Robert Julian Frankel (July 9, 1941 – November 16, 2009) was an American

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

race horse ''Race Horse'' was an 1850 clipper barque. She set a record of 109 days from New York to San Francisco during the first Clipper Race around the Horn. Construction ''Race Horse'' was similar to a barque built by Samuel Hall a few years earlier, ...

trainer whom

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called "one of the most successful and respected trainers in the history of thoroughbred racing."Privman, Jay
"Robert Frankel Dies At 68"

, November 20, 2009. He was inducted into the

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred horse racing, Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and Horse trainer, trainers. In 1955, the museum ...

in 1995, and was a five-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer. Often referred to as "Bobby" by others, he preferred and always used "Robert". Frankel set the single-season world record for most Grade/Group I victories in 2003 with 25 Grade I wins, a record that stood until it was beaten by

Aidan O'Brien Aidan Patrick O'Brien (born 16 October 1969 in County Wexford, Ireland) Aidan O'Brien bio NTRA. ...

in 2017.

Early life and education

Frankel was born July 9, 1941, to a

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

family in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

,Bloodhorse: "Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel Dies at 68" by Steve Haskin
''

The Blood-Horse ''The Blood-Horse'' (also referred to simply as ''Blood-Horse'' and displayed on its nameplate in upright all-capital letters without hyphenation as BLOODHORSE) is a news magazine that originated in 1916 as a monthly bulletin of the Thoroughbred ...

'', November 18, 2009. the son of Merrill and Gertrude Frankel. His parents were in the catering business. His interest in horses was piqued when his parents took him to

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a thoroughbred racing, thoroughbred horse racetrack in Elmont, New York, just east of New York City limits best known for hosting the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the American Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United Stat ...

as a child. After high school, he enrolled at C.W. Post College on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

but soon quit after getting into a fight. Thereafter, he worked construction by day and gambled at the tracks by night, eventually volunteering as a hot walker so he could get a free pass to the evening races.

Career

Early in his career in 1960s

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Frankel assisted the prominent trainer Buddy Jacobson. On his own, Frankel saddled his first winner late in 1966 before struggling somewhat in 1967, when he won with just 9 of 101 starters. During 1968 however, he won 36 of 165 outings with his horses accumulating $167,000 in

purse money Prize money refers in particular to naval prize money, usually arising in naval warfare, but also in other circumstances. It was a monetary reward paid in accordance with the prize law of a belligerent state to the crew of a ship belonging to t ...

. In the next few years, he continued to prosper in New York and during the winter of 1970–71, he enjoyed some success at the West Coast meeting at Santa Anita. After moving permanently to California in 1972, Frankel scored a series of wins that brought him to the attention of the horse-betting world, winning a record 60 races at Hollywood Park. Many of those victories came with runners he acquired as low-cost claimers for one of his owners like Edmund Gann, with whom he had a 30-year working relationship. These horses typically showed dramatic improvement under his care, sometimes winning their next start against higher-priced claiming levels. Frankel was an avid follower of the training techniques of Charlie Whittingham, trainer of champions such as

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...

and

Sunday Silence Sunday Silence (March 25, 1986 – August 19, 2002) was an United States, American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and Horse breeding#Terminology, sire. In 1989, he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes but failed to complete the Triple Cr ...

. Frankel won several

Eclipse Awards The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division. The trophy is made by a few small selected Am ...

, the year-end thoroughbred racing awards, for best trainer. He set earnings records, Grade I stakes victory records, and many others. Frankel also won the

Pacific Classic Stakes The Pacific Classic Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually August or September at the Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. This Grade I race is open to horses, age three and up, which race one and one-quarter miles on the ...

a record six times, including four times in a row, also a record. Some of his best race horses include: Squirtle Squirt, his first

Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Graded stakes race, Grade I Thoroughbred racing, Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was ...

winner; Skimming, two-time winner of the Grade 1

; Sightseek, winner of the Humana Distaff Handicap (Gr. I) and

Ogden Phipps Handicap The Ogden Phipps Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares, four years of age and older run over a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt track held annually in mid June at Belmont Park in Elmont, N ...

(Gr. I); triple Grade I winner Empire Maker, winner of the

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Graded stakes race, Grade I stakes Thoroughbred racing, race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over the worldwide classic distance of . Colt (horseracing), Colt ...

(Gr. I); multiple Grade I winning

Peace Rules Peace Rules (bred and foaled in Florida at Newchance Farm on April 26, 2000), is a multiple Grade I-winning American Thoroughbred race horse. By Jules, a "black type" winner and classic sire in Brazil, Peace Rules' grandsire was Forty Niner, a ...

; two-time

Santa Anita Handicap The Santa Anita Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in early March at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. It is a Grade I race for horses four years old and up and was once considered the most important race for old ...

(Gr. I) winner Milwaukee Brew;

Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf The Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf is a Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race on turf for fillies and mares, three years old and up. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championsh ...

(Gr. I) winner Starine, whom he also owned; and

Ghostzapper Ghostzapper (foaled April 6, 2000) is a Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2004, outdistancing Roses in May by three lengths in a track record time of 1:59.02. His gate-to-wire Classic victory completed a 4-for-4 season, ...

, the

Breeders' Cup Classic The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-olds and older run at a distance of on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States as part of the Breeders' Cup World Champion ...

(Gr. I) winner who was voted the 2004

Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year The American Award for Horse of the Year, or simply Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body to san ...

. Frankel was the U.S. Champion Trainer by earnings in 2002 and 2003. On June 26, 2005, Wild Desert, owned by several businesspeople including former

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

manager

Joe Torre Joseph Paul Torre Jr. (; born July 18, 1940) is an American professional baseball Senior management, executive and former player, Manager (baseball), manager, and television color commentator. He has served as a special assistant to the Commiss ...

, gave Frankel his first victory in the $1 million

Queen's Plate The King's Plate (known as the Queen's Plate from 1860 to 1901 and 1952 to 2022) is Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race and the oldest continuously run race in North America, having been founded in 1860. It is run at a distance of for a ma ...

, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at

Woodbine Racetrack Woodbine Racetrack is a race track for Thoroughbred horse racing in the Etobicoke area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Woodbine Entertainment Group, Woodbine Racetrack manages and hosts Canada's most famous race, the King's Plate. The track ...

Personal life and death

Frankel was married twice. His first wife was Bernadette Birk (1950-2024)McNeil, Liz
"Bethenny Frankel: Love Saved My Life"
''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''Peopl ...

'', July 19, 2010. Frankel, Bethenny
''A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life''
Birk was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

of Welsh descent who converted to

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

when they married.Video Interview on BravoTV: "After Show: All About Baby – Part V: Bethenny talks about her religious background and the most important thing Baby Bryn has taught her"
Bravo TV. Retrieved July 4, 2012. "My father was Jewish. The story goes – because you know I am not that close to my family, I am not there for the real history lessons – He married my mother and she converted to Judaism for him. She was Catholic but then she was with my stepfather for all those years. I went to Catholic school and I know more about that." In 1970 they had one daughter,

Bethenny Frankel Bethenny Frankel, also known as Bethenny Parisella, (born November 4, 1970) is an American entrepreneur, television personality, philanthropist, and author. She was the runner-up on the NBC reality competition series '' The Apprentice: Martha S ...

, who later went on to become a reality television personality and businesswoman. They divorced after four years of marriage, and Bernadette married horse trainer John Parisella. Parisella and Frankel were originally friends as well as competitors.Pricci, John
"A Brooklyn Tale"
''Horse Race Insider'', November 18, 2009. In 2003, he married Bonita Boniface. They divorced in 2006. Frankel died at his home in Pacific Palisades, California on November 16, 2009, at the age of 68, after being diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. Estranged from his daughter and once good friend (and step-father to Bethenny) Parisella, he reconciled with both before his death. He is interred at Hillside Memorial Park in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

Legacy

On November 1, 2014, Bobby's Kitten, named after the late Hall of Fame trainer, captured the

Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint The Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint is a Weight for Age stakes race for thoroughbred racehorses three years old and up. As its name implies, it is a part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, the ''de facto'' year-end championship for North American ...

Santa Anita Park Santa Anita Park is a Thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, United States. It offers some of the prominent horse racing events in the United States during early fall, winter and in spring. The track is home to numerous prestigious race ...

. Bobby's Kitten is owned and bred by

Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey Kenneth L. "Ken" Ramsey (born 1935) and Sarah Kathern "Kitten" Ramsey (February 5, 1939 – May 29, 2022) are horse breeders and owners of Thoroughbred race horses. They have multiple graded stakes race, graded stakes winners, three Breeders' Cup ...

, who were clients of Frankel. The colt is trained by Chad Brown, who was Frankel's New York assistant. In 2010, the San Gorgonio Handicap - a race Frankel won eight times - was renamed the Robert J. Frankel Memorial Handicap in his honor. In 2008 a colt from Juddmonte Stud was named

Frankel Frankel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Benjamin Frankel (1906–1973), British composer * Bethenny Frankel (born 1970), American chef and reality television personality * Charles Frankel (1917–1975), American philoso ...

in honour of the trainer. The colt, by

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

and out of Kind, was trained in Newmarket (England) by Sir

Henry Cecil Sir Henry Richard Amherst Cecil (11 January 1943 – 11 June 2013) was a British flat racing horse trainer. Cecil was very successful, becoming Champion Trainer ten times and training 25 domestic Classic winners. These comprised four winners o ...

, won all of his 14 starts, and received the highest rating ever awarded by the British publication ''

Timeform Timeform is a sports data and content provider located in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. Founded in 1948, it provides systematic information on form to punters and others involved in the horse racing industry. The company was purchased by th ...

''. After his 14th win in October 2012, it was announced Frankel was to be retired to stud. In 2004, he was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jews, American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distingui ...

.Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame: Bobby Frankel
Retrieved July 4, 2012.

References

External links

Bobby Frankel Remembered

Bobby Frankel
at the

NTRA The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) is a broad-based coalition of American horse racing interests consisting of leading thoroughbred racetracks, owners, breeders, trainers and affiliated horse racing associations, charged with incr ...

Robert Frankel biography
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frankel, Robert J. 1941 births 2009 deaths American racehorse trainers Deaths from leukemia in California Eclipse Award winners Sportspeople from Brooklyn United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees Jewish American sportspeople Levites American Ashkenazi Jews 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews