Trainer Bobby Frankel Dies of Lymphoma at 68

by Jordan Yerman | November 16, 2009 at 11:09 am

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Horse trainer Bobby Frankel has died of lymphoma at age 68. Throughout his career, Bobby Frankel has trained horses that won 3,654 races, earning a total of nearly $228 million. The only major horse race that Bobby Frankel has not won was the Kentucky Derby. Bobby Frankel is survived by daughter Bethenny Frankel, who appears in The Real Housewives of New York.

For more than 40 years, Frankel was one of the top trainers in the sport. He began with claiming horses in New York, moved to California and continued to win at an eye-catching rate, then gradually transformed his barn into one that emphasized quality over quantity. He won at least one Grade 1 race every year from 1988 through this year. In 1995, he was inducted into racing's Hall of Fame.

Frankel, a Hall of Fame trainer and recipient of five Eclipse Awards as the sport's trainer of the year, has been quietly battling cancer for about six months.

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