NEWS
Hall of Fame trainer Delp dies at age 74
Posted: Saturday, December 30, 2006
BUD DELP
Jim McCue/MJC photo
By Mike Curry
Hall of Fame trainer Grover G. “Bud” Delp, who conditioned dual classic winner and 1980 Horse of the Year Spectacular Bid, succumbed to cancer on Friday evening at his home in Ellicott City, Maryland. He was 74.
Delp is survived by his wife of nearly 25 years, Regina, three sons, one daughter, and two grandsons.
“He was the epitome of his profession,” Regina Delp said. “He truly loved his job and said the races were won in the morning. He was a loving and generous father and husband.”
A Maryland native, Bud Delp saddled 3,674 winners and won stakes races with 70 different horses. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2002.
“Most of all, my dad was a father and one of my best friends,” said Cleve Delp, the youngest of Delp’s sons. “We spent a lot of time together and talked about horses. There wasn’t a better person that I ever met. What he did in this business was amazing. He went from claiming cheap horses and doing a lot of the work himself, working for his stepfather and pretty much hustling to reaching the pinnacle of his profession.”
Delp, whose mother, Kathleen, nicknamed him Buddy when he was nine years old, grew up on the farm of his stepfather Raymond Archer. As a teenager, Delp did some work around the farm and quickly acquired an affinity for the racetrack and the Thoroughbred business. After serving in the Army until 1954, Delp worked with his stepfather to build his training skills and served as an assistant to Archer.
Delp won his first race in 1962 with Our Rocky and won his first training title at Laurel Park in the fall of 1963. He went on to win five more training titles at Laurel and finished atop the trainer’s standing at Pimlico Race Course seven times. Delp, who had successful relationships with owners Harry and Robert Meyerhoff, also won training titles at Bowie Race Course, Delaware Park, Atlantic City Race Course, and Monmouth Park.
“He was an extremely hard worker and an extremely passionate person, very fair with his employees and a good friend to so many people,” said Cleve Delp. “A total horseman—[he] probably appreciated horses more than he appreciated people. He said horses don’t talk but they talk to you in other ways. He said if you want to be a horse trainer you can’t go to a classroom and learn how to be a horse trainer. You have to be with the horses and have a communication with them that you develop by being around them.”
But Delp is best remembered as the trainer of one of the truly great horses in Thoroughbred history, Spectacular Bid.
In 1977, Delp first came across the steel gray colt by Bold Bidder while attending the yearling sales in Kentucky along with Harry Meyerhoff and Meyerhoff's son, Tom. Delp, who along with the Meyerhoffs, began to seek better caliber horses and he hit the jackpot with Spectacular Bid, who he would call, "the greatest horse who ever looked through a bridle.”
Spectacular Bid won seven of nine starts as a juvenile, including the Champagne Stakes (G1) and Laurel Futurity (G1), and was crowned champion two-year-old male.
He delivered a dominant three-year-old season for Delp, rallying from ten lengths off the pace to win the Kentucky Derby (G1) by 2 3/4 lengths and romping home by 5 1/2 lengths in the Preakness Stakes (G1). His Triple Crown bid ended with a third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes (G1), a heroic effort considering Delp found his horse lame on the morning of the race with a safety pin imbedded in his left front hoof.
His only other defeat as a three-year-old was a runner-up finish to 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). Spectacular Bid won six Grade 1 races, including a five-length win against older horses in the Marlboro Cup (G1) and secured the Eclipse Award as champion three-year-old male.
Under Delp’s care, Spectacular Bid went undefeated as a four-year-old, winning nine graded stakes races from California to Chicago to New York, where he closed his career with a walkover in the Woodward Stakes (G1), galloping 1 1/4 miles under Bill Shoemaker in a formidable 2:02.40. Spectacular Bid won five Grade 1 races and established four track records in 1980, a season in which he was crowned champion older male and Horse of the Year.
Spectacular Bid set eight track records during his career, including a North American record for 1 1/4 miles in 1:57.80 while winning the 1980 Strub Stakes (G1). Spectacular Bid, who was syndicated for a then record $22-million, finished with 26 wins, two seconds, and one third from 30 starts with purse earnings of $2,781,608.
"I don't think we've seen anything like him since,” Delp said in 2002. “He was a sight to watch run. That horse set track or world records eight times on five different racetracks. He would have won the Breeders' Cup three years in a row had it existed. The facts speak for themselves. He still holds the world record for 1 1/4 miles on the dirt at Santa Anita, as well as the seven-furlong track mark and the 1 1/16 chute record at Laurel, which he set as a two-year-old."
Delp, who also trained 2001 Pimlico Special Handicap (G1) winner Include, was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in August 2002.
“My dad wasn’t a very emotional person, but when he found out he was inducted into the Hall of Fame I remember the first thing he did was tear up,” said Cleve Delp. “He said this was something they can’t take away from me. The Hall of Fame plaque hung in his office."
Delp will be the trainer of record for the final time on Monday at Laurel, where Delp’s Craft Bear is listed as the 9-to-5 morning-line favorite for the Dancing Count Stakes. There will not be a memorial service for Delp, whose body was cremated on Saturday morning.
Mike Curry is a Daily News Editor for Thoroughbred Times
