Quiz show host Alex Trebek dies; was former owner of Creston Farm

Alex Trebek, who died Sunday at age 80 in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness, was famous throughout the world as the host of the popular quiz show “Jeopardy!”

But aside from television, Trebek’s sporting interest included a decade-long ownership of Creston Farm in central California in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and a small stable of racehorses. Creston Farms owned Reba’s Gold, a three-time stakes winner who earned $717,422 racing mostly in Southern California.

Trebek was the occasional visitor at Southern California tracks in those years, but was often occupied by television commitments, according to retired trainer Dan Hendricks. Reba’s Gold, who won 8 of 37 starts, was trained by Hendricks, who now lives near Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

“The shame was he couldn’t make it to all the races because he was working pretty hard back then,” Hendricks said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon.

“He never had a lot of horses. He bought the farm as an investment. He happened to buy that horse.”

Reba’s Gold won the Grade 3 Seabiscuit Handicap at now-closed Bay Meadows in 2003, his only graded stakes win. Reba’s Gold had one international trip, finishing ninth in the $2 million Japan Cup Dirt in Nakayama in November 2002.

“We went to Japan and Alex went, too,” Hendricks said. “We had a lot of fun with that horse.”