Gary Pimentel Passes Away

Gary Pimentel, the longtime Thoroughbred yearling manager at Hermitage Farm, Three Chimneys Farm and Gainsborough Farm, died at his home near Knoxville, Tennessee Sept. 3 following a long illness. He was 66. Pimentel started at Hermitage as a foreman in 1977. He became yearling manager and then assistant farm manager before moving to Three Chimneys in 1984.

When Pimentel joined Three Chimneys, owner Robert Clay and farm manager Dan Rosenberg were just getting into the sales consignment business. By the time he left in 1999, Three Chimneys was perennially one of the top five consignors at Keeneland.

“Gary was a key member of the Three Chimneys team as yearling manager in our formative years,” recalled Clay. “He was a true professional, whose loyalty, dedication, horsemanship, and good wit, made all of our lives richer for having known him. We have lost a great friend.”

Dan Rosenberg remembered, “Gary was a consummate horseman, but even more importantly he was a teacher and mentor. The lessons came at the horse barn and the soccer field, and frequently delivered with a laugh, but were life lessons. Anyone who knew Gary will carry a bit of him through the rest of their life, and very likely pass along a bit of Gary to the lives they touch. Gary was that kind of person.”

Pimentel left Three Chimneys to become the yearling manager for Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum’s Gainsborough Farm. In 2004, he returned to his native Bermuda to operate a landscaping business with his brother. He and wife Caron moved back to the U.S. after the death of his mother about eight years later.

In addition to his wife, Pimentel is survived by two sons, Fred and McClain; a daughter, Patricia; and numerous other loving relatives. The family will receive friends from 6-7 p.m. Sept. 10 at Woodlawn Christian Church in Knoxville, followed by the funeral service at 7 p.m. Interment will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 12 at Bluegrass Memorial Gardens on Harrodsburg Road in Nicholasville, KY. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Young Life Knoxville Camp Scholarships.