Celebration of Life Sunday for Mel and Annabelle Stute

A celebration of life for the late trainer Mel Stute and his wife Annabelle, who died in December, is scheduled for Sunday at 9 a.m. at Clocker’s Corner at Santa Anita. A memorial service for the couple is scheduled for Saturday at Hope Lutheran Church in Glendora, Calif., at 2 p.m.

Mel Stute, who trained the legendary California-bred Snow Chief in the 1980s, died in 2020 at the age of 93. Annabelle Stute died in December at 92.

The Stutes’s survivors include their son, Gary, who has a stable at Santa Anita. Gary Stute saddled a winner at Santa Anita earlier this month.

Gary Stute said on Friday that a memorial service was not held for his father in 2020 because he died during the coronavirus pandemic.

Snow Chief won the Eclipse Award as the champion 3-year-old male of 1986, the year he won the Preakness Stakes and the Florida, Santa Anita, and Jersey derbies. Snow Chief was 11th in the Kentucky Derby.

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Later that year, the Stute-trained Brave Raj won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and was named champion 2-year-old filly.

In 1987, the Stute-trained filly Very Subtle scored an upset win in the BC Sprint at Hollywood Park.

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