Ohio Breeder/Owner Pat Buse Jr. Dies

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Raymond L. “Pat” Buse Jr., an Ohio breeder/owner and a past president of the Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners, died March 3 at his Cincinnati home. A Cincinnati native, he was 85.

Buse, who was an original shareholder of Fasig-Tipton Co. and a board member for 15 years, owned Meadow Springs Farm near Pleasant Plain east of Cincinnati. Buse was the breeder and/or owner of several stakes winners, including Ohio champion Round Bottom.

Round Bottom, a homebred, was named 1972 champion 3-year-old filly after winning two stakes and placing in three others. She also was a stakes winner at 4. Last year, Buse’s homebred Infatuation won the Samuel Handicap at Beulah Park.

Buse and his brother, Barry, followed their father in the whiskey business. The brothers bought Old Boone Distillery near Louisville and promoted such brands as Distiller’s Pride, Meadow Springs, and Virgin Bourbon.

The Buses were part owners of the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals during the time the Reds won the World Series twice and the Bengals appeared in two Super Bowls.

A traditionalist, Buse was against the renaming of the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). “Sponsorship of races makes sense if we approach it properly,” he told The Blood-Horse. “But the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands? I would not do that, and I don’t care what someone paid me. The Kentucky Derby is the Kentucky Derby. You can have the Yum! Brands Stakes or the Kentucky Fried Chicken Stakes, but to take the name like the Kentucky Derby, and bastardize it, was in my mind, wrong.”

Buse’s survivors include Raymond “Buz” III and daughters Barbara and Jane.
   
 
 

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