Tommy Wolski, the longtime face of horse racing in B.C., dies in Florida
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 03:06:14 +0000
B.C. horse-racing figure Tom Wolski died in Florida on Monday after having a massive heart attack. He is believed to have been in his late 70s.
“Tommy didn’t have a mean bone in his body,” said former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal, who was a longtime friend. “He was a guy everybody instantly loved because of his effervescent personality. We spent a lot of time together at Puccini’s Italian Restaurant on Main Street back in the day when it was a meeting place for media and sports personalities. Everyone gravitated to him.”
That’s the theme that runs through the hundreds of photos Wolski posted on his Facebook account. He knew people, and they liked him.
He is seen front-and-centre with Gordie Howe, John Candy (Wolski did some acting), Gene Kiniski, Oppal, Neil Macrae, Pat Quinn and the B.C. Lions, among other well-known characters.
Tom Wolski, centre, with Gene Kiniski, left, and Gordie Howe.
Tom Wolski, right, with Pat Quinn.
But it’s photos with old jockeys, trainers and horses that also stand out.
Tom Wolski, far right, with other jockeys in Cloverdale in the 1980s.
Wolski was born in Boston and parlayed his accented “horse” into “hoss” for his Hoss Talk column that ran in The Province from 1995 to 2015.
Longtime friend and media colleague Greg Douglas said Wolski saw his first race at age 10 at Sussex Downs in Massachusetts and went on to become a hot walker and groom before getting a break in what is a notoriously tough industry for riders. He came second in his first race at Lincoln Downs in Rhode Island, eventually capturing over 500 wins across North America. He was a main attraction at the Hastings Park Racecourse in Vancouver during the 1970s and ’80s.
Douglas said Wolski was very outgoing, but also private when it came to his personal life. No one really knew his age, and he never talked about his Playboy-model wife during his riding heyday in California.
May 19 1990. Tommy Wolski visits one of his favorite winning horses, Jo Jo’s Princess, in stall.
After retiring, Wolski used his personality and good nature to embark on a media career in print, radio and TV. He was still working when he went down to Florida earlier this month to visit family. Wolski was in a medically induced coma after a heart attack and subsequent bypass surgery but died Monday morning in Naples, Fla.
His last Facebook post was on Jan. 9, 2020, stating: “Gone fishing. Catch you later.”
Wolski was inducted into the B.C. Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Canadian Thoroughbred Society Hall of Fame in 2016.
Plans are being made for a celebration of life once the 2020 thoroughbred season gets underway in April at Hastings.