R.I.P Uncle Bill

[TGJB]

We’re sorry to pass on the news that unforgettable one of a kind character, great all around guy, and Thoro-Graph legend Bill Spillane passed away yesterday. He will be sorely missed, in Saratoga and elsewhere.

[Sean D]

So sorry to hear that.
Enjoyed our time in Saratoga with Uncle Bill.  Always helpful and made sure we always had something to eat. His knowledge of horses was quite good and he was very insightful checking the feet and condition of horses as they walked to the paddock. Always in search of that undervalued horse at long odds.

First Alan and now Bill - sucks

[johnnym]

Ahh shit
God bless R.I.P Uncle Bill

[shanahan]

My experiences with Uncle Bill were all the same - he was soft spoken...but when he spoke, you\'d better be listening.  Most of you \"backsiders\" and \"FOY\" attendess over the last decade always spoke highly of this man.  May the Lord embrace him, provide strength to his family & friends, and give him a warm bacon sandwich as he enters the gates.  Like Alan, a genuine guy. RIP.

[Roman]

Never met the gentleman, just the kind words read about him. Sucks to lose a friend. Prayers for him and all who grieve his passing.

[Kasept]

Very sad news.. He was a gem. Spent countless days at the Barbecue with him and learned a lot. Bill. And Alan. And Julian. We all need to bet some 30-1 shots this weekend in their honor.

[Fairmount1]

A journalism professor once taught me that making connections between the people, the places, the events, and the times around us provide the most meaning to our lives and help us understand the world.  Further, we mark our lives by the moments that impacted us the most as they connect to other meaningful events in our lives.  
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In the summer of 2016, I hit a trifecta box meeting Uncle Bill, richiebee, and TGAB (Alan) in the backyard at Saratoga.  While I was not as close to these guys as many others in these parts, I certainly felt they had a profound impact on my life.  They are all gone now and I\'m trying to connect the dots today.    

Uncle Bill taught me ways to actually be kind to people and to take the chip off my shoulder about being competitive in every single aspect of life.  I saw him in the backyard share jokes with young and old, men and women, and all walks of life.  He had a knack for connecting with others including the horses at the race track.  

My phone indicates the last time I spoke to Bill was Fountain of Youth Weekend.  That Saturday he drove towards Gulfstream to meet me and spend time with me.  I told him once he arrived to call and I\'d meet him in the parking lot to walk him into where I was at in the paddock.  He made it about 100 minutes of the 120 minute drive only to not feel well.  He called and said he thought he should turn around.  He did and he did make it home.  While we didn\'t connect in person, we did speak the following morning as I drove from the STL airport to my place.  Sovereignty had won the Fountain of Youth and we discussed Mott, the horse and that he had a real shot in the Derby.  I\'ll mark time by connecting Bill\'s passing with the year Sovereignty won the Derby and the Fountain of Youth when Bill didn\'t quite make it all the way to see me.  

An earlier call on my phone is dated Thursday, February 13th.  He called to tell me that his good pals associated with the Harvey Clarke Estate/Family had Gosger running Saturday.  He was in a MSW race only his 2nd start.  \"Fairmount, my boy, this horse is good enough to be a Derby horse.  He will win on Saturday and we will see where he goes from there!\"  He won that Saturday afternoon at Gulfstream as I watched via simulcast.  I felt connected to Bill when the horse passed the wire.  

My last texts with Bill were dated April 5th and April 12th.  I notified him Gosger was entered for the 12th.  April 5 reply:  \"Thanks much Fairmount.  I appreciate that.  Hope he runs well.\"  April 12 I write moments after the Lexington Stakes at Kee:  \"Congrats!! He ran very very well\"  His reply:  \"Thank you Fairmount coming from that source must\'ve run a real nice race.  Thanks again.  We will talk.\"  My reply:  \"He was loaded and looked like there was more in there.  Serious Preakness Contender.\"  

Those were the last words I shared with Uncle Bill.  When I arrive in Baltimore, I\'ll make a walk around the old plant before it is destroyed from its current state reflecting on the history of Ol Hilltop, reflecting on the connections I\'ve made in this game specifically Uncle Bill, and wondering how well Gosger will run and win or lose if it means I\'ve connected dots in the world to provide my life deeper meaning.

In a call earlier in the year, he had told me he would make it to Saratoga this summer, specifically saying that \"Fairmount, my boy, it\'s gonna happen!\"  I\'ll certainly make a pass by the place he loved to check the horses\' feet and give it an uneducated attempt of my own just to see if I can remotely understand what he was looking for in those animals.  That\'s where I met him-- in that area near the horse path out past the Fourstardave bar.  He may not make it this year but I\'ll try to carry the torch and be kind to someone in a way that would make him proud.  I\'d anticipate I\'ll buy a $10 win ticket on Sovereignty and give it to someone who probably will need something to cheer for in life.    

This one hurts.  I didn\'t see it coming and was looking forward to talking to him before or during my Preakness sojourn.  If Gosger wins the Preakness, I\'ll mark time once again.

The amount that trifecta box of Uncle Bill, richiebee, and Alan has paid is untold riches.  Amounts that would make Amenhotep blush.  I\'ll never be able to spend all I won from that big strike in August of 2016.  

R.I.P. Bill

______________________

I may write more about Bill in the coming days but wanted to get this out after learning about his passing earlier today.

[trackjohn]

Richie:
Agree with you .. this one hurts deeply and I didn\'t see it coming as well... Bill was a wealth of knowledge... I really enjoyed the conversations with him at the FOY (specifically the next day over breakfast when he asked me \"who is the sire responsible for the breeding success of Japan.  I replied Sunday Silence of course!).. that resulted in a 90 minute conversation regarding breeding, \'turf foot\' (flat obviously like pie plates!,, etc ..

He will be missed ..

John (Trackjohn)

[adelphi]

That’s beautiful Richie. God bless Uncle Bill.  All of us T-generates from the Toga backyard crew will miss him greatly.

[Silver Charm]

Good Man. Sad Day. Racing Lost a great historian

[johnnym]

Well done Richie.

[Yagodaaron]

So sorry to hear. He was a great guy, storyteller, and a true racetrack character. Condolences to his family and his Thorograph family.

[JohnTChance]

Bill Spillane - known as “Billy the Sheets” in my circles - was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I first met him around 1985, the year Spend a Buck won the Derby, just as I was starting to use ThoroGraph. That’s forty years ago! Time really does fly.

Back then, I wasn’t much of a gambler. My interest in horse racing began while making a film about Monmouth Park’s leading trainer, JJ Crupi, for PBS. Monmouth had a unique appeal, so I started taking the train from Penn Station to the Jersey Shore, picking up ThoroGraph booklets from Jerry Brown’s office in lower Manhattan beforehand. At Monmouth, a tip to an usher secured a prime box seat. When I asked about the ThoroGraph representative, that’s how I met Bill. The first thing he said to me was, “Are you a pro?” Haha.

Over the next decade or so, Bill and I became racetrack friends. Our box, and the boxes surrounding ours, became a gathering spot for handicappers, trainers, owners, Monmouth officials, and assorted characters and crazies. If you were anybody at Monmouth, you came by those boxes. Every day was an education.

For several years, when he had a car, Bill offered to drive me to the track. I’d take the train from Manhattan to Newark, meet him there, and he’d drive us the rest of the way. After the races, he’d insist on dropping me off at my Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan, never accepting my offer to save him the traffic and tunnel hassles and let me off in Newark.

Before ThoroGraph, Bill worked as a hot walker for a New Jersey trainer. He wasn’t from a privileged background and didn’t have much money. Then one day, he told me he was expecting a big money settlement. The previous winter, while working at Gulfstream Park, Bill had been in a serious car accident. With support from star trainers Shug McGaughey and Tommy Skiffington, he won his case.

After that, a change came over Bill. In our train rides down to Monmouth, instead of diving into the Daily Racing Form and ThoroGraph sheets as usual to handicap the card, Bill suddenly started reading The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily! He fashioned himself some kind of Wall Street player! A big-wheel investor! It reminded me of that Honeymooners episode where Ralph Kramden inherits a parrot named Fortune. “Billy The Sheets” the business mogul!

He asked me for investment advice, and I suggested blue-chip stocks - choices that would be worth millions today. But Bill had other ideas: baseball cards and maybe buying a horse. Sigh. I never found out what he did with his settlement, or if he indeed received the full amount.

Finally, I have many memories of Bill at Monmouth, but one stands out: Haskell Day, the track’s biggest day. The place was packed, top horses were running, and therefore Bill’s ThoroGraph booklets sold out fast. Bill even gave his own copy to a customer. Later, Bill Finley, the New York Post racing writer, came looking for a booklet. With none left, he and his brother looked desperate, like addicts waiting for a fix that’s been denied. Ultimately, Bill Spillane borrowed a copy for them, and we watched as Finley shouted out numbers while his brother frantically scribbled them onto napkins. Two grown men, in jackets and ties, on the floor of our box, on their hands and knees, sweating and anxious over ThoroGraph racing data - it was an astonishing sight to behold. As John Lennon once said: “You shoulda been there!”

Rest in peace, Bill.

[Roman]

Wonderful story. Is there somewhere someone can watch the PBS doc?

[shanahan]

Nice.  You and Fairmount have a great way of writing.  Thx for sharing.