Tournament player Wagner dies

Accomplished tournament player Bryan Wagner died Sunday in Atlanta at the age 75. His wife, contest player and regulator Judy Wagner, was at his side at the time of his death.

Bryan Wagner won the 2009 National Handicapping Championship Tour, as it was then known, and was a 12-time qualifier to the National Horseplayers Championship. In those 12 appearances, he racked up $101,110 in earnings. His presence at the NHC dates back to the event’s inception in 1999. Wagner was ineligible to qualify for two years because Judy was on the National Thoroughbred Racing Association board of directors.

Wagner was born March 2, 1943, in New Orleans, to Wiltz Wagner, manager of Municipal Auditorium and president of a bakery supply firm, and Helen Wagner, an English professor at the University of New Orleans. He attended Tulane University.

Wagner was a politician and political operative. He was a member of the New Orleans City Council from 1980-86 and the council’s first elected Republican in more than 100 years. He also owned and operated an insurance company in New Orleans and was a minority shareholder in the New Orleans Saints in the 1980s.

In addition to Judy he is survived by three children – Leslie, Bryan Eustis, and Amanda – six grandchildren, and a brother, Wiltz Wagner Jr.

Visitation (2 p.m.) and services (3 p.m.) are scheduled for Monday at Christ Church Cathedral Episcopal in New Orleans.