Bobby Frankel Dies At 68

Bobby Frankel updates, Bobby Frankel Dead: Frankel Dies Of Cancer At 68.

Bobby Frankel, who won the 2003 Belmont Stakes with Empire Maker, has died after a long bout with cancer. He was 68.

Jockey agent Ron Anderson said Frankel died early Monday at home in Pacific Palisades. Frankel had been running his stable by phone for most of the year while he was undergoing treatment.

Frankel began his training career by turning lowly claiming horses into stakes winners, and wound up with earnings of more than $200 million.

“He started at the bottom and worked his way to the top of our profession,” said Anderson, who booked riders on horses trained by Frankel over the years. “He was a very kindhearted person that had people that worked for him for 20, 30 years, which is almost unheard of around the racetrack.”

Frankel enjoyed his greatest success this decade, winning four consecutive Eclipse Awards as the nation’s leading trainer from 2000-2003, and five overall. He oversaw a nationwide string of horses, with Khalid Abdullah-owned Juddmonte Farms as one of his major clients.

Frankel won his only Triple Crown race with Empire Maker in the Belmont, dashing the Triple Crown bid of Funny Cide, who had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Frankel, who was twice divorced, is survived by his grown daughter Bethenny, who has appeared on the Bravo reality series “Real Housewives of New York City.”