How I'll remember Bobby Frankel

Whether it was exuding emotion over Flute or exuding confidence about Ghostzapper, Racing Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel always wore his heart on his sleeve.

That quality helped make him a Turf writer’s best friend in the stable area before a race or in the winner’s circle afterward—an enclosure horses he trained visited 3,654 times.

Those reporting on a race in which Frankel had a horse entered could count not only on the trainer’s honest assessment of his horse’s chances but also on the chances of any other horse in the race.

He was not so honest, of course, that he would say, “I’m going to lose,” but it was not hard to tell where Frankel thought he stood in a race. His brashness is so well known within the Thoroughbred Times editorial department that the term “Empire Maker confident” entered our lexicon following the Unbridled colt’s upset of Funny Cide’s Triple Crown bid in the 2003 Belmont Stakes (G1).

Our lead racing writer, Jeff Lowe, talked to Bobby the most and would often report after one of their conversations that “Bobby really likes ‘so and so.’” The follow-up question would always be, “Is he Empire Maker confident?” If he was, then you went to the windows.

Bobby’s own gambling stories were legendary and none was more famous than his tail of turning a $40 stake into $20,000 on a trip to the races in his early 20s.

When I met Bobby in October 2002 he was long past small stakes ante poker both in terms of how his bankroll and the horses he trained. He already was in the Racing Hall of Fame, training for some of the world’s most powerful racehorse outfits, had won his first Breeders’ Cup race the year before and was on the verge of winning his first classic with the aforementioned Empire Maker.

That never stopped him from talking about the nuts and bolts of the game with those who came by his shedrow, and it was during one such discussion in the week leading up to the 2002 Breeders Cup at Arlington Park that Bobby took the time to explain to me why he loved Starine (Fr), a filly he owned, in that year’s Filly and Mare Turf (G1).

Bobby’s opinions were never limited to his own stable, and I would have loved to know what he thought about this year’s Horse of the Year debate between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta.

Bobby started out loving the game but ended up loving the animals who make the game go even more. The greatest compliment a horse could get from Bobby was not “s/he is going to win” or “s/he is one of the best I’ve ever trained” but “S/he tries so hard,” an accolade that brought tears to his eyes one time when talking about Flute and whether the Kentucky Oaks (G1)-Alabama Stakes (G1) winner deserved the Eclipse Award for champion three-year-old filly over Xtra Heat in 2001.

His appreciation for equine athletes and their heart is as much a part of his legacy as the Eclipse Awards and Grade 1 wins are, which is why it is so fitting that he asked memorials in his name be donated to Old Friends, the Grayson Foundation, and/or CANTER.