Bloodstock Agent, Former Trainer Brothers Retires

Frankie Brothers will retire from his roles as a bloodstock agent and a member of Keeneland's yearling inspection team, he announced Dec. 16.

"I'm fortunate that my health is good," he said in a release distributed Friday. "I'm 76 years old and quite content to take a seat in the viewing area and watch the game for a while."

After training horses from 1980-2009, Brothers moved into his current role of selecting horses for a few clients before ultimately partnering with Starlight and StarLadies Racing for the past 13 years. During this time, he has also served as a member of the Keeneland yearling inspection team for the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. 

"It's just time for me to move on. For a little guy, the training game was very good to me, but it was time for me to make that transition back in 2009," said Brothers, who won 2,291 races over the course of his training career.

His best horse, Lazy Lane Farms' Hansel, won the Preakness Stakes (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) and was honored as the 3-year-old champion in 1991. Other top horses Brothers trained include grade 1 winners Secret Hello, Arch, Oath, Madcap Escapade , First Samurai  , and multiple graded stakes winner Pulpit.

"If you look at the stat sheet, Hansel was the most accomplished horse I had, but Pulpit was the most brilliant," Brothers told BloodHorse in 2009 as he was preparing to retire from training.

Brothers, a Louisiana native who resides in Louisville, Ky., began his involvement in training racehorses in the early 1970s when he was an assistant to eventual Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. He worked with Van Berg for about 10 years before going out on his own. Brothers was initially based at Fair Grounds and Louisiana Downs and was the leading trainer at the latter for nine consecutive years. He notched six titles at Fair Grounds.

Brothers eventually spread his operation to Arkansas, Florida, and Kentucky. He added training titles at Churchill Downs and Keeneland.

"I was fortunate to have trained horses for some great people and then equally fortunate when (Starlight Racing's) Jack and Laurie Wolf asked me to join their team as bloodstock agent when I retired from training," Brothers said. "We've had a great deal of luck together—you'd always like to win more, but we did pretty good."

For Starlight Racing, Brothers recommended the purchase of grade 1 winner Shanghai Bobby  (2012 champion 2-year-old male) along with graded stakes winners Algorithms , Eskenformoney , Neolithic  , Cutting Humor , and Jouster , among others. 

Brothers was also part of the Starlight Racing/SF Racing team that selected several graded stakes winners, including grade 1 winners Charlatan  , Eight Rings  , and 2020 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) winner, Authentic  . 

"Frankie's the best, and we're going to miss him," said Jack Wolf, managing partner of Starlight Racing. "He feels like family to us at this point. But I respect his decision to retire and I can't blame him—it's a tough game."