Major League Baseball is not the only sport that’s lost some of its greats in 2020. For every Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, Lou Brock and Joe Morgan that’s died this year, horse racing has lost the likes of Mel Stute, Gary Sherlock, Gary Jones and Barry Abrams.
Abrams died Oct. 9 at 66 from throat cancer. He left his wife, Dyan, and two daughters. He was blessed to hang around long enough to witness the birth of his two grandchildren.
“He adored his daughters, and I really believe the birth of his two grandchildren gave him a couple extra years,” said owner/breeder Harris Auerbach, who thought of Abrams as a brother.
Abrams would have been a happy man Sunday when the Lakers won their 17th NBA title, tying the Boston Celtics for most all time, because he became a huge Lakers fan in the 1970s after moving to the U.S. from his native Russia.
In fact, his fondness for the Lakers led to his love affair with horse racing.
“Barry was playing hooky from school in the ’70s to get Laker tickets for the playoffs,” Auerbach said. “He meets some guy in line and the guy convinces him to go over to Hollywood Park and play the horses. Barry not only fell in love with the horses themselves and everything about racing, but the gambling aspect as well. He never left the race track after that.”
He began with harness horses before switching to thoroughbreds and becoming the late Roger Stein’s assistant. It was then where Auerbach’s father, Jim, discovered Abrams and wanted him to branch out on his own, which he did in 1993.
“My dad became enamored with Barry,” Auerbach said. “He saw Barry doing all the work. Basically, Barry was the trainer of the horses we had with Roger. Not only was he a hard worker, but he was (in tune) with the horses.”
Once a 350-pound “bear of a man,” as Auerbach described him, Abrams had lost a lot of weight in the last years of his life because he was unable to swallow and had to receive his nourishment through feeding tubes.
“But looks were deceiving in that not only was he a bear of a man, but he was so gentle and kind and just so good with the animals,” Auerbach said.
How kind?
He gave money to a group of people who were down on their luck at Hollywood Park a number of times, and if he didn’t have the money to give them, he’d borrow from the friends who were with him.
“And he never failed to pay us back,” Auerbach said.
He gave a homeless man a ride to Hollywood Park many times, picking him up on the off-ramp of the freeway and giving him a lift the rest of the way.
“He was the kind of guy who’d give you the shirt off his back,” Auerbach said.
Abrams is best known, perhaps, for his association with the prolific sire Unusual Heat, who he claimed for $80,000 because he not only thought he could be a productive horse on the track but foresaw a career for him as a Southern Hemisphere sire prospect when his racing days were over.
“That was all Barry,” Auerbach said of the decision to claim Unusual Heat, who was 6 at the time.
Unusual Heat raced only twice for Abrams, winning the final race of his career, a $125,000 claimer, after which he was vanned off with a bowed tendon. He was given a year off and, after an unsuccessful attempt to bring him back to the races, he was retired and sent to the farm at age 8 for his legendary career as a sire.
He died in 2017 at age 27.
Abrams owned half of turf standout Mo Forza, scheduled to race in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Nov. 7, at the time of his death. It will be an emotional scene that day if the 4-year-old son of Uncle Mo finds the winner’s circle. Uncle Mo’s mother, Inflamed, was sired by Unusual Heat.
“He was smiling at the Lakers and I’m sure he’ll be smiling at his horse Mo Forza,” Auerbach said. “I know from talking to Dyan and his brother David that the last few weeks were very difficult, but nobody will ever remember Barry that way. Everybody will always remember Barry was so full of life and wanted to do everything.”
And, according to Auerbach, there wasn’t a soul at the race track who didn’t like Barry Abrams.
“It’s a rarity at the race track to find somebody that everybody likes, and everybody liked Barry,” he said.
“Even poor (racing secretaries) Rick Hammerle and Martin Panza, who Barry used to scream at in the racing office all the time, they both adored him. That’s what kind of a guy he was. That’s what I’ll always remember.”
Services are scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday at the Hollywood Hills location of Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
Follow Art Wilson on Twitter at @Sham73
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