13

Mirco Demuro / 13

Hector Berrios / 12

Trainers / Wins

Doug O’Neill / 20

Bob Baffert / 14

George Papaprodromou / 13

Michael McCarthy / 13

Mark Glatt / 13

Jeff Mullins / 11

Phil D’Amato / 10

UPCOMING STAKES

SANTA ANITA

Saturday

• $100,000 Wishing Well Stakes, fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up, 6 furlongs on turf

Sunday

• $100,000 Pasadena Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 mile on turf

LOS ALAMITOS

Saturday

• $35,000, Grade III Denim N Diamonds Handicap, quarter-horse mares, 4 and up, 350 yards

Sunday

• $125,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes, quarter-horse 3-year-olds, 350 yards

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