Bruce Headley, a longtime California trainer whose most famous runner was champion sprinter Kona Gold, died Jan. 15 at age 86 from the effects of a stroke.
Though Kona Gold was a Kentucky-bred, Headley excelled with California-breds. He was the first trainer of Cal-bred Bertrando, who later won an Eclipse Award, and he trained many other state stakes winners, often owning and breeding them as well. Headley was inducted into the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Hall of Fame in 2015.
A storyteller in the same mold as trainer Mel Stute, a friend of Headley's who died last year, Headley began training in 1959, winning his first stakes in 1962 with Poonastar. He began his career at the Suzy Q Ranch in 1948, along with future Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker. Headley eventually brought his entire family into the business. His wife, Aase, is a longtime owner, and both of their adult children, Karen and Gus, are trainers.
Headley was an early proponent of the "hay, oats, and water" philosophy and practiced it throughout his career. He had a small piece of horse property not far from Santa Anita Park, and he brought horses to the track after doing all the work with them himself.
"He loved horses," said Karen. "He'd go to Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton, take his own money, stay throughout the whole sale, find a horse that looked like a pure athlete, bring him to his backyard that was a postage stamp, gallop the horse himself, and work him himself. He got them to the races and won numerous graded races."
Kona Gold was a classic example and one of Headley's all-time favorite horses. Headley purchased the son of Java Gold—Double Sunrise, by Slew o' Gold, for just $35,000 at the 1995 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Headley raced the gelding in a partnership that included Irwin and Andrew Molasky.
Five times Kona Gold competed in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), winning in 2000, running second in 1999, and running third in 1998. He earned $2,293,384, and after his racing career, Headley rode him as a stable pony.
Other graded winners Headley trained included Street Boss, Surf Cat, Kalookan Queen, Got Koko, and Son of a Pistol. Headley-trained Silveyville was voted Cal-bred Horse of the Year in 1984, and Softshoe Sure Shot was named champion Cal-bred sprinter of 1993.
Softshoe Sure Shot was one of many that Headley trained for the Johnston family's Old English Rancho. In later years, Headley stood millionaire Surf Cat at Old English after training the horse for his wife and Marsha Naify.
Headley also stood Cyclotron at Old English, and the stallion's son Cyclometer was another example of Headley's hands-on approach. Headley trained Cyclometer's sire and dam, bred and owned Cyclometer with the Molaskys, and trained him to become a graded stakes winner and earner of $477,004.
Headley saddled the winners of 970 races for purse earnings of more than $38 million. But retired Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, who rode many of those winners for Headley, perhaps put it best when he told Santa Anita publicity:
"He's a throwback to the old days, a pure horseman through and through. An excellent caretaker, a great family man, and a heck of a human being."
Memorial services are pending.
