Bob Lewis - all class

[shanahan]

Let me be first to start the thread on a class guy who had a great life - doubt there are any regrets.  Gracious to a fault, he loved racing and did everything he could to enhance the sport...this is the guy who\'ll be missed, Mr. Gill.

[Uncle Buck]

He was indeed a loyal, gracious man. I came to the game in 1985 when he had Serena\'s Song. I also remember betting Hennessy heavy in the BC Juvi with Donna Barton up. Good memories.

I also think he stood by P Val and gave him a job at his brewery when PV was struggling to make ends meet

[Silver Charm]

Just caught up with the news during dinner and it was tough to swallow. Three owners, Robert Lewis, Roy Chapman, and Mr. Fustok of Buckram Oak pass on in less than a weeek. These gents were classy and passionate about the sport of horse racing and the same way about life in general from what you hear.  

Horses can come and go and the game will still move on. But who replaces these kinds of owners.

Frank Stronach???  

Mr Fustok never quite had the luck of a Bob Lewis or the kind of run Roy Chapman had but you never got the feeling if you were lucky enough to be standing anywhere near him, he loved it any less.

Bob Lewis was a person who when people would say, \"He was one of the nicest people I ever met\", it was a complete understatement. Not only did he almost win Two Triple Crowns with Silver Charm and Charasmatic but should have won a Third with Point Given. Three Triple Crowns. Think about it.

Roy Chapman absolutely caught lightening in a bottle and America rode the wave with him. They always eventually wash out and sometimes as all fans found out the landing can be hard. Silver Charm was on bit of roll that Belmont Week and this one deserves to go back, not just as tribute to Roy Chapman but as tribute to all three. May their souls rest in peace.......


Re: Chump Change.
Posted by: Silver Charm (IP Logged)
Date: June 3, 2004 01:09PM


Excellent post Mall.

When I read the brief Bloodhorse account of Smarty going to the Track this morning at 6:00AM they made mention that Roy Chapman was there, in his wheelchair, at the backstetch entrance to the main track. One truly has to wonder what is going thru his mind at this point in time. A guy lives for almost 90 years and thinks he has seen it all and then the man upstairs says \"You haven\'t seen nothin yet.\"

Roy Chapman will probably not live long enough to see if the Smarty syndication was a profitable deal or not. If Smarty was a great stallion, good one, or a total bust. Roy Chapman knows he has caught the Ultimate Rogue Wave and as far as he is concerned he is going to ride this one for as long as he can go because in his mind, at his age, HE KNOWS there won\'t be another.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Very kind words Silver.

I\'m reminded of Ken Burn\'s film \"The Civil War\". There was a touching line in it about life laid down in fulfillment:

\"Who would not go, as they have gone, dead for their country\'s life and lighted to burial by the meteor splendors of their native skies.\" Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

We even rode the fringes of that wave with them, albeit vicariously.

[HP]

Silver,

It\'s ironic that I can address you here as \"silver.\"  I wouldn\'t rush to put Mahmoud Fustok on the same plane as Bob Lewis!  You can read a book named \"Beyond Greed\" by Stephen Fay to get a glimpse of just what kind of a guy Fustok was on his bad days.  The book is in part about Fustok\'s role in a conspiracy to corner the silver market with the Hunt Bros. in the 1970\'s.  I worked on one of the lawsuits that came out of this episode.  Discretion will prevent me from revealing everything I know about this, but the book does a very good job of illustrating what total sleazeballs these guys really were...  Fustok and his pals the Hunts would\'ve been perfectly happy if it cost you $100 to get an X-Ray as they drove the price of silver over $60 an ounce...  

It\'s a great read...  \'nuff said.  

HP