If someone yells “blue” across the track, that could mean one of two things:
1. The box color that represents the horse or jockey silks.
2. Leon Blusiewicz
More than likely, it is the latter as Blusiewicz has been a long-time fixture at Saratoga and the Maryland circuit as an owner, trainer, breeder, buyer, seller, and gambler.
Also, a lot of his life can be transformed into a book with chapters that include walking horses at Atlantic City, NJ and packing beer cases for a popular night club in Wildwood, NJ, his delicious crab cakes that once finished second in a recipe contest, and other interesting experiences.
While the 90-year-old Blusiewicz no longer trains horses, he still comes to Saratoga from his Baltimore home.
Even though he can be overlooked with his simple appearance of a baseball hat, sweatshirt, pants, and sneakers, Blusiewicz is still vocal with his thoughts on breeding and working with horses. To some extent, Blusiewicz could be considered a scholar based on the amount of breeding books that he has studied over the years.
“Do I have enough confidence in myself? I know I am being egotistical, but my results have proved it,” he said. “Before going to the Maryland sales, I would spend at least eight hours a day on research on the mares and these families.”
Blusiewicz does have the resume to support it. He bought Snow Plow for $35,000 before winning the Grade 1 Demoiselle Stakes and Selima Stakes. He also bought Mighty Magee for $22,000 and won four stakes races with him. Furthermore, he trained Willa on the Move to win a Grade 1 race and he has also helped in the breeding process with Grade 1 winners that also include Will’s Way.
Though there is one mare that has been part of Blusiewicz’s breeding career: Madam Lagonza by the late popular sire Kingmambo. After losing an auction bid on Lemon Drop Kid in 1997, Blusiewicz came back the next day to purchase Madam Lagonza for $22,000.
Despite solid workouts, Madam Lagonza never got a chance to race. However, she did become successful in both producing winners like graded stakes turf winner Woodlander and future broodmares like the unraced dam Miner’s Secret, who had the 2017 Amsterdam Stakes winner Coal Front.
“I love that cross with Kingmambo over Seattle Slew,” he said. “If you look at Madam Lagonza, the seventh dam goes back to Deputy Minister. I have bred so many good horses, it’s unreal.”
Blusiewicz hasn’t trained a horse since the end of the 2017 Saratoga meet with Spartiatis, who had won the Tom Fool Handicap earlier that year. Yet he continues to be a breeding and training consultant. The last horse he helped developed was Special Lady.
Blusiewicz thought that Special Lady could be – special – as she is a half-sister to Coal Front. Even though she had capability based on her breeding, Special Lady had the challenge of running on the right leg as her lead.
With that in mind, he sent Special Lady to Europe for owner Anita Nicol and trainer John Butler. As part of the transition, Blusiewicz also worked with the mare for about two months.
“We had her in a sale, but she was sent back,” he said. “She had to be sent over to Europe where she could stay on her right lead because the track is all straightaway, especially at seven-eighths of a mile. I then went over there for the last 60 days to finish up with her.”
For Special Lady’s debut, Blusiewicz suggested an aggressive approach by running her against males in a seven-furlong allowance race at Newcastle in February 2019. After coming away with a 2½-length victory at 50-1, Nicol received offers on Special Lady while Blusiewicz thought the mare was good enough for the next step: the prestigious Coronation Cup at Epsom.
“The owner was offered a lot of money after that race, but said ‘no,’” he said. “We were going to send her to the Coronation and she was going to galloped in the Coronation.”
However, two things that stopped that plan: the COVID-19 pandemic that shutdown racing for three months followed by a career-ending injury. Today, the unbeaten Special Lady is now in foal to Mendelssohn, winner of the UAE Derby on dirt and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Even after Blusiewicz has won 184 races as a trainer and numerous races as a breeder, he still believes his once-of-a-lifetime horse never had a chance to show his full potential: Admiral Alex, who is also out of Madam Lagonza.
As a 2-year-old in 2009, Admiral Alex made an impression with his workouts at Saratoga. However, just like with many young horses, he became sick and needed time to recover.
About six months later, Blusiewicz brought Admiral Alex back to training, and once again, the horse continued to train well for a Saratoga maiden race going 1 1/8 miles on the dirt with the hopes that if the horse won, the next race was the Travers.
Admiral Alex inched away in his winning debut. However, he could not repeat that performance in the Travers after a horrendous start.
“I knew what the horse could do,” Blusiewicz said. “I waited 50 years to get a horse like him. He had no weaknesses, even when he got bothered in the Travers.”
After the Travers, Blusiewicz regrouped by preparing the horse for the Arts and Letters Stakes at Belmont Park. As Admiral Alex continued to train well, Blusiewicz noticed that something didn’t seem perfect with the horse, but he couldn’t figure it out.
“[Ramon] Dominguez worked him out of the gate one day at Aqueduct, he worked 58 and change,” Blusiewicz said. “However, he said something was bugging him in his right [side]. I told him there was nothing wrong with his right. It could have been his left ankle. We could never figure it out.”
Admiral Alex easily cruised in the Arts and Letters with a 4 ¾-length victory while covering the 1 1/8 miles 1:47.67 – about two seconds off Secretariat’s record. That’s when Blusiewicz thought about an ambitious campaign for the following year that included the Grade 1 Carter Handicap and Metropolitan Mile Handicap. While the horse was training in Camden, Blusiewicz finally learned the problem.
“When I took him to New Bolton, I learned that he was born with no cartilage [in his ankle],” he said. “That’s what stopped him.”
Today, as Admiral Alex still stands as a stallion, Blusiewicz wants to enjoy Saratoga and the rest of his life while knowing he made the best decisions in his racing career.
“I love the game, and I have always stuck to my game,” he said. “I have no marks against me. Listen, I am 90 years old. This may be my last year. This is the place to be.”
