PROFILE
Ron McAnally and Murray Friedlander in 1983
THE SUNSHINE BOYS Ron McAnally and Murray Friedlander
With more than a century’s combined experience with Thoroughbreds and a friendship spanning five decades, Ron McAnally and Murray Friedlander are one of the most enduring double acts in West Coast racing. WORDS: ED GOLDEN PHOTOS: HORSEPHOTOS, INGER DRYSDALE, JANE GOLDSTEIN 60
TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 43
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N a rainy December morning just after daybreak, Ron McAnally, all 84 years of him, sat alone, protected only by the grandstand overhang at Santa Anita, where inside, early bird bettors get first crack at the day’s action. This has been a ritual in McAnally’s twilight years, parking himself at a table facing west towards Barn 99, where bedded down are the 12 horses he trains, none of them worthy of being mentioned in the same breath with his champions of yesteryear – Bayakoa, Northern Spur, Paseana, Tight Spot, and legend of legends, two-time Horse of the Year John Henry.