Preston Morris Burch (August 25, 1884 – April 8, 1978) was an AmericanHall of FameThoroughbredracehorse trainer,breeder, and owner.[1]
Born inAugusta, Georgia, he was the son of Hall of Fame trainer,William P. Burch and Emily J. Cammer whose sister Leonora Cammer married another prominent horseman,Green B. Morris. Both Preston Burch and his brotherSelby followed in their father's footsteps. He was greatly influenced by not only his father and uncle, but also by another Hall of Fame trainer,Sam Hildreth.
Preston Burch began his career in 1902 with the purchase of his first racehorse Stuyve, a bay gelding by Stuyvesant and out of Katie A. (by Hyder Ali). The gelding raced and won in Burch's colors: blue silks with orange cuffs and an orange cap.[1]
Setting up his own public stable inCanada, Preston Burch trained horses for prominent American owners such asFrancis R. Hitchcock andJohn E. Madden.
When theNew York State Legislature under GovernorCharles Evans Hughes outlawed all racetrackbetting it resulted in the closing of every horse racetrack in the state after the end of the 1910 season. Following the state ban, the suddenly out-of-work Burch moved toFrance where he was able to make a living training bothsteeplechase andflat racing Thoroughbreds for wealthy American ownersHarry La Montagne,William Astor Chanler,George P. Eustis, andJohn Sanford. Competing at racetracks across Europe, among his successes was a win in the Grand Steeplechase International atMilan with Harry La Montagne's horse Sultan VII.[2] His racing career was interrupted by the outbreak ofWorld War I in which he served in France with theAmerican Field Service as a volunteerambulance driver.
At the end of the War, Burch returned to the United States where he continued to train horses for John Sanford as well as for George Wingfield'sNevada Stock Farm and later forDetroit auto body magnate,Charles T. Fisher. Burch eventually set up operations on theEast coast with major clients such asAdmiral Cary T. Grayson,Samuel Ross,Walter M. Jeffords, Sr.,William duPont, Jr.,Marion duPont Scott,Donald P. Ross andW. Deering Howe.
Burch bred a number of successful horses, the most famous of which was the U.S. Racing Hall of FamefillyGallorette foaled in 1942. The following year he took over as head trainer for the highly successfulBrookmeade Stable, owned byIsabel Dodge Sloane. Running Brookmeade Stable, in 1950 he was the United States' leading money winner. That year he trained the two-year-old colt,Bold, with whom he would win the 1951Preakness Stakes.[2]
In 1918, Burch saddled 1916Kentucky Derby winnerGeorge Smith to victory in theBowie Handicap atPimlico Race Course by defeating two other Kentucky Derby winners. The 1917 winner,Omar Khayyam, finished vsecond and 1918 winner,Exterminator, ran third.[3] In addition, the1918 Preakness Stakes winnerWar Cloud finished twelfth.[4]
Known as someone who never allowed a horse to race unless it was in top condition, Burch was a founding member of the American Trainers Association. He was elected the Association's first president and served for seven years.[5]
In 1953,Blood-Horse Publications published his book titled "Training Thoroughbred Horses" (ASIN: B000O6YU38). The widely read book was reprinted in 1973, 1976, and again in 1992.[3]
In 1957, Burch retired after a career that spanned fifty-six years. Under his tutelage, assistant trainers such asRichard E. Handlen,Burley Parke, andOscar White learned the art of conditioning Thoroughbreds and went on to very successful training careers of their own.
Preston Burch was inducted into theNational Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1963. In 1973, he was the honored guest at the annual Testimonial Dinner given by theThoroughbred Club of America. He was one of the trainers feature in the 2007 bookMasters of the Turf: Ten Trainers Who Dominated Horse Racing's Golden Age by authorEdward L. Bowen.[4]
Burch's sonElliott also became a racehorse trainer. Like his father and grandfather, Elliott Burch had an outstanding career that resulted in his induction in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1980. Another son of Preston Burch, William Preston Burch (1919–1998), was a Longtime executive withGulfstream Aerospace whose sonPreston M. Burch II is a 1966 graduate ofAdelphi University with a degree inphysics and is the manager of theHubble Space Telescope Program and Deputy Associate Director for Astrophysics,NASAGoddard Space Flight Center.
Burch lived inDunn Loring, Virginia at the time of his death in 1978.
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