Hall Of Fame Superstar Trainer Bobby Frankel Dies

Hall of fame trainer Bobby Frankel, Santa Anita’s all-time leader by number of wins and a dominant force in American racing since the 1970’s, died early Monday at the age of 68, after waging a lengthy and very private battle with lymphoma.

Frankel, who was born July 9, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, passed away at his home in Pacific Palisades Monday morning at 3 a.m.

Frankel began his career as a hotwalker on the backstretches of Belmont Park and Aqueduct in mid ‘60s and took out his first trainer’s license in New York in 1996. He shifted his base of operation to Southern California full-time in 1972 and quickly established an all-time single meet win record at Hollywood Park of 60 victories – it would be the first of 30 Southern California training titles.

“Brash Bobby”, as he was known then on account of his often acerbic demeanor, built his stable and reputation with a legendary ability to claim and sell horses at seemingly the right time, every time. Frankel’s early California claims included hard-hitting geldings such as Pataha Prince, Baitman, Barometer and Lakeside Trail, all of whom ascended the class ladder and became stakes winners.

Owners such as Marion R. Frankel (no relation), Martin Ritt, Meryl Ann Tanz and Albert Sultan helped to keep his stable flush with new stock through the 1970’s.

Through the years, Frankel consistently rated Fleet Grounded, a consistent, hard-trying gelding who entered and re-entered the Frankel barn via claim several times through the ‘70s, as one of his all-time favorite trainees. A gray foal of 1968, Fleet Grounded ran from his 3-year-old year to age 11, starting 117 times, winning 25 races and compiling $209,864 in earnings.

With 917 wins, Frankel ranks first on Santa Anita’s all-time trainer’s list, directly in front of such luminaries as Charlie Whittingham and Ron McAnally. Frankel won five Santa Anita training titles, beginning in 1974-75, and again in ’76-’77, ’78-’79, ’80-’81 and 1981-’82.

Frankel ranks second all-time in Santa Anita stakes victories, with 146, behind Whittingham’s 204. Whittingham passed away in 1999.

Frankel’s stable transitioned from primarily claiming stock to grade one talent in the 1980’s, with the help of well-heeled clients such as Edmund Gann, Jerry Moss, Bert Firestone and Stavros Niarchos.

It was, however, Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms that enabled Frankel’s stable to become a truly world-class force, beginning in 1990. Juddmonte would provide Frankel with a litany of grade one winners, including Aldebaran, Aptitude, Empire Maker, Marquetry, Ryafan, Skimming, Tinners Way, Toussaud and many others.

Frankel’s career training accomplishments are by any standard, staggering. A conditioner of 10 national champions who earned 11 national titles, he also won six Breeders’ Cup events, 26 $1 million races, a Triple Crown event with Empire Maker in the 2003 Belmont Stakes and he also trained 2004 Horse of the Year, Ghostzapper.

A winner of back-to-back Santa Anita Handicaps in 2002 and ’03 with Milwaukee Brew, Frankel currently ranks second behind D. Wayne Lukas on racing’s all-time list of purse money earned by a trainer. At his passing, Frankel’s lifetime earnings stood at $227,947,755 from 3,654 victories.

Inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1995, he earned a record fourth consecutive Eclipse Award and his fifth overall, in 2003. That same year, Frankel established all-time records with $19.1 million in purse earnings and in Grade I stakes wins, with 25.

Street-smart and a tremendous handicapper of races, Frankel’s often gruff exterior belied a life-long love affair with the horses he trained. When it came to animals, he was a soft-touch—known and universally respected as an ultra-patient horsemen who always put the best interest of the Thoroughbred first.

An instinctive horseman, Frankel harbored a disdain for the regimentation of long-range plans and instead tended to plot a horse’s future on a race by race basis – with tremendous success.

For the better part of 2009, Frankel’s stable has operated under the supervision of his long-time assistant Humberto Ascanio, who was reportedly in daily contact with Frankel up until this past week. Ascanio, who was hired by Frankel in 1974, saddled the Frankel-owned Ventura to a second place finish in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 6. She won the race last year.

Though jilted at the age of 15 when his beloved Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, Frankel remained a life-long baseball fan and eventually developed a very close personal friendship with current Dodger manager Joe Torre.

Frankel is survived by his daughter Bethenny, 39, who is a nationally acclaimed actress, natural foods chef, author and physical fitness guru based in New York. She currently stars in the hit television series “Real Housewives of New York”.

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