Milton C. Toby, an award-winning author and attorney remembered as a Renaissance man who embraced life and never did anything halfway, died July 24 at his home in Georgetown, Ky., following a courageous battle with cancer. Toby was 73.
Tall, lanky, and a bit Lincolnesque in appearance, his wit was dry, his humor quick, and his passions intense. His interests were many, some profound, some whimsical, ranging from Star Wars, golf, Jack the Ripper, and Fiona the hippo, to travel, law, publishing, criminal justice, teaching, animals, and mysteries. Above all he loved to write—most notably about Thoroughbred racing, to the everlasting benefit of the sport.
Toby was born Oct. 26, 1949, to William and Laura Susan Toby of Campbellsville, Ky. Although raised around American Saddlebreds, Thoroughbreds became his passion. Days after graduating at 22 from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Animal Science, he accepted a sports writing job at the Aiken Standard in South Carolina. His first assignment was related to the Belmont Stakes (G1), and he was hooked.
A year later Toby joined the staff at BloodHorse magazine back in his home state, just before Secretariat’s historic 1973 Triple Crown run. The ’70s represented a golden era for racing, and Toby was there to witness it, photograph it, and write about it. For 12 years he honed his journalistic skills, and toward the end of his BloodHorse tenure he trekked west to supervise photography for the 1984 Olympic Games’ equestrian events in Los Angeles.
A Milt Toby photo captures Sunny’s Halo prevailing over Desert Wine in the 1983 Kentucky Derby
In 1986 Toby launched a freelance career that would take him around the globe and into situations not for the weak of heart. As a photojournalist, he worked while living in China, Costa Rica, and Colombia—writing for, among other publications, the famous (some might say infamous) Soldier of Fortune magazine.
Returning stateside, Toby met and married veterinarian Dr. Roberta Dwyer and by his mid-forties was looking for more worlds to conquer. He chose the legal profession, graduating in 1995 from the University of Kentucky School of Law. His subsequent practice would be wide-ranging and successful, encompassing equine law to death penalty litigation.
Beginning in 2003, Toby took his talents to the classroom, teaching at several Kentucky colleges and universities, and for a time chaired the Central Kentucky Bar Association’s equine law division. During these years, he also served as president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, advocating on behalf of freelance writers, and sat on the board of the American Horse Publications. At the University of Louisville, he served as an instructor in equine commercial law for more than a decade in its Equine Industry Program.
His insatiably curious mind eventually drew him back to writing about racing. He loved nothing more than an unsolved mystery he could sink his journalistic chops into and was especially intrigued by the juicy cold cases served up by the Sport of Kings. This is where he shined brightest. In 2011 Toby was honored with the industry’s most lucrative literary prize, the $10,000 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, for “Dancer’s Image, The Forgotten Story of the 1968 Kentucky Derby,” a meticulously researched tale of racing’s most famous doping scandal. Subsequent honors would include a 2018 Book of the Year nod from AHP for “Taking Shergar,” about the kidnapping of the 1981 Epsom Derby winner. Toby’s awards through the years were many, but the real winners were his readers.
By 2023, Toby had written hundreds of articles (including 125 stories for BloodHorse) and authored nine books. In his early 70s his skills remained in full bloom, and he continued to push himself. A month before passing, he delivered a one-hour Zoom lecture about copyright before an AHP conference. As always, Toby chose to blaze his own path throughout his life—as a lawyer, professor, photographer, world traveler, public speaker, blogger and, ultimately, as one of the horse racing industry’s best investigative reporters.
Next month, the University Press of Kentucky will publish Toby’s 10th book, “Unnatural Ability, The History of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Racing.” It is fitting that this posthumous volume comes at the end of a remarkable half-century career, as “Unnatural Ability” will stand as his magnum opus, a work of extraordinary breadth, insight, and importance to the industry he so loved.
Toby also continued to contribute to BloodHorse. When the Medina Spirit Kentucky Derby (G1) disqualification case broke, his familiarity with the Dancer’s Image case brought important perspective in a story he penned for BloodHorse magazine (July 2021, The Path Behind and Ahead). Just this year his expertise in racing’s doping and medication issues throughout its history helped shape his story on the importance of investigations to work together with drug testing as the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unite looks to enforce the sports rules (May 2023 issue, titled Targeted Testing).
Milt Toby at the 1987 Preakness Stakes
On stories like the Medina Spirit case, Toby helped with potential ideas and angles in covering the day-to-day developments in that case. He also wrote award-winning long-form stories for the BloodHorse website on Shergar, and a drug scandal involving Seabiscuit’s trainer Tom Smith.
“I’ve lost a friend and a mentor who over the years helped me get my ideas and focus together for various stories,” said BloodHorse editorial director Frank Angst. “If he didn’t know the answer to a question about background on some story, he knew where to look. Milt’s knowledge of equine law and industry regulation is second to none. Even after moving on from the publication, he loved all things BloodHorse, which gave us first crack at many of his wonderful stories. BloodHorse is forever grateful that we’ve been able to showcase some of Milt’s amazing work.”
At his side upon his passing were his wife, Roberta, Echo the Doberman, and Winston the surveillance cat. He is also survived by extended family and the many friends who loved him.
No service or visitation is scheduled, although a gathering of remembrance may be announced later. Donations in his name can be made to Bluegrass Care Navigators, Lexington.
