Massachusetts Owner/Breeder Gordon Ramsey Dies

Gordon P. Ramsey, an owner and breeder who helped found the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association, died April 21 with his family by his side at his Georgia home. He was 84 and had suffered a stroke last month.

Ramsey, with his wife Linda, for many years raced their homebreds at Rockingham Park and Suffolk Downs as well as at tracks along the East Coast and in the Midwest. Among their most successful runners as an owner was multiple stakes winner Dragnet, who won the Mass. Breeders Derby and Boston Doge Stakes in 1984. As breeders, some of their most successful runners included Ballroom Deputy (by Silver Deputy) who won the 2005 Maple Leaf Stakes (G3) at Woodbine and multiple winner Smuggler's Prize (by Woodman), who was runner-up in the 1998 Fred W. Hooper Stakes (G3) at Calder Race Course. They also bred stakes-placed winners Dirty Bird, Money Magnet, Twist the Air, Wheaty, and Yankee Doodle Boy.

He played a key role in the lobbying to secure legislation to fund the Massachusetts breeding program in the 1980s. Once the program was in place, the prominent Boston attorney served as the first executive director of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association and held the position for several years.

The graduate of Trinity College (Connecticut) and the Boston University School of Law was a partner in the Boston law firm Ramsey and Murray, P.C. prior to his retirement and was a prominent labor relations attorney.

The Ramseys bred and raised Thoroughbreds in Massachusetts and at Chabboquasset Farm, which was their former home in Palmetto, Ga. During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, they welcomed the equestrian teams from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico to the farm and hosted them during the competition.

Ramsey is survived by his wife of 40 years, Linda Lanier Ramsey, four children, four stepchildren, and 14 grandchildren. His son, John Ramsey, was the Suffolk Downs marketing director from 1992 to 2000 and then spent the next four years as a senior account executive with Conover, Tuttle, Pace in Boston, where he worked on the firm's Thoroughbred racing accounts.

A funeral and celebration of Ramsey's life will be held April 29 at 1 p.m. ET at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 576 Roscoe Rd., Newnan, Ga.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Gordon's memory to the Sacred Journey Hospice Foundation, 138 Peach Drive, McDonough, Ga., 30253.