Empire Maker. Ghostzapper. Sightseek. Rattling off the names of these horses, I can’t help but realize that most other people besides Thoroughbred horse racing enthusiasts will have any idea about who or what they are. These magnificent animals were just some of the horses under the conditioning of the Jewish Hall of Fame racing trainer Bobby Frankel, who died on November 16 at age 68.
Why is some random horse trainer important to Judaism, you may ask? It’s a good question. The most obvious answer is that he was Jewish. So are lots of other people, it’s true, but Frankel was an example of Jewish virtue at its finest. No, he may not have been a rabbi or a cantor, but he was intelligent, and savvy in his own field. I had the privilege of meeting Bobby once when I was a young teen and was impressed by his soft-spoken nature that belied his massive success as a trainer. He was not a braggadocio with a swagger from here to the moon, which his success could have given him. No, despite being a massive name in the industry and having horses earn over $200 million throughout his career, Bobby remained just that: Bobby.
One reason I admired Bobby so much was because of his sensible mentality to the business. Indeed, he was almost a UN ambassador to the Middle East in the way he dealt with owners. Take the example of Empire Maker, the horse who won the 2003 Belmont Stakes under Frankel’s tutelage. The Belmont, as many know, is the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown and considered one of its biggest challenges, for it is the longest of the three races. The owner of Empire Maker was the Saudi prince Khalid Abdullah of Juddmonte Farms, one of Frankel’s most frequent clients.
Despite the conflict some might see in a gruff New York Jewish trainer and a Saudi prince, Bobby and Abdullah got along well. “My relationship with the prince has been very good,” Frankel said. “Basically, he lets me call all the shots. That’s why it works so well. I’ve never had any grief or a hard time.” Bobby treated the prince just like any other owner: with respect, but maintaining his own authority as far as the horse was concerned. He was uncompromising: he was the horse expert, not Abdullah, and would make the decisions on what was best for the animal. His brusque, yet respectful, treatment of all his owners earned him a reputation for fairness. He was someone who respected and was worth respecting, treating his owners with a sort of equality that is rare in the world of international relations today. He showed that rich Middle Easterners and blue-collar Americans can get along, despite what some people say. That’s an example for the UN and the president right there.
More than anything, Bobby was an old soul, a “streetwise teenager” who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps to the top of a game dominated by the wealthy. Using his smarts, he learned the way the horse worked until he knew his craft inside and out; he started at the bottom and, only after years of dedication and hard work, reached the top of the racing industry. His triumph in the face of adversity is the epitome of Judaism, which has struggled to survive in the face of racism and, against all odds, has done so. In that way, then, this regular American has become a cultural hero.
