Right to the end, Art Wilson was a newspaperman and a horse-racing man.
In a hospital bed Saturday night, Wilson was studying the races, preparing for upcoming columns and selections.
“When I left, he was watching the (Santa Anita) replays on his cellphone,” said Eddie Wilson, Art’s younger brother.
Art Wilson, longtime horse-racing correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and other Southern California News Group papers, died early Sunday morning at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. He was 71.
Wilson battled multiple myeloma, kidney disease and congestive heart failure over the past decade, but his death came unexpectedly after a medical episode Saturday, said Eddie Wilson, also an SCNG handicapper.
Wilson persevered through his illnesses, sometimes typing racing coverage from a hospital bed or convalescent center, kept going by his fascination with the sport and affection for its people.
His final column, which appeared in Friday’s newspapers, was about Toby Keith and the country music star’s passion for breeding and owning racehorses. Keith died Feb. 5 of stomach cancer.
“(Art) just loved horse racing so much, loved the people involved … loved long shots,” Eddie Wilson said. “He didn’t want to give it up. I don’t think he considered it work.”
Bob Baffert, the national thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame trainer of six Kentucky Derby winners, called Art Wilson “a very respected and loved pillar of the racing community.”
“I never turned down an opportunity to talk with him, because he loved racing and wanted to see it thrive,” Baffert said Sunday in a text message. “They don’t make them like Art anymore, and I’m going to miss him a lot.”
Born in Winchester, Mass., Arthur Raymond Wilson grew up in Azusa and Glendora, and attended Glendale High School and Citrus College in Glendora before studying journalism at Cal Poly Pomona.
Wilson joined the San Gabriel Valley Tribune in the 1970s and kept working for that newspaper as a sportswriter and editor, continuing after the Tribune joined the Los Angeles Daily News, Orange County Register and other papers in the newsgroup now called SCNG.
“Art was dedicated to his work and the sport, and his love for horse racing came through in his writing for both casual readers and hard core racing fans. His readers will miss his writing. The horse racing community will miss him at the track. And we’ll miss him as a great colleague,” said SCNG Sports Editor Tom Moore.
Wilson was drawn to racing early through his father, a fan. His Twitter handle, @Sham73, was a nod to his favorite horse, Sham, the 1973 Santa Anita Derby winner who ran second to Triple Crown winner Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Like many bettors of his generation, Wilson felt his interest in handicapping grow after he read “Picking Winners,” the 1975 “horseplayer’s guide” by Andrew Beyer, namesake of the speed figures now published in the Daily Racing Form.
Describing his betting philosophy on the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, Wilson said: “A lot of people think I’m crazy, but I don’t bet anything less than 5-1 (odds). I’ll bet 2-1 if I’m playing a pick-four or pick-five, but if I’m making separate bets, there’s no way I’ll bet less than 5-1. It’s getting harder and harder now to get those 5-1 because of the short fields.”
Wilson lived in Victorville in later years, semi-retired but producing Friday racing columns, coverage of big races at Santa Anita, Del Mar and Los Alamitos, and daily picks — all popular with fans and competitors.
“He never complained about his illness. He just loved talking about horses,” Baffert said.
Away from racing, Wilson was a fan of old TV, especially “The Rifleman,” “Wagon Train” and “Leave It to Beaver,” Eddie Wilson said. He was a fan of the Texas Rangers ever since Frank Howard, his favorite Dodger as a boy, was traded to the Washington Senators and the team moved to Texas. The Rangers won the World Series for the first time in 2023.
“He said, ‘Thank God they won it before I died,’ ” Eddie Wilson said.
Art Wilson’s death is the second in the L.A.-area turf writing world this month. Jerry Antonucci, the retired handicapper and writer for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Orange County Register, died of cancer at 77 on Feb. 6.
Wilson is survived by Eddie Wilson and his sister Deborah Wills.
Services are pending.
Source: Orange County Register
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