Louisiana Trainer, Racing Official Palmisano Dies at 74

Gary Palmisano Sr., a longtime trainer and racing official in Louisiana, died Dec. 1 in New Orleans after a 19-year fight with cancer. He was 74.

Palmisano trained from 1976-2005, according to Equibase, winning 353 races for owners that included Bryan and Vickie Krantz, who raced as Krantz Stable and were prior owners of Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots and defunct Jefferson Downs. Led by stakes winners Destiny Calls  and Coach Rags, Palmisano's horses earned just shy of $4 million. 

Palmisano died in the early morning Wednesday with his wife Karen and son Gary by his side. The latter is an executive for Churchill Downs. 

"He had a 19-year battle with prostate cancer that he fought off for as long as he could but eventually it overcame him," his son said. "It metastasized to his bone and some different places, but he fought a good fight and worked through his chemotherapy and radiation.

"He was a trainer and the paddock judge at Fair Grounds through his fight right up until last March when he was still in the paddock, and the last couple of months, it just crept up on him a little quicker than we were hoping."

The late Palmisano made countless friends over his decades in the sport.

"The resounding comment, which I was actually just telling my mom that people keep calling and texting, is just that he was such a good man and kindhearted and always had time for others," said his son. "He really loved our sport and the Fair Grounds and Louisiana racing as a whole. He gave a lot of time and energy to the track and the people that make up the track. He was a huge fan of all the characters that came around the track and that whole group of people that called the track their home."

Speaking Wednesday on At The Races with Steve Byk, Bryan Krantz recalled the late Palmisano as "one of the genuine guys from the track." He recalled how Palmisano began walking hots and grooming horses on his way to becoming a horse trainer. 

"He just loved the game," Krantz told Byk. "He was a student of conformation. He was a great sales guy. We would go to the yearling sales, and he would spend literally hours looking at horses, different horses. And we had a pretty good record together."

Palmisano passed along his passion for horse racing to his son.

"I think the thing that stands out to us is that he treated everyone with a ton of respect, and he was highly respected, and that is really meaningful to me as a person who is trying to be a part of this industry to have had my Dad leave such a good name for me," his son said. "That has opened so many doors and allowed me to advance my career, and that is solely because of the kind of man he was and the amount of respect that people had for him."

Besides his wife and son, his lone child, Palmisano's survivors include brothers William (Billy) Palmisano and Barry Palmisano. The younger Palmisano and his wife, Megan, gave the late Palmisano his only grandchild, Addison. 

Funeral arrangements are pending. A celebration of life is planned at Fair Grounds sometime in early spring, his son said.