By DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Dec. 30, 2019) – Trainer Gary Sherlock, who guided the Thoroughbred fillies Intangaroo and Lost Bus to graded stakes wins in recent years and started Uncle Lino in the 2016 Preakness Stakes, died on Sunday of cancer, according to his friends and officials at Santa Anita.
Sherlock was 73.
A native of San Francisco, Sherlock had a lifelong background in racing. His father, William, was a jockey, and his mother, Mary, was a racing official in Northern California.
Sherlock initially made his mark as a Quarter Horse trainer at Los Alamitos where he won such races as the 1977 Los Alamitos Derby with Azure Three and the 1980 Doc Severinsen Handicap with American Jet and was among the leaders on the circuit along with D. Wayne Lukas and Blane Schvaneveldt.
Sherlock trained Quarter Horses from 1966 to 1980, winning 353 races, before he switched to Thoroughbreds on a full-time basis.
Sherlock had a small Thoroughbred stable through the 1980s and early 1990s in Southern California. His best season in that span occurred in 1989 when he had 11 victories.
In 1995, Sherlock suffered a major health scare when he was diagnosed with a blocked artery in his brain that was treatable only with blood thinners. After a lengthy recovery, Sherlock began working as an insurance agent, specializing in workers’ compensation policies for trainers.
Sherlock resumed training Thoroughbreds in 2005 and had an outstanding year in 2008, the season Intangaroo won three Grade 1 sprints for fillies and mares nationwide – the Santa Monica Handicap at Santa Anita in January, the Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs in May, and the Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga in August.
In 2016, Sherlock won the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes with 64-1 Lost Bus for prominent California breeder/owner Terry Lovingier, with whom Sherlock was closely allied.
Later that year, Sherlock had his first starter in a Triple Crown race with Uncle Lino, who finished seventh of 11 in the Preakness Stakes in the final start of his career. Uncle Lino was third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby behind Exaggerator and won the $151,035 California Chrome Stakes at Los Alamitos in April 2016.
In the last few years, Sherlock’s leading runner was Show It N Moe It, who won the CTBA Stakes at Del Mar in 2017, and the Spring Fever Stakes at Santa Anita in February 2019. Show It N Moe It was second in the Betty Grable Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 17, Sherlock’s final runner in a stakes.