Mel Stute, trainer of Snow Chief, dies at 93

Mel Stute, the eminently popular trainer of Preakness winner Snow Chief and Breeders’ Cup winners Brave Raj and Very Subtle, died Wednesday morning in Del Mar, Calif., his son, trainer Gary Stute said.

Stute turned 93 last Saturday. He shattered a knee earlier this summer and was residing at the summer home Gary Stute rented for the Del Mar meeting.

“We couldn’t put him in the hospital because of COVID,” Gary Stute said. “That would have been signing him up to die.”

Instead, in recent weeks, “We got him a hospital bed to make him comfortable at home,” where Stute would watch the races regularly while making frequent use of his ADW account.

But in recent days, following a birthday celebration last weekend, “He went downhill,” Gary Stute said.

“He died in his sleep this morning,” Stute said Wednesday.

Snow Chief was Stute’s best-known horse. The Preakness was the highlight of a 1986 campaign that brought Snow Chief the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male. He also won the Santa Anita Derby, Florida Derby, Jersey Derby, the Hollywood Futurity at age 2, and Strub Stakes and Oaklawn Handicap at age 4. He earned $3.3 million.

Brave Raj won the 1986 Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies to secure the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly. Very Subtle sped to victory against males in the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Stute – who won his first race at Portland Meadows in 1947 – was a mainstay on the Southern California circuit for decades, running at the major tracks of Del Mar, Hollywood Park, and Santa Anita as well as the Los Angeles County Fair at Pomona back when it was a half-mile bullring. He won more races, more stakes, and more meet titles than any trainer at the Los Angeles County Fair. When he retired in 2011, he was credited with 2,000 career wins, but those stats only date to 1951.

One of Stute’s first nationally prominent horses was Telly’s Pop, winner of the 1975 Del Mar Futurity, who was co-owned by actor Telly Savalas. He had a long association with the Schiffer family’s The Hat Ranch, for whom he trained Double Discount, who in 1977 set a world record for 1 1/4 miles on turf.

His major race wins included the Californian, Del Mar Debutante, Fantasy, Kilroe Mile, La Brea, San Felipe, Strub, and Test.

Stute was known for running his horses often and for supporting the game through the parimutuel windows.

“The last bet he made was a winner at Saratoga,” Gary Stute said.

He also liked his cocktails. A clubhouse bar at Hollywood Park was named for him in 1995 by track owner R.D. Hubbard.

“Mr. Hubbard told me that if I was offended he would take the sign down,” Stute said at the time. “Offended? Heck, it’s an honor – to me at least.”

Stute used to joke that he couldn’t afford to retire because between gambling and enjoying a refreshing beverage, “I have too many bad habits.”

Stute is survived by his wife, Annabelle, son Gary, two daughters – Gail and Jana – and six grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brother, Warren, also a successful trainer.

The Stute brothers were born in Fort Wayne, Ind., and moved west with their family in 1934, the summer Mel turned 7. Warren Stute used to call his younger brother the “miracle man” because he had great success despite having lesser stock, with owners who were more ordinary folk than bluebloods.

Those were the people to whom Mel Stute was always drawn.

Services are pending, Gary Stute said.