Jose A. Martin (October 11, 1943 – November 22, 2006) was a Cuban-born American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. Based mainly in New York, he trained three Eclipse Award champions: Lakeville Miss, Wayward Lass, and Groovy.[1][2]
Martin trained 1,139 winners and became especially associated with major fillies, sprinters, and New York stakes horses.[3] His other major winners included Noble Nashua, Goodbye Halo, Key Contender, Roar Emotion, and Chelsey Flower.[4][5]
Martin was the son of National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame trainer Frank "Pancho" Martin Sr. and the father of trainer Carlos F. Martin.[6][7]
Early life
editMartin was born in Havana, Cuba, on October 11, 1943.[1][3] His father, Frank "Pancho" Martin, began working with horses in Cuba before moving his racing career to the United States.[6] Jose Martin followed his father to the United States at age seventeen and began working for him in 1961.[1][8]
Before beginning his own training career, Martin served for two years as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.[1][8] After leaving the Army, he became a licensed Thoroughbred trainer in 1967.[1]
Training career
editEarly career
editMartin established himself on the New York circuit during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His first stakes winner was Urgent Message in the 1972 New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds Race Course.[8] In 1973, he won the Tidal Handicap with Jogging, giving him his first stakes victory in a New York Racing Association event.[1]
Martin's rise overlapped with the peak years of his father's stable. In 1973, Jose Martin challenged Pancho Martin for the New York training title. Pancho Martin ultimately won the title by eight victories over Jose Martin and John Campo Sr.[9]
By the mid-1970s, Martin was regularly winning major New York stakes. Laramie Trail won the 1975 Bay Shore Stakes and Gotham Stakes for him, while his stable became increasingly identified with high-class fillies and New York stakes races.[4]
Lakeville Miss
editMartin trained his first Eclipse Award champion with Lakeville Miss, a dark bay or brown filly bred and initially raced by Randolph Weinsier.[10] She began her career in a $25,000 maiden claiming race at Belmont Park, which she won by four lengths.[10]
As a two-year-old in 1977, Lakeville Miss won several of the leading juvenile filly races in the East, including the Astarita Stakes, Matron Stakes, Selima Stakes, and Frizette Stakes.[10][4] She was voted the 1977 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly.[11]
At three, Lakeville Miss added the Constitution Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks, giving Martin another top-level victory before she was sold privately to Peter Brant.[10] She later became a broodmare and produced Mogambo, a Grade I winner.[10]
Wayward Lass and Noble Nashua
editMartin became closely associated with Flying Zee Stable, the racing operation of Carl Lizza Jr. and Herbert Hochreiter. For Flying Zee, he trained both Wayward Lass and Noble Nashua, two of his most important horses of the early 1980s.[12][13]
Wayward Lass, a Florida-bred daughter of Hail the Pirates, was purchased by Flying Zee for $30,000 as a two-year-old in training.[12] She won the Busanda Stakes, Searching Stakes, and Ruthless Stakes early in the year, then won two major races in New York's filly series, the Mother Goose Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks.[12][14] She was voted the 1981 American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly.[11]
Noble Nashua, a son of Nashua, gave Martin another strongest season. In 1981, Noble Nashua won the Whirlaway Stakes, Dwyer Stakes, Jerome Handicap, Swaps Stakes, and Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap.[4] In the Marlboro Cup, he defeated older horses at Belmont Park under Rubén Hernández.[13] His Swaps Stakes victory at Hollywood Park also gave Martin a major win outside his usual New York base.[4]
Groovy
editMartin's best-known horse was Groovy, a chestnut sprinter by Norcliffe. Groovy had been tried on the 1986 Triple Crown trail before being transferred to Martin after the Preakness Stakes.[15][16] Martin redirected him toward sprint races, where Groovy became one of the fastest American horses of the 1980s.[15][2]
In 1986, Groovy won the Firecracker Stakes, Tom Fool Handicap, Forego Handicap, and Ancient Title Handicap for Martin.[4][15] He was favored in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita Park but finished fourth behind Smile.[15]
Groovy returned in 1987 with a dominant sprint campaign. He won the Roseben Handicap, True North Handicap, Finger Lakes Breeders' Cup Stakes, Tom Fool Handicap, Forego Handicap, and Vosburgh Stakes.[16] In the Roseben and True North, he earned Beyer Speed Figures reported as 131 and 134.[17][16] He finished second to Very Subtle in the 1987 Breeders' Cup Sprint but was voted the 1987 American Champion Sprint Horse.[1][18]
Groovy's success strengthened Martin's reputation as a trainer who could redirect a horse to the right division. Carlos Martin later recalled that his father had believed Groovy could become a champion sprinter soon after the colt arrived in the barn.[2]
Later career
editMartin continued to train major stakes winners after Groovy. In 1987, he won the Demoiselle Stakes with Goodbye Halo, who later developed into a major Grade I-winning filly for Charlie Whittingham.[19] In 1990, he won the Next Move Breeders' Cup Handicap with Real Prize and the Athenia Handicap with Perfect Arc.[4] In 1993, he won the Miss Grillo Stakes with Chelsey Flower.[20]
Key Contender gave Martin another late-career Grade I victory in the 1995 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park. A son of Fit to Fight bred by Paul Mellon, Key Contender was purchased by Flying Zee and moved to Martin's stable after the Mellon dispersal.[21] He won the Suburban as a seven-year-old and retired with 15 wins from 56 starts and earnings of $839,261.[21][22]
Martin's final graded stakes victory came in the 2002 Demoiselle Stakes with Roar Emotion, a filly owned by Joseph Allen and ridden by John Velazquez.[23][19] The win came shortly after Martin had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Carlos Martin later described watching that race with his father as one of his strongest memories from Aqueduct.[24]
Career statistics
editPersonal life and death
editMartin was part of a three-generation racing family. His father, Frank "Pancho" Martin, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1981.[6] His son, Carlos F. Martin, became a trainer on the New York circuit and later trained Grade I winner Buy the Firm and graded stakes winner Come Dancing.[7][2]
Martin was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002.[2] He died on November 22, 2006, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, after a lengthy illness. He was 63.[1][25]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Jose Martin, Trainer of Groovy, Dies at 63". BloodHorse. November 23, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Johnson, Karen M. (August 23, 2019). "Can 'the Queen' add an important new chapter in the saga of one of racing's most storied families?". Thoroughbred Racing Commentary. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "Trainer Profile: Jose Martin". Equibase. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Trainer Profile: Jose Martin Stakes Listing". Equibase. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Grade I Winner Key Contender Dies". BloodHorse. July 11, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Frank "Pancho" Martin, Sr". National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 "Carlos F. Martin". America's Best Racing. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Trainer Martin Passes Away". New York Post. November 24, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ Grening, David (July 19, 2012). "Frank "Pancho" Martin is dead at 86, Hall of Fame trainer". Daily Racing Form. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Hunter, Avalyn. "Lakeville Miss". American Classic Pedigrees. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 "Eclipse Awards History". National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Hunter, Avalyn. "Wayward Lass". American Classic Pedigrees. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 "Horse Racing Roundup". United Press International. September 19, 1981. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Mother Goose S." America's Best Racing. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Hunter, Avalyn. "Groovy". American Classic Pedigrees. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Vance, James (July 11, 2024). "Sprint great Groovy deserving of a Hall of Fame nod". TwinSpires. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ Beyer, Andrew (1995). Beyer on Speed: New Strategies for Racetrack Betting. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780395735237.
- ↑ "Champion Sprinter Groovy Dead at 23". BloodHorse. January 27, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 Grening, David (November 28, 2002). "Roar Emotion tries again". Daily Racing Form. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Miss Grillo S." America's Best Racing. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- 1 2 "Key Contender Pensioned to Old Friends NY at Cabin Creek". New York Thoroughbred Breeders. February 23, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Suburban S." America's Best Racing. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Demoiselle Under Roar Emotion's Control". BloodHorse. November 30, 2002. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ Ehalt, Bob (June 27, 2026). "All-Time Leaders Reminisce as Final Day Arrives at Aqueduct". America's Best Racing. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Phyllis Cerf Wagner, 90; writer, actress and N.Y. City socialite". Los Angeles Times. November 27, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
External links
edit- Jose Martin at Equibase