Trainer Eddie Truman steps away after 60 years in racing

A former assistant to the legendary Bobby Frankel and a licensed trainer for more than 50 years, Eddie Truman announced Monday that he had sent his final horse to the track on New Year’s Eve morning at Santa Anita, ending a racetrack run that dates back to the early 1960s.

A winner of 763 races from 5,334 starters, with purse earnings of $15.7 million, Truman, long one of the most generous and popular members of the training community, said that with his 77th birthday fast approaching on Jan. 23, the time was right for him and his wife Elizabeth to step away from a way of life that dates back to his teenage years, when, as an apprentice jockey in 1963 at Sportsman’s Park in Chicago, he led all riders.

“I’ve been blessed to have a great group of owners, some of them for 40 years,” said Truman from his Sierra Madre home Monday. “I believe the great horses, the great jockeys, here in a great setting is something we could never replace and that Santa Anita will continue forever.”

After an initial run as a licensed trainer for one year in Detroit and a subsequent trip to Europe, Truman came to Southern California in 1972. His first stop was the backstretch at Hollywood Park, where he introduced himself to Frankel in the hopes of securing a job as an exercise rider, assistant or whatever might be available.

“When I came back from Europe, I decided I wanted to be a trainer and that I wanted to go with the best … forget everything I thought I knew and try to learn from the best. And so, it was Charlie Whittingham or Bobby Frankel,” said Truman. “I happened to walk into Bobby’s barn first, and I asked him if I could get on some horses or if there were any jobs available. He said ‘Who are you?’ And I said ‘Eddie Truman.’ And he said ‘Oh my God, you were riding when I was walking hots at Tropical Park in 1963!’ So then he told me to go get on a horse and I was in.”

By any accounting, Truman has enjoyed a long, distinguished run as a highly respected horseman wherever he has competed, and he was quick to acknowledge some of the owners that made his career possible.

“I’ve had some fabulous people,” he said. “Clients like Howard and Janet Siegel, Jim Roper, Larry Samovar (Academic Farms) and going way back, Bud and Ann Parker (Budann Stable) that really made me. We had a lot of success claiming horses. I’ve just been associated with such great people and they were not only clients, but really nice friends. All these people and of course, the horses, have made it spectacular, a dream come true for me.”

As for what the future holds, Truman said he and his wife plan to spend time with family and to travel.

“We have an eight-month old granddaughter from my daughter, so we’re just living the dream now. We’re spending more time with them and just traveling and doing the things we like to do.”

Soon to be 77, does Truman intend to continue as a committed, everyday bicyclist?

“Oh, absolutely. I have to do that, otherwise they’d have to put me in a mental institution.”

Truman’s top horses include Go West Marie ($452,600); Irish-bred Casino King ($328,689); Moonless Sky ($269,120) and With Iris ($251,740).