Robert Julian Frankel[2] (July 9, 1941 – November 16, 2009) was an American thoroughbred race horse trainer whom ESPN called "one of the most successful and respected trainers in the history of thoroughbred racing."[3] He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame 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." [4] Frankel set the single-season world record for most Grade/Group I victories in 2003 with 25 Grade I wins, a record he still holds.[5]
Early in his career, in 1960s New York, Frankel assisted the prominent trainer Buddy Jacobson. On his own, Frankel saddled his first winner late in 1966[6] before struggling somewhat in 1967, when he won with just 9 of 101 starters.[7] During 1968, however, he won 36 of 165 outings, his horses accumulating $167,000 in purse money.[8] In the next few years, he continued to prosper in New York, and during the winter of 1970–1971, he had 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 such as Edmund Gann with whom he had a thirty-year working relationship. These horses typically showed dramatic improvement under his care, sometimes winning their next start against higher priced claiming company.
Frankel was an avid follower of the training techniques of Charlie Whittingham, trainer of champions such as Ferdinand and Sunday Silence. Frankel won several Eclipse Awards, the year-end horse racing awards, for best trainer. He set earnings records, Grade I stakes victory records, and many others. Frankel also won the Pacific Classic Stakes a record six times, including four times in a row.
Some of his best horses include Squirtle Squirt, his first Breeders' Cup winner; Skimming, two-time winner of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes; Sightseek, winner of the Humana Distaff Handicap (Gr. I) and Ogden Phipps Handicap (Gr. I); triple Grade I winner Empire Maker, winner of the Belmont Stakes (Gr. I); multiple Grade I winning Peace Rules; two-time Santa Anita Handicap (Gr. I) winner Milwaukee Brew; Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (Gr. I) winner Starine, whom he also owned; and Ghostzapper, the Breeders' Cup Classic (Gr. I) winner who was voted the 2004 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.
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 manager Joe Torre, gave Frankel his first victory in the $1 million Queen's Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at Woodbine Racetrack.
Frankel died at his home in California on November 16, 2009, at the age of 68, after being diagnosed with leukemia.[9] He was survived by his daughter, reality TV star Bethenny Frankel.
In 2010, the San Gorgonio Handicap - a race Frankel won eight times - was renamed the Robert J. Frankel Memorial Handicap in his honor.[10][11]
The winner of the 2011 British 2,000 Guineas, Frankel, is named for Robert Frankel and owned by one of his patrons, Prince Khalid Abdullah.