Julio Canani, a highly successful trainer and one of the most colorful characters the Southern California racing community has ever known, died Friday at a hospital in Pasadena, Calif. He was 83. Canani had been suffering from dementia and recently contracted COVID-19, friends said. His training career effectively ended in fall 2015, when the California Horse Racing Board suspended him following allegations of financial impropriety regarding the sale of racehorses. He was denied a license when he applied for reinstatement in 2017, but he was allowed to visit the track, though his illness by then obviously had taken hold. Canani was best known nationally for winning three Breeders’ Cup races, twice in the Mile – with Val Royal and Silic – and with Sweet Catomine, whose victory in the 2004 Juvenile Fillies brought her the Eclipse Award for 2-year-old filly, marking Canani’s lone champion. In Southern California, Canani won many of the circuit’s major races, most notably the Santa Anita Handicap in 1989 with the longshot Martial Law. He won the Del Mar Derby four times, the Shoemaker Mile and Eddie Read three times, the Santa Anita Oaks and Gamely twice, and also scored victories in such significant races as the Del Mar Debutante, Del Mar Oaks, Hollywood Derby, and Yellow Ribbon. Canani was a native of Peru who emigrated to the United States as a teenager, working initially for trainer Tommy Doyle. He worked his way up the training ladder with his skill and wits, graduating from claiming horses to stakes runners, his career arc mirroring that of Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, whom Canani idolized, calling him “Presidente.” Before a steady stream of stakes runners came his way, Canani supplemented his income with additional jobs at the track, including selling carrots in the stable area and working in the media departments at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar, relaying the race results to Spanish-language radio stations. He had a devilish sense of humor and a fractured relationship with the English language, elements that were brought out in the character Turo Escalante, a trainer in the HBO series “Luck,” played by actor John Ortiz and modeled after Canani. Canani liked to wear outsized hats. He had a huge, Russian ushanka he’d use on cold mornings at Santa Anita, and he’d wear an oversized green hat to the winner’s circle on St. Patrick’s Day to be part of ceremonies for the Irish O’Brien Stakes, named for a stakes-winning turf sprinter he trained for part of her career. His malaprops were a constant source of bemusement. “What number the 2?” he cried while watching a race. He was prone to giving out nicknames to jockeys, trainers, and other racetrack habitues. One of his closest friends was the legendary clocker Jay Clark, whom Canani nicknamed “Whiskers,” owing to his beard. Relaying information that “Whiskers lovin’ the 4, though” would send press box denizens scrambling to the mutuel window to get down. Canani loved to gamble, either on horses he claimed that he thought would improve, or horses he had handicapped or seen train in the mornings. He would cheer loudly while snapping his fingers, trying to get his runners up while often imploring riders with nicknames that are not printable. “Stick with J.C. and you cash!” he would cry after a horse he touted won. But losses, painful financially, often produced equally comedic scenes. Once, after a horse ridden by Marco Castaneda on whom Canani had wagered heavily was caught in the closing yards, Canani cried out, “Marco, you destroy me.” Canani took a break from training in the mid-1990s during a divorce from his first wife, Jane, then returned and had immediate success, with his Breeders’ Cup wins all coming after he returned. In addition to Martial Law and his Breeders’ Cup winners, Canani’s top runners included Amorama, Ladies Din, Putting, Silent Sighs, Silver Circus, Special Ring, Tranquility Lake, and Tuzla. Canani also trained Patchy Groundfog, the horse Bill Shoemaker rode in his career finale in February 1990. Canani’s last starter came in fall 2015. He subsequently was suspended for 13 months, and when he applied for reinstatement with the CHRB he was denied. Canani is credited with 1,137 victories since 1972, with his runners earning more than $49 million. Canani is survived by a son, Nick, who has trained infrequently in recent years and is currently based at Parx Racing, and a daughter, Lisa, both from his first marriage, two other children, two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. In lieu of flowers, his family requests donations be made to the Gregson Foundation. Funeral services are pending.