Clem Florio

Name: Clem Florio
Alias: Ozone Park Assassin
Hometown: Ozone Park, New York, USA
Birthplace: Queens, New York, USA
Died: 2008-05-25 (Age:78)
Pro Boxer: Record

Obituaries

Clem Florio, a retired Turf writer and handicapper, died of pancreatic cancer May 25 in Hollywood, Fla. He was 78.

Florio wrote for the Miami News before signing on with the Baltimore News American in 1969. He also served as a handicapper for the Washington Post and as an odds maker at Pimlico and Laurel.

Born in Queens, N.Y., and raised near Aqueduct, Florio quit school as a teenager and became a boxer. Switching professions later on, he worked as a groom for James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons when the future Hall of Famer had the great Nashua in his barn. Florio handled Nashua in the early stages of the colt’s 2-year-old season. Nashua also became a Hall of Famer.

As a Maryland racing writer, Florio became a part of the Secretariat legend. While sitting in the Aqueduct press box and seeing Secretariat win in his second start, Florio loudly declared that he had just seen next year’s Kentucky Derby winner. Secretariat not only went on to win the 1973 Run for the Roses but become the first Triple Crown winner since Citation in 1948.

Florio’s survivors include a son and three daughters.

by Dave McKenna May 27th, 2008

I was told on Monday that Clem Florio is dead.

He was 78 and had pancreatic cancer. Clem was a longtime horse racing handicapper, at the Washington Post and at Pimlico and Laurel Park.

He was also a legend. There’s no way to do him justice in a blog post, or a book or a mini-series.

One small part of that legend: He was cited long ago in Sports Illustrated for making a scene in the Aqueduct press box in July 1972 because he wanted everybody to know that the two-year-old colt that just finished fourth in his maiden race was going to win the next year’s Kentucky Derby.

Two weeks later, after that same colt won in just his second start, Florio made an even bigger scene, yelling that this was the next Triple Crown winner. Again, at this point, Florio was talking about a two-year-old colt with two races, and one out-of-the-money finish.

A year later, the horse that Florio was yelling about, Secretariat, went out and made his crazy predictions come true.

I got to know Clem while I covered racing at Maryland tracks for a few years in the late 1990s.

Among the billion or so great stories he told me was one about agreeing to make a live race call of the 1973 Belmont Stakes for an Atlanta radio station. That race, a 31-length win for Secretariat to win the Triple Crown, is accepted as the greatest moment in horse racing history.

He shouldn’t have agreed to do the race call.

“So I’ve got one eye on Secretariat and one eye on the clock,” Clem told me, “and I’m giving my running commentary over the air: ‘And Secretariat with the lead, he goes around the turn in 1:09 and change…oh,boy!….He’s got the first mile in 1:30 and change…oh, that’s impossible!…oh, my!…oh…I gotta go!’ And I hung up the phone and just watched the race. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Nobody could. The station called me back and a guy says, ‘Clem, what the hell happened?’ I said, ‘Sorry, I got excited.’ That must have been great radio.”

I loved being around him. I’m not alone.

By Irwin Cohen May 28, 2008

Clem Florio, a member of the Maryland press corps for more than 40 years, died Sunday night in a Florida hospice after a battle with cancer. He was 78.

Florio last worked in racing as a radio commentator for WWLG and covered his last Preakness in 2004. He was the morning line maker for Maryland Jockey Club, serving in that capacity from 1993 to 2001. Previously he was the Maryland handicapper for The Racing Times, The Washington Post, and the Baltimore News-American.

Earlier in his life, Florio fought as a middleweight with a record of 8 wins and 6 losses.

Andrew Beyer, who worked with Florio at the Washington Post, said, "Clem was way ahead of his time in his understanding of the game in addition to being a colorful racetrack character. He understood time before speed figures became fashionable, and he was an expert at watching races before trip handicapping became fashionable. He had a deep understanding for the game, and he loved it."