James Cassidy, who began training in his 40s and had 10 Grade 1 wins in the 2000s and 2010s, died on Wednesday at his home in Monrovia, Calif., his friends said.
Cassidy, best known as Jim, was 80 and had been suffering from heart-related health issues in recent years.
In addition to operating his stable, Cassidy served two terms as president of the California Thoroughbred Trainers Association – in 2009, and again from 2012 to 2019. The organization represents trainers in regulatory matters and works with racetrack management on a wide variety of issues.
Cassidy’s stable thrived with turf horses, particularly British imports. Ticker Tape won two Grade 1 races in 2004 – the American Oaks and Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. In 2005, Singhalese won the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. Those races are run for 3-year-old fillies.
In 2006, Milk It Mick won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in his second American start. In 2018, Sophie P won the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita in her second American start.
Those horses began their careers in Britain.
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With horses bred in the United States, Cassidy won five Grade 1 races – the 2009 Hollywood Derby and 2010 Eddie Read Stakes with The Usual Q.T., the 2010 Ashland Stakes and Del Mar Oaks with Evening Jewel, and the 2014 Eddie Read Stakes with Tom’s Tribute.
The Usual Q.T. was recognized as the champion California-bred older horse and turf horse in 2010, but he lost the statebred Horse of the Year title to Evening Jewel, who was also honored as outstanding 3-year-old filly that year.
“He had a special knack with fillies and mares,” Alan Balch, a longtime racetrack executive and the current executive director of the CTT, said of Cassidy. “He told me, ‘I just love fillies and mares.’ "
Cassidy won 442 races from 4,241 starters, who earned more than $30.7 million. Cassidy won a personal-best 31 races in 2016. In 2004, his stable earned a career-best $2,580,222.
While his stable did not have the depth to contend for a leading trainer title, Cassidy was often a formidable rival in stakes. Cassidy had three starters in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, with a sixth-place finish by Jamaican Rum in 2001 his best result.
Cassidy was winless with 24 career starters at Churchill Downs, all in stakes, and had three notable losses there in 2010. Evening Jewel was second by a nose to Blind Luck at 13-1 in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks that April, and she was third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint that November. On the same day, The Usual Q.T. finished third by two lengths to Goldikova at 22-1 in the BC Mile.
In a 37-year-old career, a majority of Cassidy’s stakes wins occurred at Del Mar, Hollywood Park, and Santa Anita. He also had stakes wins at Arlington Park, Bay Meadows, Belmont Park, Delta Downs, Golden Gate Fields, Hawthorne, and Turf Paradise.
In 2004, Moscow Burning won the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay Handicap at Belmont Park in a season in which she was honored as California-bred Horse of the Year, older female, and turf horse. Cassidy later told Daily Racing Form that the win at Belmont Park was particularly meaningful since he grew up on Long Island.
Cassidy worked with show horses on Long Island before he ventured to the racetrack. In his early years at the racetrack, Cassidy was employed by New York-based trainers Joe Cantey and Frank Whiteley. Cassidy was part of Whiteley’s team during the legendary filly Ruffian’s ill-fated career.
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Later in the 1970s, Cassidy assisted Charle Sanborn in Florida and New Jersey before moving to California in 1981. Cassidy worked as an assistant for Brian Mayberry and Darrell Vienna in Southern California and worked for a veterinarian.
“He was a lifelong racetracker,” said trainer Eoin Harty, who was CTT president until last year. “He may have been a little rough around the edges, but it wasn’t an affectation, it was who he was. He had a great personality and was a great trainer.
“I was on the CTT board when he was president and observed how he handled himself and how he handled his business. He was a role model.”
In particular, Harty noticed how Cassidy handled difficult situations as the organization’s president.
“The knee-jerk reaction is to get hostile and do something off the bat,” Harty said. “He’d take a deep breath and act accordingly.”
In an age when some trainers arrived in the paddock at California tracks wearing shorts or casual attire, Harty recalled that Cassidy often showed up in a suit and tie.
“He always acted the part and dressed the part,” Harty said. “He was someone younger trainers could emulate. He’d run a claimer and he’d have on a coat and tie.”
Cassidy’s stable grew smaller in the early 2020s. He was active with a few runners in recent years and had his final starter on Jan. 11 at Santa Anita, where Pure Chaos finished third in a maiden race.
Cassidy was also active with the Gregson Foundation, which provides scholarships to the children of backstretch employees.
Cassidy is survived by two sons, Christopher and John. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
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