Retired trainer, radio host Roger Stein dead at age 65

ARCADIA, Calif. – Roger Stein, a retired trainer who was well known as the host of a long-running racing radio program, died Friday following a lengthy illness, according to his brother Rick Stein.

Roger Stein was 65. He died at his home in Hidden Hills, Calif.

Stein was one of the rare horsemen to succeed in Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing. He trained harness horses in California beginning in 1979 and made the transition to Thoroughbred racing in 1987. Stein was the leading trainer at the Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Fairplex Park in 1990, and a year later had his best season, with stable earnings of $1,752,734.

He trained such major stakes winner as Forty Niner Days, who won the Grade 2 Golden Gate Handicap in 1991, a year it was worth $400,000, and Southern Truce, who won the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational in 1993 and the Grade 1 Santa Monica Handicap at Santa Anita in 1994. Southern Truce was claimed for $16,000.

In 2005, Stein’s top 3-year-old was General John B, who won the Turf Paradise Derby and was second to Buzzards Bay at 64-1 in the Santa Anita Derby, in what turned out the gelding’s final start.

Stein won 470 Thoroughbred races before he disbanded his stable in 2014. He won with his final starter, Cleverly Beverly, at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meeting at the Alameda County Fair in July of that year.

“He was a great horse trainer,” Rick Stein said.

Stein continued his radio program until the summer of 2017, often using the forum for provocative discussions on racing issues. Services were pending as of Friday.