Owner, handicapper closed this on 74

Jeff Siegel, one of the most respected public handicappers from Racing, a Renpaard owner, and an Eclipse Award winner, died on October 4 after fighting kidney cancer. He was 74.

News about the death of Siegel was first reported by Team Valor International CEO Barry Irwin, who founded Team Valor together with Siegel.

“I could write three parts about Jeff and never have no stories,” said Irwin. “He was the best handicapper ever and rose over his colleagues because he had that added dimension of Horsemanship, most of them missed. On a personal level, Jeff was the nicest man you would ever meet.”

Siegel was a lifelong fan of racing and a horse player. After graduating with a journalism diploma at San Jose State University, he joined the Newsroom in Klac Radio in Los Angeles. There he worked with Jim Healy, a popular sports radio personality with a love for racing.

Healy drew some strings without the knowledge of Siegel and acquired a position in the publicity staff of Hollywood Park in 1974.

“I never dreamed that there would be a place in the industry for me,” Siegel said in a Q&A 2011 with the daily racing form. “But things have a way to exercise.”

Siegel was a mainstay in the racing of southern California and became a leading handicapper for different newspapers in Los Angeles, such as the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Tribune. He was also co-ownership of the report of the Publications Handicapper and the National Peat.

Siegel became an old contribution Santa Anita Park‘S Television Productions and was an integral part of the team that took the Eclipse Award home for local television with’ The Best of Santa Anita ‘.

In 2003, Siegel joined the HRTV television network. He served as an on-Air analyst and traveled to the major events of Thoroughbred Racing, such as the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup World Championships, from the start of the channel until it was sold to TVG in 2015. At that moment Siegel went to XBTV.

He continued to offer his expertise on various racing blogs during his career and was named the Morning Line -Maker at Santa Anita as the autumn meeting of 2024.

“Jeff was always so focused on his many jobs that he often forgot the everyday aspects of daily life, as reminded of his utility accounts until his electricity was eliminated,” Irwin said.

Asked what a good handicapper makes by the DRF, Siegel said: “Most handicappers know all axiomas, all theories. The successful knowing when and where they should apply … It is as if you ask:” What is a good offensive coordinator? “They can all be diagram plays, but the best know what will work on the third and 13 years against a zone-blitz.”

Siegel did not limit his talents to disability, but he also applied his knowledge to horse possession and bought his first horse in 1975. In 1988 his home prayer, Aloha Prospector, was named California-bed Champion 3-year-old from 1988.

In 1987 he and Irwin Clover Racing Stable, which would become Valor Team in 1992. He served as vice -president of Racing until 2007, and supervised the rise of Team Valor as one of the most successful general partnership stables in North -America -who won more than 100 deployment and won 20 degrees 1s.

Siegel told DRF that his most exciting victory with Clover Racing and Team Valor came when the state of the Barming won the Santa Anita Handicap from 1989 (G1).

“It was so unlikely,” said Siegel. “We paid an additional fee of $ 40,000 to introduce a shot of 50-1, and we were actually quite confident. It was not our victory of first class 1, but it certainly contributed to the credibility that our stable could grow in the coming years. So you could say that the state of the state, indirectly, helped to make all our future success possible.”

Another distinction for Siegel was when he recommended the claim to wish for $ 32,000. She would win the Gamely Handicap (G2) and Wilshire Handicap (G3) from 1980. As a breeding mood, she produced Hall of Fame member Sunday Silence, the 1989 Horse of the Year who would continue to bring about a revolution in the Japanese breeding industry. Well Well now has an interests named after her in Santa Anita.

The moment came the circle for Siegel in the summer of 1989 when Clover Racing’s Future Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) winner, PreiZed, Sunday Silence defeated in the Swaps Stakes (G2).

“Jeff was in his full glory, and rightly so,” said Irwin.

Siegel’s love for racing was probably only matched by his dedication to the basketball program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“He had seats in the nasal-most trusses in the Pauley pavilion of UCLA, but he forgot to renew them for a season,” Irwin recalled. “He drove to the Admin offices to see if he could remedy the situation. He was told that the only one available to him was to become a booster, who had a minimum contribution of $ 5,000, an amount that had left him about $ 5,000. When to hear that credit cards were not just a tone of the Health of Payment. he became an unofficial explorer and video leaf. “