Barry Abrams, trainer of Guts, passes at 66

Barry Abrams, a former harness racing trainer who moved to Southern California where he became a successful Thoroughbred owner and breeder, died Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer, according to his family and friends.

Abrams was 66.

As a Standardbred trainer he traveled the country with the his top horse, Guts. A a son of Raven Hanover, Guts was a major stakes winner and at age three earned $1,024,967 before finishing his career with $1.6 in winnings.

Along with his wife, Dyan, Abrams owned Thoroughbred horses under the name Bardy Farm. The stable has been led in the last year by the five-time graded stakes winner Mo Forza, winner of the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on Oct. 3 at Santa Anita and a leading contender for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.

Peter Miller trains Mo Forza and paid tribute to Abrams on Saturday.

“It’s a tremendous loss,” Miller said. “It’s very rare on the racetrack that you find someone that everyone likes.”

Abrams was born in Russia. The family lived in Poland and Israel before emigrating to Southern California in the early 1960s. Initially, Abrams was involved in harness racing and was a successful trainer of that breed before switching to Thoroughbreds in the late 1980s.

After working as an assistant for Roger Stein, Abrams began training in 1993. He won 688 Thoroughbred races with runners that earned $30.7 million. Abrams had his final starter in 2016 at a time when he was being treated for cancer.

Abrams won Grade 1 races with Famous Digger in the 1997 Del Mar Oaks, Golden Doc A in the 1998 Santa Anita Oaks, and Unusual Suspect in the 2010 Hollywood Turf Cup. In 2008, Abrams had a career best of $2,999,839 in earnings. He won 13 stakes with eight horses that season.

Abrams was successful as a California breeder in last 15 years after claiming the Nureyev horse Unusual Heat for $80,000 at Hollywood Park in 1996 along with the Auerbach family. Within two years, Unusual Heat was standing at stud in California and was the state’s leading sire in progeny earnings six times, from 2008 to 2013.

In 2009, Lethal Heat finished third in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar and second in the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Santa Anita, losing both races to Zenyatta.

Abrams had been hospitalized since Monday after a recent fall, Dyan Abrams said.

Abrams is survived by his wife and two daughters.

(With files from the Daily Racing Form)