Retired trainer George Mohr, whose role of unofficial Maryland racing historian was a product of his close proximity to Pimlico, died the second week in December at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center after breaking a hip. He was 88.
Born and raised near Pimlico, Mohr attended his first Preakness Stakes in 1924 and watched as the filly Nellie Morse scored over Luke McLuke. "I was around Pimlico every opportunity," said Mohr, who lived close to the track all his life. "My mother would let me skip school on days of major races, and many a Preakness I watched from the infield."
Mohr's first stakes winner, Royal Prince, won the 1943 Thomas K. Lynch Memorial, with potential great Stymie finishing third. Mohr's mother raced Royal Prince. Mohr also trained stakes winners The Pincher and Irish Course. A picture of Irish Course as a 2-year-old in 1968 sitting in the starting gate at Laurel won a Thoroughbred Racing Association award for photographer Jerry Frutkoff and graced the back cover of
Life magazine.
Mohr witnessed some of racing's greatest events and was a master of total recall. He was present for the 1938 Pimlico Special when Seabiscuit trounced War Admiral by four lengths.
Mohr also gave track press box manager Rich Paul an account of the roughly run 1927 Pimlico Futurity when the filly Bateau, under Earl Sande, was disqualified from third for interfering with Reigh Count, the following year's Kentucky Derby winner.
"Earl Sande was ordered off the grounds immediately by the stewards because of the flagrant foul," Paul said from Laurel.
Mohr's only survivor is a sister-in-law.
