Owner-breeder Lothenbach dies at age 64

Robert Lothenbach, the most prominent owner and breeder to call Minnesota’s Canterbury Park home, died on Nov. 14 unexpectedly in his sleep, according to family members. Lothenbach, who had this year been elected into the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame, was 64.

Lothenbach, who founded a printing company in Bloomington, Minn., in 1988 that he sold in 2016, was “passionate” about horses from a very young age, he told the Blood-Horse in 2020, and he pooled his resources with several friends in the mid-1980s to claim a horse at Canterbury Park. Decades later, he would be recognized as Canterbury’s leading owner five times and named the state’s outstanding breeder twice.

While his horses raced throughout the country for a variety of trainers and his stable earnings often landed him in the top 10 nationally, he said in the Blood-Horse interview that his home state was his passion.

“I’m passionate about Minnesota and also about the racing industry, and just anything I can do to help it, I want to,” he said.

Lothenbach’s activity in racing had picked up considerably in the past five years. At the time of his death, his stable was ranked eighth in the nation by wins and 25th by purse earnings. In 2022, his stable earned $4.14 million with 87 wins, and in 2021, his stable had 65 wins and $3.62 million in earnings.

Lothenbach’s best horse was likely Bell’s the One, who earned $2 million from 13 wins in 27 starts, including five graded stakes. Trained by Neil Pessin throughout her 27-race career, she he also finished third in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

A mare he bred, Mayo On the Side, won the 2004 Grade 1 Humana Distaff Handicap, and another homebred, Vacare, won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland in 2006.

Early in his involvement in racing, Lothenbach was a partner in Saint Ballado, a stakes winner in 1992 who went on to a successful stallion career.

Chris Block, one of Lothenbach’s longtime trainers, said on a radio show last week that Lothenbach’s death was a “major blow” to racing.

“He just let us do our job,” Block said. “He never entered in with a question where he would ask what we were doing. He left us alone to do our job. After a race – win, lose, or draw – it was the same Bob Lothenbach. He’d just say, ‘Buckle up and let’s do better the next time.’”

Lothenbach is survived by four children: Clare, Audrey, Michael, and Ryan; and two brothers, Frank and Hack. His family said that he is also survived by his “loyal dog, Bella” and “hundreds of beloved race horses.”

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