A memorial ceremony and visitation will be held Saturday in Montreal for Bruno Saccomani, one of four Montreal brothers at the heart of the remarkable story of hall-of-fame trotting stallion Garland Lobell.

“He was the quiet one,” recalled Monalisa Pagliericci, whose Ecurie SOS in Bedford, Que., stood Garland Lobell nine years for the brothers.

Ricardo Saccomani, 71, said Bruno -- a “happy-go-lucky guy” known to friends as Le Grand B -- had a stroke earlier this year and never recovered. He died Wednesday, age 69.

The Saccomani brothers -– Ricardo, Bruno, Aldo and Albert –- operated a waterproofing company together for more than 30 years. But their claim to fame was ownership of Garland Lobell, who turned out to be one of harness racing’s most successful and influential sires.

They had bought the son of ABC Freight on a whim at the 1982 Liberty Bell yearling auction for $7,200.

“We liked that he was a first foal by a Speedy Crown mare,” Ricardo said.

Trained by Onil Patry, Garland Lobell was a solid racehorse, earning $345,000 and winning a heat of the 1984 Kentucky Futurity. But when the Saccomani brothers decided they also wanted to stand him at stud, they had trouble convincing breeding farms he was worthy. Eventually, Glencoe Farm took him, but he moved the next year to Ecurie SOS, which had no track record but actively pursued him.

“I kept calling them and leaving messages,” Pagliericci said. “Seven messages later, Ricardo called and said ‘you’ve been so persistent, we have to come out and see you’.”

Garland Lobell quickly proved to be the most prolific trotting stallion Quebec had ever seen. In 1994, the Saccomanis sold a half-interest to Walnut Hall Farm and the horse moved the following year to the U.S., where he remained until his death at 30 in 2011. His offspring include Cameron Hall, Andover Hall, Conway Hall, Angus Hall, 1994 Canadian horse of the year Emilie Cas El and Canland Hall. The latter horse, from Garland Lobell’s last Quebec crop, gave the Saccomani brothers their first victory in the annual championship finals for Quebec-breds, the Coupe des Eleveurs. (Garland Lobell fillies and colts won a staggering 24 Coupe finals in the 1990s).

The brothers, who bought their first horse in 1979, over the years owned more than a hundred in whole or in part, including $800,000 winner Justice Hall, now a stallion in Ontario. But Garland Lobell, inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2005, was in a class apart.

“He’s the horse you always dreamed of having,” Ricardo once said. “We were the lucky ones who did.”

Bruno Saccomani is survived by his spouse Claudette Godbout, children Manon and Jean-Francois, brothers Aldo, Ricardo and Albert, and sisters Olga and Linda.

Visitation will be Saturday starting at 2:00 p.m. at Magnus Poirier funeral home, 6825 Sherbrooke St. E., Montreal, with the memorial ceremony scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Bruno Saccomani.

(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)