Eric Guillot, a multiple Grade 1-winning trainer whose successes on the track were often overshadowed by his behavior off of it, died on Thursday at a rehabilitation facility in Arkansas, according to family members. Guillot was 64. A Louisiana native, Guillot won more than $13 million in purses over a 30-year training career that included wins in Grade 1 races in New York and California. His career came to an abrupt end in 2021 when he renamed a claimed horse “Grape Soda” and flippantly remarked on social media that the decision was aimed at a black horse racing analyst on TVG, Ken Rudulph.  Guillot never apologized, and after being banned by the New York Racing Association and other racing organizations, he announced his retirement.   “This has been something that’s been in the making for a while now,” Guillot said. The horse was renamed Respect for All after being claimed by another owner. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Guillot’s most successful horse was Moreno, who won the 2014 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. The horse was named after the owner of Southern Equine Stable, Mike Moreno, who owned most of the horses that Guillot trained during the height of his career. Moreno also bred the horse. After Moreno finished second in the 2013 Travers Stakes by a nose to the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Will Take Charge, Guillot said in a televised post-race interview that he believed that Will Take Charge’s jockey, Luis Saez, had used an illegal electrical device in the race. The remark sparked an investigation that eventually cleared Saez.  Guillot also trained Champagne d’Oro, who won two Grade 1 races for 3-year-old fillies in 2010, the Acorn Stakes and Test Stakes; and Santa Teresita, who won the Grade 1 Santa Maria Handicap in 2009. For his career, Guillot won 259 races from 2,348 starts, with most of those wins accrued from 2000 to 2010. When he retired in 2021, he had won five races in the preceding four years. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.