George Carey Winfrey (March 15, 1885 - November 13, 1962) was an American
thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...
racehorse owner and trainer who was inducted into the
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
The 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. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Av ...
.
Biography
He was born in
Wills Point, Texas
Wills Point is a city in Van Zandt County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,524 at the 2010 census.
History
Founded in 1873, Wills Point gets its name from an early American settler, William Wills, who had arrived in the area ''circa'' ...
, on March 15, 1885. He learned the art of training thoroughbreds at the Gravesend track in Brooklyn in 1904 from such masters as
Sam Hildreth
Samuel Clay Hildreth (May 16, 1866 – September 24, 1929) was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame trainer and owner.Johnny Powers.
Winfrey maintained a small but successful stable. He raced horses he owned as well as several for his married daughter, Jan Winfrey Burke. He never had more than 10 horses in his care at one time, but he won 940 races in his career with purse earnings of $2.4 million. He was honored by the New York Turf Writers in 1956 for "Excellence in the Training of Thoroughbreds."
Winfrey trained his first stakes winner in 1931, sending out Charon to win the Myrtle Claiming Stakes at Aqueduct. His other stakes winners included Dedicate, Squared Away, Bulwark, Aboyne, Martyr, and Son of Erin. Squared Away won stakes in five seasons, while Dedicate was the U. S. Champion Handicap Horse of 1957. That year, he defeated
Gallant Man
Gallant Man (March 20, 1954 – September 7, 1988) was a thoroughbred racehorse, named for a horse in a Don Ameche movie. He was one of the most successful racehorses foaled outside the United States with his near miss in the 1957 Kentucky D ...
and
Bold Ruler
Bold Ruler (April 6, 1954 – July 11, 1971) was an American Thoroughbred National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame racehorse who was the 1957 American Horse of the Year, Horse of the Year. This following a three-year-old campaign t ...
in the Woodward Stakes.
Carey Winfrey died on November 13, 1962, in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Legacy
G. Carey Winfrey was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 1975.
His adopted son,
Bill Winfrey
William Colin Winfrey (May 9, 1916 – April 14, 1994) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
Bill Winfrey was born Colin Dickard. His father died when he was three, and two years later his mother married Hall-of-Fame tra ...
, is also in the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame. His grandson,
Carey Winfrey
Carey Winfrey is an American journalist. He was the founding editor of ''Memories'' magazine and the former editor-in-chief of ''Cuisine'', ''American Health'' and ''Smithsonian'' magazines.
Biography
Winfrey is the son of American Hall of F ...