BOBBY FRANKEL REMEMBERED
NOVEMBER 16, 2009
“We at Juddmonte today mourn the loss of our friend
and great trainer, Bobby Frankel. The term great may be used loosely in modern
society, but his record and accomplishments are humbling to even the most highly
esteemed leaders of our sport. To use a racetrack phrase, Bobby went to the
front and was never headed. He could never, ever have been termed a follower, but good
people followed him and we were privileged to be in in their midst. We will
retain great memories of him, of great horses he trained for us and of great
races he won for us.
“And we will always remember him for what he was: a
great trainer.”
—Juddmonte Farms
release
“Bobby was a great guy. He did a lot of things
behind the scenes that people don’t know. He was very generous, very good to his
help. He was great to ride for. He never told you how to ride. He had confidence
in you. When he gave you a leg up, he felt you should know your business.
He was
a great handicapper. He knew where to put his horses. He wasn’t a good people
person when he was plying his trade. If you didn’t know him, he could be a jerk.
You had to know him off the track. He was very gracious, but he wouldn’t let
everybody know that. On the track he was tough. He wanted to achieve his goals.”
—Hall of Fame jockey
Eddie Delahoussaye
“He proved you don’t have to grow up on a farm or
be somebody’s kid to make it. Trainers come and go, but here’s a guy who won at
the highest level decade after decade. And as a horseman. a trainer, and a human
being, he was so caring about horses, and his help. There’s never going to be
another Bobby Frankel.”
—trainer Chad Brown,
who worked for Frankel for two years in California
“This man was unbelievable, He had a heart as big
as they get. A good man. Very good to his help. No one left. We were very good
friends. He changed the game when he came (to Southern California) from New
York. He’d claim a horse for $20,000 and run him for $8,000. He had everyone
confused. They didn’t know what he was doing.”
—trainer Julio Canani,
who introduced Frankel at his Hall of Fame induction in 1995
“This is very bad news for racing. He is one of the
greatest. I put him up there with Charlie Whittingham. He showed it with
claimers and stakes horses. I appreciate everything he did for me. He put me on
special horses. We won a lot of races together.”
—Hall of Fame jockey
Laffit Pincay Jr., who guided the Frankel-trained Aptitude to victory in the
2001 Hollywood Gold Cup (G1)
“He was a tremendous horseman, his horses always
looked well, and he was a great caretaker. In some ways, he developed the trend
of giving horses more time between races. He was very passionate about horses
and passionate about racing.”
—trainer Todd Pletcher
“He was an excellent horseman with an impeccable
record. He was great to his horses and great to his help. He went from the
bottom rung of racing all the way to the top, which is a mark not only of him as
a horseman, but as a person. He will be sadly missed.”
—Hall of Fame
conditioner Shug McGaughey
“He was a great horseman and was unique in his
training. He trained his horses one morning at a time and he wasn’t afraid to
change things midstream, the same morning even, and it worked. His horses looked
wonderful on the racetrack. They were nice horses to start, of course, but they
sure always looked the part. I always kept an eye on what he did.”
—trainer Al Stall Jr.,
who was stabled near Frankel at Saratoga
“He was really sharp and sometimes he’d let you
believe that he wasn’t paying attention, but he always knew what you were doing.
He was generous with people that needed help. He could be gruff, but he
had a soft side, too.”
—Pam Fitzgerald, an
assistant to Stall, who worked for Frankel in the mid-1990s
“Bobby was a great horseman and a fierce competitor. His passion
for Thoroughbred racing will be sorely missed.”
—P.J. Campo, Vice
President and Director of Racing for the New York Racing Association (NYRA)
“Bobby Frankel was a winner at every level he
competed, including in the Breeders’ Cup, where his six career wins are part of
his wonderful legacy as one of the true greats of our game. We extend our
deepest sympathies to Bobby’s family and his many friends.”
—Greg Avioli, Breeders’
Cup President and CEO