Home > Horatio Luro

Born into a wealthy family that had been involved with horses for several generations, a suave young Horatio Luro grew up as something of a playboy and maintained this lifestyle after moving to the United States. Well connected, he was friends with the social and business elite who could afford necessary to be involved in the costly sport of thoroughbred racing. One of those elite was Canada's Edward P. Taylor (1901-1989), chairman of a giant business conglomerate, the founder of the Jockey Club of Canada, and later the president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association . Taylor hired Horatio Luro to run his Windfields Farm, a large breeding and racing operation with two farms in Ontario and another in Chesapeake City, Maryland.

In a career that spanned 48 years from 1937 to 1984, Horatio Luro trained 43 Stakes winners and 3 Champions. He won the 1962 Kentucky Derby with California-bred Decidedly and two years later won both the Derby and the Preakness Stakes with Northern Dancer, a horse who would go on to be the 20th century’s greatest sire. While running Winfields Farm, Horatio Luro oversaw the breeding of the great Nijinsky IIThe racehorse Nijinsky II (presumably named after the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky) was a son of Northern Dancer and Flaming Page and a grandson of Nearco. One of the greatest horses in thoroughbred horse-racing history, he was bred by at E. Taylor's famous Win and from 1960 to 1969 won more races than any other breeding farm in North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea. Three times, Luro’s horses won Canada’s most prestigious thoroughbred horse racing event, the Queen's PlateThe Queen's Plate is North America's oldest thoroughbred horse race, run at a distance of 1 1/4 miles for 3-year-old thoroughbed horses, foaled in Canada, run annually in July at Woodbine Racetrack, Etobicoke ( Toronto), Ontario. It is the first race in t, and the Canadian International turf classic.

Luro basked in the publicity surrounding his racing success, associating with the rich and famous including Hollywood stars such as Bing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby ( May 3, 1903 October 14, 1977) was a popular American singer and actor whose career spanned multiple generations. His biggest musical hit was his recording of the Irving Berlin classic " White Christmas", which he first sang in while his dashing personality and good looks saw him dating some of society’s most glamorous women. He would eventually acquire "Old Mill Farm" in Cartersville, GeorgiaCartersville is a city located in Bartow County, Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 15,925. The city is the county seat of Bartow County 6. Geography Cartersville is located at 34°10'35" North, 84°48'14" West (34. 176405, -, where he and his wife Frances raised their family.

In 1980, Horatio Luro was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of FameThe National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers. Each spring, following the tabulation of the final votes, the announcem. A 1989 book, The Grand Señor: The Fabulous Career of Horatio Luro by horse-racing author, Joe Hirsch, told his life story.