Triple Crown Trainer Laz Barrera Dies at 66 : Horse racing: He saddled Affirmed in 1978 after winning two legs with Bold Forbes in 1976.

By BILL CHRISTINE

April 26, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Laz Barrera, who trained the last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed in 1978, died early Thursday at Rio Hondo Hospital in Downey.

Barrera, 66, died at 1:25. Suffering from inflammation of the lungs, he had been admitted about three hours earlier. A hospital spokeswoman said the cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest. Barrera had a history of heart trouble, having undergone triple-bypass surgery in 1979, the day after Affirmed won the Santa Anita Handicap. Barrera also suffered from ulcers.

His brother, Oscar, 63, had suffered a fatal heart attack April 4 after saddling a horse at Aqueduct. Laz Barrera, whose stable was based at Santa Anita, planned to fly to New York for the funeral but canceled the trip at the last minute.

The Cuban-born Barrera was the quintessential international horseman. He had the distinction of being the only trainer elected to the racing Hall of Fame in three countries--Cuba, Mexico and the United States.

He won the Kentucky Derby twice, saddling Bold Forbes for an extraordinary victory at Churchill Downs in 1976, two years before Affirmed won.

Of all the horse people around the world who knew him, no one was more saddened by Barrera’s death than Louis and Patrice Wolfson, who bred and raced Affirmed, who beat Alydar by a total of less than two lengths in the Triple Crown races--the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

“Racing has lost one of its top horsemen,” Louis Wolfson said from his home in Florida.

His wife, Patrice, added: “One of the things I remember most about Laz was his kindheartedness. He had a love of people and a love of horses. He was such a good person that we always joked that he must have had some Affirmed blood in him.”

Bold Forbes was considered a sprinter from Puerto Rico who wouldn’t be able to handle the 1 1/4-mile Derby distance. Instead of working the colt at Churchill Downs, Barrera prepared him for the Derby with a series of long gallops, then told jockey Angel Cordero to go for the lead as soon as he left the gate. Cordero broke Bold Forbes on top by a big margin, and Honest Pleasure, the 2-5 favorite, couldn’t catch up in the stretch, losing by one length.

Five weeks after the ’76 Derby, Barrera sent Bold Forbes 1 1/2 miles to win the Belmont.

“That was one of the best training jobs I’ve ever seen,” Cordero said Thursday from the jockeys’ room at Aqueduct. “I can’t even believe it now that Laz got that horse to go that far.”

Bold Forbes’ Derby victory was Barrera’s most satisfying, but the Triple Crown sweep by Affirmed provided his most exciting moments. The pressure on the high-strung, easily excitable Barrera through the series took its toll, however.

The following year, Barry Irwin, then a columnist for the Daily Racing Form, visited Barrera at his home in Arcadia and asked to see the trainer’s Triple Crown trophy. Barrera opened his shirt and showed Irwin the scars from his bypass surgery.

Affirmed was voted horse of the year in 1978 and ’79.

Other champions trained by Barrera included It’s in the Air, J.O. Tobin, Lemhi Gold and Tiffany Lass.

Last year, another horse out of Puerto Rico, Mister Frisky, was turned over to Barrera, and he saddled him to win the Santa Anita Derby. Favored in the Kentucky Derby, Mister Frisky finished eighth, his first loss after 16 consecutive victories. After running third in the Preakness two weeks later, Mister Frisky was hospitalized for a large abscess of the throat and almost died. Mister Frisky returned to Barrera’s barn at Santa Anita last winter and was being prepared for a comeback.

Barrera won four Eclipse Awards, given annually to North America’s best trainer, and three times he led U.S. trainers in total purses. He won more than 100 stakes races, and on his 52nd birthday in 1976 had his greatest day, saddling Bold Forbes to win the Derby while Life’s Hope was winning the Illinois Derby at Sportsman’s Park and Due Diligence was winning the Carter Handicap at Belmont Park.

Barrera grew up near Oriental Park in Havana, attending his first race when he was 12. His four brothers--Oscar, Luis, Willie and Angel--also became trainers, and Frank Wright, the trainer and television commentator, once quipped: “If anybody ever took a survey, they’d probably find that 75% of the horses in the world are trained by a Barrera.”

Laz Barrera is survived by his wife, Carmen; a daughter, Blanchita; and sons Albert and Larry, who also have trained horses.

Louis Wolfson said Thursday that he thought Barrera was extremely dedicated because of his struggling beginnings. “Laz came into racing hungry,” Wolfson said. “There were so many people around him--family members--that he had to win in order to help them.”

Barrera moved from Cuba to Mexico to train in 1945 and came to the United States in 1948, working at small tracks until Tinajero, a Puerto Rican import, won the Jerome Handicap in New York, catching the attention of American owners. Three years later, the Wolfsons began sending Barrera horses.

Cordero ticked off the attributes that made Barrera an accomplished trainer: “He never abused his horses. He kept his horses fit, so they never needed a lot of training. He was a good observer of horses’ feet, and that would tell him a lot. He was very good at shoeing horses. And he was real sharp at watching races. He could watch a race and tell you the mistakes you made, and just by looking at the way you sat on a horse in the post parade, he could tell if you had been out the night before.”

Barrera, who was the godfather of one of Cordero’s daughters, gave the jockey a chance when he came to the United States from Puerto Rico in 1962. Cordero said his father told Barrera at the time: “This boy has never been away from home. Now you’re his father.”

Patrice Wolfson sensed that Barrera had been depressed recently. She mentioned the auto accident that has left former jockey Bill Shoemaker paralyzed and Barrera’s inability to put the California trainer cocaine scandal of 1988-89 behind him.

Barrera and five other trainers, including Wayne Lukas, were accused of racing horses that tested positive for cocaine. Charges were dropped against Barrera, Lukas and three other trainers, but Barrera, spending more than $100,000 in legal fees, had sued the state testing laboratory that ran the tests. That suit is pending.

At Hollywood Park Thursday, trainer Gary Jones said: “It’s a killer. He’s not only a great trainer, but one of the greatest men I’ve ever known. It’s crushed me. Inside of 10 days, there’s the thing with Shoe and now this . . . two of my lifetime idols.”

Tony Matos, longtime agent for jockey Laffit Pincay and now for Julio Garcia and Corey Nakatani, said: “He’s like honey; everybody was attracted to him. Racing will never be the same without him. There will be an empty space.

“He had a vibrant personality. The man was not only gifted as a horseman, but as a human being. There are not enough words you can say about him. If you came to the track in a depressed mood, you could go see Laz and he’d bring a smile to your face.”

Pincay, who rode Affirmed, among others, for Barrera, said: “I just talked to him at Santa Anita the last day of the meeting. Laz was a good friend of mine. Every time I saw him, he reminded me of some nice memory from the past. Ever since I came to this country, he always (helped) me. I was lucky with him--we always did good together.”

According to Hall of Fame trainer Pancho Martin: “It bothered Laz that he couldn’t go to New York when his brother (Oscar) died. Laz was sick. People didn’t realize it. He got a bad cold when his brother died, and the doc said ‘don’t go.’

“I talked to him Wednesday. He said he had a touch of pneumonia, and they were changing medication because the medication he was taking was doing no good.”

And trainer Willard Proctor, 75, recalled: “I’ve known him ever since he came to this country. I thought a lot of Laz--he was a great guy for the business. He was entertaining every morning. There was nothing he liked better than to get a bunch of people and talk. No one could understand him, but they got a kick out of him.

“Besides all that, he was a good horse trainer.”

Times staff writer Bob Mieszerski contributed to this story.