Humberto Ascanio had been employed in Southern California racing for less than five years when he began working for trainer Bobby Frankel in March 1973.
Within three years, Ascanio’s position rose from groom to assistant trainer.
For the next 30 years, Ascanio would remain in the role of assistant trainer, gaining nationwide respect.
Ascanio oversaw many aspects of the barn as the stable grew from one consisting primarily of claimers to that of national leader. When Frankel, who was elected to racing’s Hall of Fame in 1995, was absent to tend to a division in New York, Ascanio managed the day-to-day operation of the California stable.
The job continued until Frankel’s death in 2009. Ascanio trained his own stable for the next few years until he suffered a stroke in late 2011, which led to his retirement.
Ascanio died on Tuesday at his home in Arcadia, Calif., from the effects of another stroke suffered in 2024 and dementia, according to his son, Matthew Ascanio.
Humberto Ascanio turned 78 on Monday. He had been in hospice care in the last year, his son said.
Until his health declined, Ascanio still was an occasional visitor to the races, particularly for the Robert Frankel Stakes at Santa Anita each winter, or when Chad Brown had starters in major races.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Ascanio moved to the United States in 1968. At the time, he was working in Tijuana, Mexico, south of San Diego, but was not involved in racing. Ascanio moved to California at the urging of a brother-in-law. He worked for such famous trainers as Farrell Jones, and Buster Millerick before joining Frankel’s team.
The stable thrived as a nationwide operation in the late 1990s and 2000s.
“He would have 60 horses there, and I would have 45 or 50 here,” Humberto Ascanio told Daily Racing Form in a 2009 interview. “The way I learned, I learned from him. I would just do it the same way.”
Frankel was honored with the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding trainer five times – in 1993, and from 2000 to 2003.
“There were a lot of good times, a lot of good horses and good people through the years,” Matthew Ascanio said. “There was a lot of history made there.”
In the final months of Frankel’s life, before he succumbed to leukemia in November 2009, Ascanio ran the powerful barn, staying in contact with Frankel who largely stayed away from public view.
Weeks after Frankel’s death, Ascanio won the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes with Ventura and Grade 1 Citation Handicap with Fluke. Those wins were at Hollywood Park where Frankel’s stable was based for decades.
In 2011, Fluke won two more graded stakes for Ascanio, including the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita. A stroke later that year led to him disbanding his stable.
“My dad he loved the racetrack and he loved the horses,” Matthew Ascanio said. “When he had to retire, it was a tough mental deal for him.”
Services are being planned, Matthew Ascanio said. Survivors include his wife, Maureen, and four children, including a son Michael, and daughters Olga and Bridget.
For those fortunate to visit Frankel’s stable in California on a given morning in the 1990s or 2000s, little time passed before Frankel would reach out to his longtime assistant to help.
“Hey, Humberto, or where’s Humberto,” Frankel would shout. With that, Ascanio would emerge to solve a problem or answer a question, large or small.
Ascanio ran the stable’s extensive staff, so much so that when a young man named Chad Brown joined the team in the early 2000s Frankel made it clear he was to answer to Ascanio.
Brown had found two men who would profoundly influence a training career that has risen to the top of American racing.
“Humberto is one of my co-mentors,” Brown recalled on Thursday. “When I went to work for Bobby, he brought Humberto over to me and assigned me to him. ‘You’re going to be with him all winter. You don’t need to talk to me much.’ ”
Brown, who worked as a foreman, recalls feeling like an outsider in a Frankel barn with many well-established employees at all levels.
“Humberto really looked after me,” Brown said. “It was not an easy transition into a barn when many of the team members had been there for so long.
“They were in the midst of this unbelievable string of Eclipse Awards and record-breaking seasons. For a new person that’s not needed, it was a tough transition.
“If it wasn’t for Humberto, I never would have been exposed to all aspects and inner workings of Frankel’s system.
“I never lost sight of his crucial role in my development. I don’t think I would have lasted working for Frankel.”
Frankel had scores of leading runners in the 1990s and 2000s, including Ghostzapper, winner of the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Lone Star Park. The stable won 25 Grade 1 races in 2003, including the Belmont Stakes with Empire Maker; six runnings of the Pacific Classic at Del Mar; and the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs twice.
Frankel won 29 training titles at Del Mar, Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, all with Ascanio serving as assistant.
“It would be hard to come up with a more successful trainer-assistant trainer team in modern day horse racing than Frankel and Humberto Ascanio,” Brown said.
In the years after his retirement, Ascanio would attend Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar or Santa Anita, particularly when Brown had runners. Brown, who has been honored with the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer five times from 2016 to 2024, said no that trip to California was complete without getting in contact with Ascanio.
“When we won those Breeders’ Cup races, watching from the box seats, when he hugged me, it was so genuine,” Brown recalled.
“He was so excited. He’d say, ‘My boy, I taught him.’ He was so proud. That meant everything to me.”
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