SERVICES FOR GARY BAKER ON TUESDAY
MANALAPAN, NJ – December 8, 2008 – Services for trainer Gary Baker will be held at 12 noon on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Mount Vernon, NY.

Baker, a popular and well-respected trainer, passed away on Sunday after a long battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis [ALS], also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Baker, 60, had been residing with his two standard poodles at the home of Robin and Steven Arnold in Purchase, NY, since he became incapacitated. The Arnolds and David Scharf of New York City were like family to Baker.

"Gary was truly a special person,” said Scharf. “He was way more than a horse trainer; Gary was truly my best friend"

Baker’s introduction to racing began as a summer job in 1969, grooming horses for trainer Jerry Silverman. During three tours of duty with Silverman, he trained such horses as Computer and Camp David. He opened his own stable in the late 1970s and enjoyed considerable success as the horseman who could identify and break top young horses.

“I decided that I would rather select colts, break them and then turn them over to different people, be it for racing in Canada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania or wherever,” Baker told The Harness Edge in its June 2008 issue. Both Steven Arnold and David Scharf bought into the concept and others to join in the group were Peter Heffering, Lou Domiano and Howard Schoor.

Among the top horses to emerge from Baker’s program were six-figure stakes winners Storm Island, Castanet Hall, Monsoon Hall, Camelot Hall and Precious Delight. He was also instrumental in the selection of the colt that would become 2007 Horse of the Year, Donato Hanover.

Donato Hanover, who would win the Hambletonian among his 19 wins in 22 starts for earnings of $3 million, was purchased for $95,000 by Scharf who included Arnold in the ownership group.

“I never sat behind the horse once, but I still felt very close to him,” said Baker, who was wheelchair-bound in recent years.

“I suppose it was because I was influential in David buying him,” he said in the magazine article. “Donato wasn’t just the best horse last year, he was a special horse. It made me feel really good that those people [Scharf and Arnold] got to have a horse like that.”

There was no cure for Baker’s ALS but he involved himself with the Secure-A-Cure Golf Classic to raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s ALS research effort. The tournament is part of the Augie’s Quest project [www.augiesquest.com] with donations benefiting the ALS Division, Muscular Dystrophy Association, 3300 East Sunrise Drive, Tucson, AZ 85718-3299

The funeral will take place at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 21 West Broad Street, Mount Vernon, NY. Contact information for the funeral home: 914-664-6800 or visit www.riversidememorialchapel.com.