Renowned Trainer Proctor Dies After Collapsing at Santa Anita

Willard Proctor, who won his first race as a trainer in 1933 and beat Typecast with Convenience in a $250,000, winner-take-all match race at Hollywood Park in 1972, died Friday afternoon after collapsing at his barn at Santa Anita.

Proctor, who would have been 83 Dec. 11, was a consummate horseman who grew up with horses in Texas, learned from the best and proudly won races all over the country without using medication. He was a throwback to the days when trainers would freshen horses, rather than run them year-round.

“My idea,” he once said, “is that good care, good feed and slow works are enough medicine for a horse.”

At least 50 of Proctor’s horses won stakes. He trained in California for Ralph Lowe in the 1950s, then left Kentucky for good in 1968 and came to the West Coast to become the principal trainer for Leonard Lavin’s newly formed Glen Hill Farm.

Lavin, encouraged by Proctor, put up $100,000 to race Convenience against Typecast in 1972. Fletcher Jones, who owned Typecast, also put up $100,000, and Hollywood Park completed the purse with a $50,000 contribution. Before 53,515, Typecast and jockey Bill Shoemaker went off favored, but Convenience, ridden by Jerry Lambert, took an early lead and held on to win by a head.

“He’s one of the best trainers in the country,” Lavin said of Proctor a few years ago. “He’s very honest, very conscientious, and really cares for his horses. That is his great strength. He doesn’t believe in medication. You don’t have vet bills with Proctor.”

Late afternoon is feeding time for horses, and Proctor was at his Santa Anita barn, where he stabled 12 head, when he fell Friday. He was pronounced dead at 3:43 p.m. at nearby Arcadia Methodist Hospital.

In 1994, Proctor said, “I’ve had every kind of operation in the world. Two aneurysms and a four-way [heart] bypass. But I wouldn’t be happy if I wasn’t on the racetrack. I do miss my whiskey, though.”

Wearing a tweed cap, Proctor was a familiar figure on his stable pony during morning training hours. He stayed close to his horses, something he learned while watching other trainers such as Ben Jones, Horatio Luro and Mesh Tenney. They were all elected to the Racing Hall of Fame. Proctor never got enough votes, although he was on the ballot several times.

Besides Convenience, other Proctor stakes winners were Lovlier Linda, Uniformity, Top Rung, Concept Win and Star Of The Crop. In 1979, Proctor scored a rare double, winning the Del Mar Debutante with Table Hands and the Del Mar Futurity with The Carpenter. Proctor’s favorite horse was the sprinter Gallant Romeo, who won seven stakes and 15 races in the 1960s.

Proctor is survived by his wife, Margaret, three sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Tom, trained Lavin’s winning One Dreamer in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in 1994. Another son, Hap, manages Lavin’s farm in Florida. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

Horse Racing Notes

For about five seconds after Magical Allure’s last win, owners John and Betty Mabee and their racing manager, Rick Taylor, considered the Breeders’ Cup Distaff for the undefeated filly. “If Sharp Cat wasn’t in there, it might be a different story,” Taylor said. Sharp Cat is the big “if” for everybody in the Distaff--she’s the even-money choice to win the $2-million race next Saturday at Churchill Downs. In the meantime, Magical Allure, undefeated in six starts, is 4-5 to continue mopping up against state-breds at Santa Anita today. She’ll be the shortest price on the ninth California Cup day card, a 10-race program offering more than $1 million in purses.