FORT WORTH, Texas -- Bobby Frankel, who enjoyed the most lucrative victory of his career at Lone Star Park and who ranked indisputably among the greatest trainers in horse racing history, died Monday at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Having battled lymphoma for months, Frankel died at age 68.
As a young man, Frankel let his interest in the sport take him to the stable area of New York racetracks, where he began working on the bottom rung of the labor ladder.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1941, Frankel started training horses in 1966, when he won only five races from 21 starters, who earned a total of $18,659.
He soon became one of New York's more successful trainers, but he first enjoyed most of his success with horses racing at sport's lower levels of competition. In 1972, he moved to California and soon transformed his stable into one of the most powerful in the country.
Over the past 35 years, Frankel trained many of the sports brightest stars, including Empire Maker, Bertrando, Medaglia d'Oro, Marquetry, Chester House, Skimming, Aptitude, Lido Palace, Aldebaran, Peace Rules, Milwaukee Brew, Champs Elysees, Ginger Punch and Ventura.
In 1999 at Lone Star, Frankel won the Dallas Turf Cup with Martiniquais. Two years later, Frankel won his second Dallas Turf Cup, this time with El Gran Papa. And just last year Frankel won the Lone Star Park Handicap with Giant Gizmo.
But the biggest, or at least the richest, victory of Frankel's career was the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Lone Star Park, where Ghostzapper led throughout to set a stakes and track record. Named 2004's Horse of the Year, Ghostzapper also won the Vosburgh, Iselin, Tom Fool and Woodward Stakes.
Frankel campaigned 10 champions in his career, won five Eclipse Awards as the nation's outstanding trainer and won 28 races with a purse of $1 million or more. The Hall of Famer won 3,654 races and is the all-time leader at both Santa Anita and Hollywood Park. His stable earned $227,947,775, second all-time only to D. Wayne Lukas' $253.67 million.
On Oct. 18, Frankel won his final stakes race, the Top Secret at Belmont Park, with a horse named Turn Away.
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