from harnessracing.com

Lexington, KY — Horseman Eliogio “Lee” Broglio, 90, best known for training Slapstick, Big Towner, Kala Lobell, Cunning Bunny and Dart Hanover, died early Thursday morning (June 11) at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla.

A native of New York, N.Y., Mr. Broglio got his start in harness racing in 1948 when he bought and trained his first horse. He became interested in the sport through his father, Frank, who presented his son with one of his Standardbred yearlings as a Christmas present. Young Lee learned to line drive a young horse and turned him over to Warren Dennis to train, but the horse never made it to the races. In the years before he went out on his own as a trainer he also hired Ben Steall to race and train his horses.

Mr. Broglio’s father was an immigrant from Italy, arriving at Ellis Island in 1919, and the Broglio family lived for many years in a predominantly Italian neighborhood in New York. In 1932, the depth of the Depression years, his father boldly moved the family to Manhasset, Long Island.

Music, dancing and sports were a big part of his life. He graduated from Amhurst College in Massachusetts and then was in the Army Air Corps and became a pilot. Instead of an overseas deployment, he was dispatched to Laurenburg-Maxton Air Base in North Carolina to serve as a flight instructor and remained there until V-J Day.

Although he applied to Pan Am to become a commercial airline pilot, Mr. Broglio chose to follow his father into the restaurant business. He worked with his father at Plandome Garden and then in 1946 they opened the Swan Club, where a big dance band was one of the featured attractions. After a 13-month war with unions, the Broglios sold the Swan Club.

In a book about his life written largely for the benefit of his grandchildren, titled “How I Ran The Race,” Mr. Broglio noted that when the Swan Club was sold, “I went from the restaurant business right into the horse business, another seven-day-a-week job.”

Mr. Broglio’s earliest notables included the tough-as-nails Big Towner and the free-for-all trotter Dartmouth, who won the 1971 American Trotting Championship. By the mid-1970s, he was training a stable of almost 120 horses.

In 1980, one of Mr. Broglio’s clients, Harold Schwartz, wanted to launch a public offering and founded Standardbred Trotters and Pacers Inc., which was traded on the NASDAQ. The enterprise leased a farm in Lexington, Ky., purchased 50 broodmares, and formed 16 limited partnerships with about 120 owners.

Slapstick won the 1980 Fox Stakes for Mr. Broglio; Grade One captured the 1985 Woodrow Wilson, worth $1.3 million; Kala Lobell won the 1982 Sweetheart Pace, worth $723,250; and Cunning Bunny took the 1983 New Jersey Sires Stakes final.

Since Mr. Broglio had never managed a horse farm, he hired Schare Adams. Adams, who now operates Saga Farm, worked for Standardbred Trotters & Pacers from 1980-1988.

“Working for Lee was something special,” said Adams. “He was a great horseman, but he also knew how to get along with people — employees, employers, people from all walks of life — and he knew about business too.”

With the horse business changing, and a diagnosis of prostate cancer, Mr. Broglio retired as a trainer in September 1989.

During his retirement years Mr. Broglio and his wife, Iseault, settled in West Palm Beach and became active as fundraisers for riding programs for handicapped children. For many years he played either golf or tennis virtually every day and had a weekly art lesson and painted regularly. The couple also loved to travel, especially to Ireland, Iseault’s homeland. Mr. Broglio also coached Little League baseball and soccer.

A complete list of survivors and funeral arrangements were not available at press time.