Fla. trainer Pitre dies

Trainer Linda Masters Pitre, 53, died Monday after suffering a brain aneurysm at her home Saturday in Ft. Lauderdale. Ms. Pitre trained trotters and pacers and was currently racing horses at Pompano Park.

Her career started as a hobby while still a teenager, training horses for her father, Joseph Masters, over the summers in the Maine and New Hampshire circuit. It quickly became a career and her passion over more than 30 years.

While training in Windsor, Ont., Canada in 1974, she met her husband Larry Pitre, also a trainer. Besides competing at Windsor Raceway, they owned and trained horses at tracks up and down the East Coast and in the west, as well. These included the Meadowlands, Yonkers Raceway, Freehold Raceway, Pompano Park and tracks in Fredericksburg, Md., Sacramento, Calif., and British Columbia, Canada.

Then sadly in August, 2001, Larry Pitre passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Ms. Pitre is survived by her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanne Marie Pitre; her father, Joseph Masters; and one sister and two brothers.

There will be a memorial service held at St. Henry’s Catholic Church in Pompano Beach Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. and also at Pompano Park Wednesday night there will be a memorial service at 6 p.m. in the 4th floor public dining room. Later that evening the seventh race will be named in Pitre’s honor. Her daughter, Jeanne Marie, will make the blanket presentation to the winner.

In lieu of flowers, it is the wishes of the family that any donations are directed to the Jeanne-Marie Pitre College Fund set up at Wachovia Bank account #1010160627082. Any bank can assist with making donations into this special account. (Pompano Park)

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