Michael Matz      Birthdate: Jan. 23, 1951      Birthplace: Redding, Pa.      Residence: Unionville, Pa.      Family: wife, Dorothy (D.D.); daughters, Michelle and Lucy;      sons Michael Jr., Robert and Arthur

2008 Gulfstream Record

• Earned world renown for his steadfast guidance of Barbaro through a schedule that parlayed Holy Bull Stakes and Florida Derby victories into a dominating 2006 Kentucky Derby triumph. When Barbaro was injured in the Preakness, Matz remained close to his star throughout the rest of his life at the New Bolton Equine Hospital in Pennsylvania
• Matz would return to Churchill Downs that November to win the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic with Round Pond
• That filly would finish fourth in the Rampart Handicap in her only 2007 Gulfstream appearance 
• Matz narrowly missed in his attempt to win two straight Florida Derbys with Chelokee finishing third in 2007 behind Scat Daddy. Chelokee would go on to win two stakes that summer including, appropriately, Pimlico’s Barbaro Stakes on the Preakness undercard 
• He would guide leading sophomores Visionaire and Ready Set to major victories in 2008, with the former winning the King’s Bishop and the Gotham in New York and the latter taking the West Virginia Derby after finishing 10th in the Fountain of Youth Stakes
• Before moving into thoroughbred training he was a Hall of Fame equestrian, competing in three Olympic Games and helping guide the U.S. team to a silver medal in 1996
• In addition to Barbaro and Round Pond, Matz also trained Kicken Kris to win the 2004 Arlington Million and won the 2006 Herecomesthebride Stakes with Aunt Henny. In 2003, Kickin Kris gave Matz his first career Grade 1 in the Secretariat Stakes
• Political Attack captured Gulfstream’s 2003 Canadian Turf Handicap …

Other stakes winners trained by Matz include Only in Philly, Inda Halo, Holy Ground, Pegasusbystorm, Batique, Lady Dora, Bowman’s Band and Saint Marden. Other: Wife is daughter of prominent breeder Helen Groves and granddaughter of Robert Kleberg, who founded Texas’ King Ranch and bred and owned Triple Crown winner Assault and 1950 Kentucky Derby winner Middleground … Earned five gold medals in jumping at the Pan American Games … Rode jumper Jet Run in 1981 World Cup ...  In 1989 he and D.D. were among 111 survivors of a plane crash in Iowa in which Matz helped lead three children to safety before returning to the wreckage to help others. Those children, now grown, were on hand for Barbaro’s Kentucky Derby win.