Music icon Jerry Moss, owner of Zenyatta, Giacomo, dies at 88

Jerry Moss, the recording-industry icon who owned the champion mare Zenyatta and the long-shot Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo, died Wednesday at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, his family said in a media statement. He was 88.

“They truly don’t make them like him anymore, and we will miss conversations with him about everything under the sun,” Moss’s family told The Associated Press.

Moss and his then-wife Ann Holbrook paid $60,000 for Zenyatta, who won her first 19 races including the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Even though she finished second to Blame in her last start in the 2010 Classic, the effort was widely regarded as her best, since she came back from 16 1/4 lengths behind to lose by only a head.

Before that, the Mosses’ most famous victory came with 50-1 long shot Giacomo in the 2005 Kentucky Derby. Like Zenyatta, Giacomo was trained by John Shirreffs. Tiago, Kudos, Gormley and Zazu were their other Grade 1 winners, according to Equibase.

Building on a modest career that he began out of Brooklyn College, Moss made his fortune in the 1960s when he and Herb Alpert started A&M Records, seizing on the popularity of Alpert’s Tijuana Brass. The company also signed the Police, Janet Jackson, Peter Frampton, Supertramp, the Go-Go’s and Bryan Adams, according to an obituary in Variety. Moss and Alpert were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

Moss also served on the California Horse Racing Board from 2004 to 2012 after being appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Moss was survived by his wife Tina Morse and three children.