NEWS
Bloodstock agent Galpin dead at 71
Posted: Friday, February 29, 2008 3:30 PM
RICHARD GALPIN
Photo by Z
by John P. Sparkman and Pete Denk
International bloodstock agent Richard Galpin died on Wednesday at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center in Florida; he was 71.
Galpin suffered a stroke on February 23 while in Miami for the Fasig-Tipton Calder sale of selected two-year-olds in training.
Formerly of Newmarket, England, and based in Lexington, Galpin bought horses worldwide for about 50 years, usually in the name of his Newmarket International bloodstock agency.
Galpin’s top auction purchases in America have included 2002 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Sarava, English highweight and Group 1 winner David Junior, and Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Wilko, among many others, including aiding pinhooker Murray Smith in buying 2001 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Monarchos privately off the farm.
“The one thing about Richard is you couldn’t meet a man who was happier about what he did on an everyday basis,” Smith said. “There was a certain delightful aura about him, and there wasn’t a person he met that he didn’t touch with kindness. He worked diligently and he was good at his job. Richard loved with zeal every day he spent, and he truly found what living life was all about.”
Galpin retained a zest for finding and buying racehorses through his final days working with bloodstock agent Hugo Merry and trainer Brian Meehan at the Calder sale, and they bought three horses in Galpin’s name at the February 26 auction.
“This was his favorite sale,” Meehan said. “We're signing the tickets here in his name in his memory.”
Galpin’s many successful European purchases included Fair Salinia, winner of the 1978 Epsom Oaks (Eng-G1) and Yorkshire Oaks (Eng-G1) for Newmarket trainer Michael Stoute and owner Sven Hanson.
“Richard was working the sales very hard and he had a lot of enthusiasm about the game. He loved buying horses and he was very good at it,” said bloodstock agent Emmanuel de Seroux, who first learned under Galpin in Australia in the mid-1970s. “His love of buying horses was a great characteristic of him, and he worked harder than anyone I know. He had a very good eye for a horse.”
John Sparkman is bloodstock editor of Thoroughbred Times
Pete Denk is sales editor
