G. Carey Winfrey

Biography

In 1956, the New York Turf Writers Association honored George Carey Winfrey as its outstanding trainer of the year, not so much for his handling of stakes winners Son of Erin, Squared Away, and Dedicate that year, but for his total horsemanship throughout his career.

Born in Texas in 1885, Winfrey started as a groom in the Midwest, moved from St. Louis to New York in 1904 with J. W. Fuller’s horses, worked under Hall of Fame trainer Sam Hildreth and Johnny Powers at Gravesend, and began training his own horses in 1917. He never had more than 10 horses in his stable at one time, few of stakes class, but he won 940 races and more than $2.4 million in purses.

The best of the 16 stakes winners he conditioned were two owned by his daughter, Jan Burke. Those were Squared Away, a gelding who won 31 races and earned $255,145, and Dedicate, champion handicapper of 1957 when he defeated Hall of Famers Gallant Man and Bold Ruler at weight-for-age in the Woodward Stakes, and thereupon was voted Horse of the Year by the Thoroughbred Racing Associations.

Winfrey was still training when he died at the age of 77 in 1962. His adopted son, William C. Winfrey, is also a Hall of Fame trainer.  

Achievements

Won the Paumonok Handicap — 1919, 1953
Won the Jerome Handicap — 1954
Won the Jersey Derby — 1955
Won the Brooklyn Handicap — 1956
Won the Hawthorne Gold Cup — 1956
Won the Whitney Handicap — 1956
Won the Monmouth Handicap — 1957
Won the Woodward Stakes — 1957