By DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Mar. 20, 2018) — Warren B. Williamson, the California-based owner and breeder who raced the top-class but ill-fated Cal-bred mare Nashoba’s Key, died several days ago of natural causes following a recent surgery to repair a fractured hip, according to his longtime trainer, Carla Gaines. Williamson was 89.
Williamson, who had various jobs connected to finance and was a member of the wealthy and powerful Chandler family of Southern California, had described himself as a lifelong horse lover, going back to his time spent growing up on his family’s 4,200-acre ranch near Ramona. He owned Thoroughbreds for the past 25 years, and in later years bred many of the horses he raced from a small band of prized mares. He also served on the boards of the Oak Tree Racing Association, the non-profit group that once held a fall meet at Santa Anita Park, The California Thoroughbred Foundation, and of Hollywood Park, which closed in 2014.
“He was a great racing fan, a great sportsman, and always took the very best care of his horses,” said Gaines, who said that Williamson had given her either the first or second horse she trained. “He was the kind of owner that a trainer would give up a vital organ to have as a client.”
Henry Williamson, Warren’s son, said that the family owns 15 mares and that he will continue operating his father’s racing and breeding stable.
“It was ‘it’ for him,” Henry Williamson said. “It was his passion and what kept him going, not just the connection with the animals, but the connection with all the people in and around the racetracks in Southern California. It was great to go to the races with him. Everyone knew him. He used to say that if he walked down the street no one would know him from Adam, but when he went to the racetrack, everyone knew his name.”
Henry Williamson said that his father’s death came as a shock considering that he had come out of surgery to repair the hip in good spirits and health. He died in his sleep on Friday morning, Henry said.
Nashoba’s Key, a homebred, was Williamson’s best horse, a freakishly fast racemare who won her first seven starts, including four graded stakes, after debuting as a 4-year-old in 2007. Undefeated going into that year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, she had a tough trip in the race and finished fourth as the second choice.
In her 5-year-old year, Nashoba’s Key easily won the Santa Margarita Invitational Stakes as the favorite, but then tragedy struck. Known to be high-strung, Nashoba’s Key kicked the side of her outdoor pen early on the morning of May 28, 2008, breaking her tibia, and she was euthanized shortly thereafter.
Alyce Williamson, Warren’s wife, said at the time: “We are devastated. We love all our horses, but this one has given us so much joy.” Gaines called the death, “The lowest point of my life.”
Known as “Spud” around the racetrack, Williamson also raced another filly out of Nashoba’s Key’s dam, this one called Nashoba’s Gold, who won the Grade 3 Providencia Stakes and Grade 2 Honeymoon Stakes in 2014. She was part of a pattern established by Williamson, who often bred multiple good runners from mares that he owned. Two other nice mares he bred and raced, Tiz Elemental and Tiz a Blend, were both out of the stakes-winning mare Blending Element.
Williamson began his career as a stock broker, and then became a partner at a number of financial firms. He was also the former chairman of the Chandler Trust, which controlled the assets of the Chandler family.