Tom Wolski, the face of horse racing in B.C., dies during visit to Florida

Tom Wolski, the longtime face of horse racing in British Columbia, has died after suffering a heart attack while travelling to visitfamily in Florida, according to friends and colleagues.

He was believed to be in his late 70s.

Wolski,who spent more than three decades racing and riding horses, was one of the best known jockeys in the province, with at least 500 wins to his name.

He started riding as a teenager and moved to Vancouver in the early 1970s to pursue the sport. He went on to makefrequent appearances at the Hastings Park Racecourse over the decades.

"Everybody knew him," said his colleague Greg Douglas, media relations with Hastings Park Racecourse."He was a real character."

"I can't think of a person who is more popular and more respected in the sport than Tommy Wolski. He loved the sport and the sport loved him."

After Wolski's retirement from the sport, he turned to the media industry after his retirement and ran his own TV and radio shows, as well as writing a racing column in The Province for many years.

As well as winning awards for his journalism, he was inducted into both the B.C. Horse Racing Hall of Fame and the Canadian Thoroughbred Society Hall of Fame.

He was well loved and known in the community outside of racing, says former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal, who was a longtime friend.

"He was one of the people that you immediately liked," said Oppal.

"He was a very thoughtful, caring person and he had a large profile around town."

Wolski would always stop to chat with anyone, Oppal said, and was known for makingfriends with anybody and everyone from children in the neighbourhood to high-profile athletes and celebrities like Pat Quinn,Gordie Howe, John Candy and Gene Kiniski, as his many photos on Facebook attest.

"His loss is a big one for our community," said Oppal.

Wolski, a dual American-Canadian citizen, was born in Massachusetts but exactly when is not clear to his friends.

"He always concealed his age, he never would tell anybody," Douglas said.

"The records don't show his date of birth but we suspect he was in his late 70s."

Wolski was en route to visiting his sister and cousin in Florida when he became ill on the flight, according to Douglas. He went straight to the hospital after landing and was diagnosed with a heart attack.

Douglas said he underwent surgery and died in hospital in Naples, Fla., on Monday morning.