Virginia-bred Secretariat Stakes winner Gigante is the product of multiple generations of Bill and Ann Backer’s breeding operation over more than 30 years.
Part 2 of 4 of our 2016 in review, in which we take a sometimes happy, sometimes sad, and most often bemused look at the year that was in the mid-Atlantic.
Ad exec-horse breeder-conservationist Bill Backer, who died May 13, was a “renaissance man” whose legacy, friends said, will be felt for generations.
William Backer, the superstar advertising executive who was a longtime fixture in Virginia Thoroughbred breeding, has died at age 89.
The half-dozen Virginia-bred stakes run at Laurel Park Saturday could point the way to future regional cooperation, even a circuit, said participants.