Hall of Fame - Trainers

   Angel Penna was born Sept. 30, 1923 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father, father-in-law and an uncle were all trainers.

   Ben Jones was born in 1883 in Parnell, Mo. His father, the town’s founder and owner of the Parnell Bank, had visions of his son someday replacing him as the bank’s president.

   Burley Parke was born in Albion, Idaho, on March 21, 1905. He was one of 12 children, and four of his seven brothers also went into the racing industry.

   Carl Nafzger took an unconventional route to racing’s Hall of Fame. He is only inductee who is also a member of the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Professional Bull Riders’ Ring of Honor.

   Claude R.

   Daniel Michael “Mikey” Smithwick was an accomplished amateur steeplechase jockey – winning a record six Maryland Hunt Cup races – before he turned to training jumpers in the early 1950s.

Born into slavery in Lexington, Ky., Edward Dudley Brown developed into an accomplished jockey before becoming one of the top trainers of the 19^th century.

   Frank “Pancho” Martin’s career began in his native Cuba, where he worked his way up from hotwalker to trainer by age 16. By the time he turned 21, Martin was racing Cuban horses in Ohio.

   Born on March 10, 1859 in Patterson, N.J., Frank McCabe began his racing career as a jockey before becoming a prolific trainer of Thoroughbreds.

Gary Jones began his career as a racehorse trainer by sending out King Wako on opening day at Santa Anita in 1975.

In a career that spanned from 1950 through 2015, Allen Jerkens won 3,859 races and earned the respect and adoration of his peers and multiple generations of race fans.

   Born in Cicero, Ill., in 1910, Harry Trotsek proved adept at handling all types of Thoroughbreds.

   The ability to train Thoroughbreds was bred into the soul of New Jersey native Henry McDaniel. His father, Col.

  Born in Detroit on Sept. 21, 1881, Herbert J. Thompson started out his career working with harness horses before switching to Thoroughbreds in 1902 when he began an association with E.J.

Born on a small farm near Amsterdam, N.Y., Hollie Hughes was associated with the Sanford family’s prolific racing operation for more than 70 years. In 1903, at the age of 15, Hughes went to work for Gen. Stephen Sanford’s Hurricana Stud, and later trained for his son, John, and grandson, Stephen “Laddie” Sanford.

   Horatio Luro was born on Feb. 27, 1901 in Argentina into a wealthy family that had been involved with horses for generations. Well connected, he was friends with the social and business elite.

A third-generation horseman who followed both his father and grandfather into the Hall of Fame, Elliott Burch trained six champions and four members of the Hall of Fame, including Horse of the Year winners Sword Dancer, Arts and Letters and Fort Marcy.

An Eclipse Award-winning trainer, Jack Van Berg grew up as a stablehand for his father, Hall of Fame conditioner Marion Van Berg. In a career that spanned from 1957 until his death in 2017 at the age of 81, Jack Van Berg won 6,523 races and had purse earning of almost $86 million. He ranked fourth all time in wins at the time of his death.

It had the audacity to rain throughout the afternoon James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons retired from thoroughbred racing after a 78-year association and love affair with the sport.

Jimmy Conway trained 43 stakes winners during his career, including champions Chateaugay, Grecian Queen, Miss Request, Primonetta, and Pucker Up.

Janet Elliot became the first woman trainer inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

   John Edward Madden was born on Dec. 28, 1856 in Bethlehem, Pa. He began his career as an owner, trainer and driver of Standardbreds.

Born in Mount Airy, Md., John Gaver graduated from Princeton University then worked as a prep school language teacher before eventually embarking on a career in thoroughbred racing. In 1929, James G. Rowe, Jr., a friend and horse trainer, invited him to join the team managing the Brookdale Farm and the racing stable owned by Harry Payne Whitney.

   The son of Hall of Fame trainer Sylvester Veitch, John Veitch was born in Lexington, Ky., on July 27, 1945.

   Jonathan Sheppard has without question earned his place as the leading American steeplechase trainer of all time.

A native of Havana, Cuba, Lazaro Barrera became the first person to win the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer four consecutive years (1976 through 1979) and trained America’s 11^th Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, as well as Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Bold Forbes.

Louis Feustel was only 10 years old when he began working with horses, and in short time he began a long and prosperous association with August Belmont II. For Belmont, Feustel began as a stable hand, rose to stable foreman, and eventually became head trainer.

   In a career that spanned almost 50 years, California native Michael Ernest “Buster” Millerick became known as one of the finest trainers on the West Coast.

   Born on Jan. 15, 1896 at Aurora, Neb., Marion Van Berg enjoyed a lifetime of success in Thoroughbred racing.

Max Hirsch snuck aboard a train from Texas to Maryland at the age of 12 and was off to the races. He got the racing bug a couple years earlier when he was riding horses in Texas fairs. The youngster was noticed by John A. Morris and went to work at the prominent owner’s ranch. When he heard word that Morris was sending several racehorses to Baltimore, Hirsch saw an opportunity to chase his dream.

   Mickey Walsh trained steeplechase horses for half a century and produced 31 stakes winners, including the champion King Commander.

   Nick Zito won his first Triple Crown race when Strike the Gold captured the Kentucky Derby in 1991.

The son of Hall of Fame trainer William Burch and the father of Hall of Fame trainer Elliott Burch, Preston Burch enjoyed success as a breeder, owner and trainer of racehorses for himself and others both in America and overseas for more than a half-century.

   A California native and the son of a blacksmith, Richard Mandella began breaking and galloping horses for Connie Ring at Three Rings Ranch while still in high school.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bobby Frankel won five Eclipse Awards for Outstanding Trainer in an exceptional career that spanned five decades. Frankel first got into racing as a gambler, then found his way to the stable area, figuring a few hours walking hots in the morning was worth it to get a free pass to the afternoon’s races.

Following a stint as a steeplechase rider and an accomplished career as an international show jumper, Roger Attfield established himself as one of the top thoroughbred trainers in North America. Born on Nov. 28, 1939 in Newbury, England, Attfield immigrated to Canada in 1970 and took his first training job with Gateway Farms. In the years since, Attfield has won the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Canadian Trainer eight times, trained three Canadian Triple Crown winners, six Canadian Horse of the Year winners, and won 22 races in the Canadian Triple Crown series.

Samuel Clay Hildreth, the youngest of Vincent and Mary Hildreth’s 10 children, enjoyed success as a trainer in the Midwest for owners Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin and Ed Corrigan before moving to New York in 1898 to work for William Collins Whitney. Hildreth’s path to the top of the sport became an interesting journey.

   A Baltimore native who began his racing career as a steeplechase jockey, Sidney Watters, Jr. embarked on a stellar career training jumpers after serving in the military during World War II.

 Sylvester Veitch began his career as a jockey and trainer of steeplechase horses. He switched to flat racing in 1939 and began working for C.V. Whitney, for whom he conditioned four champions.

The captain of America’s first international polo team, Thomas Hitchcock is referred to by racing historians as the father of American steeplechasing.

   Tommy Kelly was born on Sept. 19, 1919 in Baltimore and began working at the racetrack as a teenager, learning the business from the bottom up.

Jimmy Croll trained Hall of Fame members Holy Bull and Housebuster, as well as Belmont Stakes winner Bet Twice and champions Forward Gal and Parka.

  Born in Detroit in 1916, Bill Winfrey was the stepson of Hall of Fame trainer G. Carey Winfrey. Bill Winfrey quit school at age 15 to become a jockey.

After graduating from Georgetown University and spending 18 months working on Wall Street, Buddy Hirsch became a thoroughbred trainer, following in the footsteps of his father, Hall of Fame member Max Hirsch.

   William Molter was born in Fredericksburg, Texas in 1910. He enjoyed success as a jockey before turning to training.

   When Thoroughbred racing was America’s leading national sport, William R. Johnson, known as the “Napoleon of the Turf,” was the game’s most prominent figure.