By T. D. Thornton
Leon Blusiewicz, a retired trainer whose charisma, enthusiasm and knowledge of Thoroughbred pedigrees far eclipsed his winning percentages, died Nov. 26 in a Maryland hospital while under hospice care for kidney failure. He was 92.
David Grening of Daily Racing Form first reported Blusiewicz's passing on Sunday, recalling that the veteran conditioner stood out as a “Damon Runyon-type character.”
Beyond being a Grade I-caliber backstretch storyteller with a penchant for weaving colorful racetrack tales, “Blu” was known for his keen eye for horsemanship, and his reliance on old-school conditioning methods enabled him to get the most out of modest stock.
His training record prior to retirement in 2017 predates the advent of the Equibase statistical database, which credits Blusiewicz with 184 wins and $4.5 million in earnings from 1,243 starts.
Based in Maryland and later New York, he conditioned Grade I stakes victresses Willa On the Move and Snow Plow, plus five other Grade III winners and a number of listed stakes winners.
The Baltimore-born Blusiewicz often said that the first horse racing memory he could recall was witnessing Seabiscuit beat War Admiral in their famous match race at Pimlico on Nov. 1, 1938, when he would have been seven.
In a 2010 profile for The Saratogian, Nicole Russo wrote that Blusiewicz had a grandfather who trained horses in Poland, but that as a young man, Blu originally pursued a career as a merchant seaman before finding his true calling at the track.
After taking odd jobs as a groom and hotwalker during his shore breaks, Blu managed to cash a sizable bet and, according to legend, decided to purchase a 2-year-old. That horse won his first start. “From there, there was no looking back,” Russo wrote.
As the Washington Post's Andrew Beyer wrote in a 1997 profile, “Blusiewicz is an avid student of pedigrees, and over the years he has been successful in picking out bargains at yearling sales. But he never cultivated the type of clients who would give him a blank check (or even a large check) to buy horses, and he has always operated a stable of modest scope…
“Nobody relishes the action and the gambling more than Blusiewicz,” Beyer continued. “In contrast to the many members of his profession who have the prudence and demeanor of bankers, Blusiewicz is unabashedly ebullient and outspoken. If you have even a nodding acquaintance with 'Blu' and ask him what he thinks of a horse he has entered, he's apt to exclaim: 'My horse can't lose! Can't lose! Bet all you want!'”
As Blusiewicz himself told the New York Post in 2010 after winning with a first-time starter at Saratoga who got zealously backed to 5-2 odds after he had touted the horse liberally, “I have a golden rule, I don't cold-water nobody. It's bad luck. Give with open hands, and you'll receive with open hands.”
Funeral services are pending.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
