Photo by Nancy
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BARCLAY TAGG
Tagg, who primarily trains on the Northeast circuit, notched his first win as a trainer with Tudor's Fancy at Liberty Bell Park in January 1972. Other horses trained by Tagg include Crab Grass, a multiple stakes winner who won the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship Series in 1999; Royal Mountain Inn, winner of the 1994 Man o' War Stakes (G1); and five-time graded stakes winner Miss Josh, who captured the 1991 Gamely Handicap (G1) and Matchmaker Stakes (G2). In 2002, Tagg trained 32 winners and the earners of $1,162,212. Big wins in 2002 included the Sleepy Hollow Stakes and Bertram F. Bongard Stakes, both at Belmont Park with the famous gelding, Funny Cide. In 2003, Tagg celebrated Funny Cide's wins at the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He also won the 2003 Alabama with the filly Island Fashion.
Tagg applies a seven-days-a-week single-mindedness to his horses. 'That's all I do,' he says. 'I don't play golf. I don't go bowling. I don't go to Disneyland. I just take good care of the horses and wait for something good to happen. It took me 30-some years.' Tagg defies easy explanation. He can be shy, guarded, abrasive and charming, all in the span of a few minutes.
Since he took out his trainer's license, he's always been more comfortable tending to the needs and wants of horses than fussing over owners and cultivating rich clients. 'Barclay is not a schmoozy kind of guy,' says Jack Knowlton, Sackatoga's managing partner. 'He trains horses.' |
