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Photo Credit: Jim McCue/MJC
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BALTIMORE, 05-28-08---The Maryland racing community lost one of its most colorful characters earlier this week when former Maryland Jockey Club handicapper Clem Florio passed away Sunday night due to cancer. He was 78.
Florio spent nearly 40 years in the Maryland thoroughbred-racing press boxes, including eight producing morning line odds at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park (1993 through 2001). He had two lengthy stints as a turf writer for the Baltimore News-American (1965-78) and Washington Post (1978-87).
“Clem had the heart of Secretariat, the moxie of Affirmed, the pep of War Admiral, the magnetism of Citation,” said longtime friend and colleague Vinnie Perrone. “And he could sing better than any of them.”
According to www.boxrec.com, Florio compiled an 8-6 record as a middleweight fighter from 1950 to 1964.
-MJC-