LOS ANGELES (AP) — While Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss were building A&M Records into a powerhouse label, Moss bought his first thoroughbred in 1970. It was the start of a love affair with horse racing that lasted the rest of his life.
His family said Moss died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles at age 88.
"This is a gold-star guy," said John Sadler, one of Moss's primary trainers over the years.
Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith said, "Our sport has lost a giant."
In racing, Moss is best remembered as owner of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta and Giacomo, who stunned with a victory at 50-1 odds in the 2005 Kentucky Derby.
He also bred many of his own horses.
Zenyatta became a household name while competing from 2008 to 2010, winning 19 consecutive races. She captured the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic, the first female to defeat males in the $5 million race at Santa Anita.
Her only defeat in 20 career starts came the following year, when she finished a narrow second to Blame in the 2010 BC Classic at Churchill Downs. A crying Smith blamed himself afterward.
Moss and his then-wife Ann were generous in sharing Zenyatta with the public and the mare responded in kind. She pranced in the post parade and stood still at the sound of clicking cameras. Her YouTube videos were a hit, too.
"It's an emotional thing and it seems to get bigger and stronger after every race," Moss told the AP in 2010. "She's such a positive force and you feel it."
Zenyatta, who resides at Lane's End Farm in Kentucky, was named for
Giacomo's Derby victory was the first in the famed race for Moss, trainer John Shirreffs and jockey Smith.
"There was such a shock in the audience, sort of a loud silence," Moss recalled in 2006. "Exultation doesn't come close to explaining our feeling. We were just in this other-worldly experience."
Sadler said, "He just liked to see the horses perform well. Not a heavy gambler, but if he was at the races he was going to make a bet."
Sadler credited Moss for his emphasis on horse welfare, an issue that has become a flashpoint in the sport in recent years.
"He was well ahead of his time about that," Sadler said. "He was doing it before it was fashionable."
