Jeff Siegel, key figure in Southern California horse racing, has died

Jeff Siegel, a major actor on the Southern California horses scene for more than half a century, died at his Duarte home on Saturday after a long battle against cancer. He was 74 years old.

There are few roles in horse racing, in addition to the coach or jockey, which Siegel has not played since he obtained a job in the Hollywood Park advertising department in 1974.

Siegel’s latest race in the race was both a host on XBTV, a service, owned by the Stronach group, specializing in horses training videos. He was also the morning line manufacturer for Santa Anita and Del Mar. He continued to do the work until his health authorized him earlier this year.

But what made Siegel an essential personality of the race is its capacity as a handicapper. Andy Beyer, the legendary handicap of Washington Post and Homonym of Beyer Speed ​​Figures, called Siegel The “biggest handicapper in the world” in his 1993 book “Beyer on Speed”. Siegel gave Beyer six horses to bet on a Southern California race card. The six won, according to Beyer.

Siegel was born in Los Angeles on October 8, 1950 and grew up in southern California. He frequented Fairfax High, where he ran the track, and worked in the school newspaper at La Valley College. Later, he went to San José State, where he was indicated to radio and televised journalism. He returned home and obtained a job at Klac radio station, where he worked with Jim Healy, who had a sports comment program for many years. Healy knew that Siegel loved the race and had a job at Hollywood Park without even asking Siegel, who said he loved his current job. Healy told him that he would like Hollywood Park’s work even more.

And he did it. Siegel never looked back.

Due to its access to trainers, jockeys and owners, as well as an ability to see others, Siegel was a precious disability public and soon its choices were presented in many newspapers in southern California, including Times, The Daily News, Pasadena Star-News, Orange County Register and San Diego Union-Tribune.

“Jeff was my main mentor in this game,” said Bob Ike, a longtime public handicapper in Southern California. “He made performance notes before publishing Beyer figures. He recorded training sessions at the door in the mid -1980s. His overall knowledge of rhythm, pedigree and European form is unequaled. As a public disabled, he is the goat.”

The coach of the renowned temple Bob Baffet often took advice from Siegel and loved his time talking to him about horses.

“I had total respect for his opinions and reflections on horses,” said heard. “When [Triple Crown winner] Justify broke her young daughter, Jeff told me that the horse was going to win the Kentucky Derby.

“He just liked to be part of the game and I respected his handicap. If he chose your horse first, second or third, you knew that you had a good chance of winning. He could see a horse running and he immediately saw everything. After seeing [Triple Crown winner] American Pharoah Run for the first time, he came to me and said to me: “You have a very good one there”.

“I’m going to fail to talk to her. I would ask him what he thought and he could say, “I don’t think he can go so far. And he was right.

Siegel also co -founded the Stable Partnership Partnership Clover Racing and Team Valor, the most successful partnership at the time, with its friend Barry Irwin.

“He was the best handicapper I have ever met.” Irwin said. “What separated him from his peers was his ability to add horse riding to his handicap. He knew a lot about what was trained. He was not only a guy in nuts and bolts, he understood the animal.”

Irwin remembers at a time when he was at Siegel to talk about buying a horse.

“I asked if he had old racing forms so that I could look for a horse,” said Irwin. “He said,” Go watch in the bathroom. “He had races stacked at the top of the shower where the water comes out.

Never dissuaded by the quantity of work on its plate – unless it is in conflict with the football or basketball matches of the UCLA – Siegel decided to try the broadcast. He therefore joined HRTV, a chain of horse racing in 2004 and remained for almost a decade as an analyst.

“In addition to all the excellent work he did on the camera, he was a real fan and dedicated student of the game,” said Becky Somerville, principal production director at Fanduel TV. “He was passionate about that, who happened in everything he did, and this passion was contagious, lifting everyone around him.”

Somerville worked in close collaboration with Jeff in HRTV from 2004 to 2015, in particular by producing its program “First call”.

Siegel is survived by his brother, Barry Siegel; sister, Michelle Weiss; Caryn and Mara nieces; nephew Robert; Large nephew kai, Beckett and novel; And the great niece MONROE.

Funeral arrangements are pending.