Trainer Simms Following in Father’s Footsteps
For a week in early January, veteran Kentucky trainer Garry Simms was in South Florida to oversee his string of a dozen horses stabled at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream Park’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.
Simms, 63, planned his trip to be on hand at Gulfstream to watch Pappascat, a 5-year-old Scat Daddy mare, who finished off the board in the January 10 Marshua’s River (G3).
“He wanted to come down for that,” said Simms’ son and assistant, Zack. “Dad is extremely active in the barn.”
Given a life expectancy of two weeks when diagnosed with bone cancer in December 2009, Garry Simms has stayed mostly close to home in Simpsonville, Ky., where the family has a farm, to resume regular radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
And while he continues his work with the horses, much of the responsibility has fallen on Zack, 22, the youngest of Simms’ three children. Zack Simms tends to the string at Palm Meadows, following his father’s example.
“My dad is a true horseman,” said Simms, who saddled and owns the stable's first winner of the Championship meet Thursday in Fleeting Flossie. “He takes pride in that. That’s something he wants to instill in me, to be a true horseman, because that’s what he believes in.”
Garry Simms began training horses full-time in 1992 and has won 220 races and more than $5 million in purse earnings including back-to-back Debutante (G3) Stakes in 2011 and 2012 – the first graded stakes of his career – and the 2012 Bashford Manor (G3).
It wasn’t until he hit his teenage years that Zack Simms began to take an interest in horses, and began hot walking for his father at 17.
“Originally, I wanted to be a lawyer,” he said. “I guess that’s kind of a dream for a lot of kids, but the horses I didn’t really get active with until maybe 13 or 14 years old. So far, I love it.”
Eventually, Simms became an assistant in his father’s stable, which spends most of the year in Kentucky, relocating only for the winter months. Aside from Pappascat, the South Florida string includes stable star Croninthebarbarian, winner of the Kentucky Downs Juvenile who was third in the Dania Beach (G3) and Kitten’s Joy this month at Gulfstream; and Mesoma, who broke the Ellis Park track record for six furlongs (1:07.98) by nearly a full second last August.
“He’s a pretty nice horse,” Simms said. “We’ve got some nice horses in the barn.”
Simms continues to draw inspiration from his father, who has maintained a work ethic and positive outlook despite his illness.
“He’s been through two bone marrow transplants, countless chemo and radiation and he’s still as strong as he was the first day, mentally, and he’s still got that drive,” he said. “It’s a matter of faith; faith, God, prayers and a lot of support. A lot of his friends have been really caring, and it shows how many people think a lot of my dad. People are reaching out from 10, 15 years ago to see if he needs anything or if the family needs anything. It’s amazing the support he’s had throughout the entire battle.
“I’ve never heard anybody say a bad word about him, just a lot of positive things. I’m his son, but still. They’ve always said he’s the real deal. If he’s down with you, he’s down to the end no matter what.”
And Zack Simms is firmly settled on his career path, which was set in motion before his father’s diagnosis.
“I’m hooked,” he said. “I’m hooked. This is what I’m going to do, for sure. The highs are high and the lows are low, but the highs kind of make up for the lows.”
Source: Gulfstream Park