By Bill Finley
Trainer Joe Cantey, who teamed up with owner John Ed Anthony to win a slew of major races, including the GI 1980 Belmont S., passed away Friday at the age of 82 in his hometown of Camden, S.C.
The news was confirmed by his ex-wife, Charlsie Cantey.
The cause of death was lung and mouth cancer.
“Everything he touched pretty much turned to gold,” Charlsie said. “When he set his mind to do something, he exceeded it by leaps and bounds.”
Cantey started out handling horses for Bert Firestone as they wintered in South Carolina. He would also go on to work for trainer Evan Jackson. He decided that he wanted to go out on his own and set his sights on coming to New York.
“Joe applied for stalls with Kenny Noe and he didn't get them,” Cantey recalled. “He got a plane and went to New York. He met with Noe and said I really want these stalls and I want to train horses in New York. Kenny was so persuaded by that he gave him some stalls. He got better owners and better horses and worked his way up going to work John Ed Anthony and Loblolly Stable and did a damn fine job there.”
With Cantey in charge, Loblolly Stable turned into a force on the New York circuit and at Oaklawn Park. Their best horse may have been Temperence Hill, who upset Genuine Risk to win the 1980 GI Belmont S. With wins that same year in the GI Travers S. and the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, he was named 3-year-old male champion of 1980. Their other big star was Cox's Ridge, whose biggest win came in the 1978 GI Metropolitan H. They campaigned still another Grade I winner in Majesty's Prince, a star on the grass who won two runnings of the GI Rothman's International, two runnings of the Man o' War S. and two runnings of the Sword Dancer, one a Grade I race, the other a Grade II race.
“I think about him all the time and I always have,” said Eddie Maple, who was Cantey's primary rider. “He was such a big part of our lives back in the seventies and eighties. We were pretty tight. He was an all-around horseman. He picked it up from the guys who were around Camden, like Frank Whiteley. We had a good relationship and it spilled over into our personal lives. He would do anything for anybody.”
Cantey's last year of training was in 1987 while he was still in his prime. Charlsie Cantey said he decided to just walk away.
“He just said I've had enough,” she said. “When we first got married and were living in Camden, he said, 'Let's go to New York and try our hand at it and then come back to Camden. He loved this town and wanted to come back here. It's not like he got fired or anything. What I want people to know about Joe is that if he stayed in New York, I don't know how far he would have gone. He was a brilliant horse trainer. He just had had enough of New York.”
According to Equibase records, which go back only to 1976, Cantey had 444 career winners Charlsie Cantey said she believes he had his first winner in 1970 or 71.
Upon retirement he opened up his own gun club and got heavily involved in competitive sporting clay competitions and ran tournaments all over the world.
Cantey is survived by Charlsie Cantey, his wife Amy and children J.B. and Ashley. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
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