By Riccio Cathy
Longtime horsewoman, Sarah Ann Lundy, known to her racetrack peers as Sally, passed away due to a long battle with cancer. She turned 63 years old the day she died. Sally was the first women to saddle a GI Belmont S. starter when she sent Minstrel Star out in 1984.
Sally grew up in the Pennsylvania-Delaware region and took to galloping horses and riding steeplechase races in her late teens. She worked for Burley Cox and Bruce Miller in her early riding years. Later on, she took a job with David Whiteley and galloped one of the top runners, Instrument Landing, for the stable. She traveled out to Southern California with the stable and went to work for Willard Proctor upon Whiteley's return to the East Coast.
Sally became a great part of the Proctor barn as exercise rider galloping some foundation mares such as Belair who was a multiple graded stakes winner.
Upon completion of her stay with the Proctor barn, she married former trainer Richard J. Lundy and they began training privately for Virginia Kraft Payson at Payson Park and in New York.
Lundy, traveled to Japan with Salem Drive who won the Fiji S. in Tokyo, a prep for the Japan Cup.
During her time with Richard J. Lundy, she was instrumental in the careers of a long list of stake horses such as Blushing John, Green Barb, Bello Horrizonte, Jade Hunter, Carr De Naskra and many others.
After separating from Richard J. Lundy, Sally continued her public stable at Belmont Park. From 690 career starts, Sarah Lundy won 85 races. Among her successes, were back-to-back wins in the Ashley T. Cole H. at Aqueduct in 1990 and 1991 and the 1991 Kingston H. at Belmont. Training in Florida during the winter months, she won the Sam F. Davis Stakes and the Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs in 1993. She trained numerous stake winners such as Marco Bay, Audio Cassette, Kate's Valentine and Lilac Star.
Due to her early California connections and respected work ethic, Sally's barn became the home away from home for many trainers such as Charlie Whittingham, Bobby Frankel, Rodney Rash and Ben Cecil when they shipped in for stakes in to New York and Florida. Sunday Silence was most notable resident of the Lundy stable.
When Lundy retired from training, she took a job as an assistant to Bobby Frankel and stayed with him until his passing in 2009. Recently, Sally was working for Carla Gaines as her secretary for the barn.
Funeral arrangements are pending, while a Celebration of Life is currently being planned for late September or early October in Southern California. She is survived by two brothers, Steve and John Caldwell.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement.
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