Richard Hazelton, 10th all-time in wins by trainer, dies at 88

Richard Hazelton, the 10th-most winning trainer in North American racing history, died Tuesday in the Los Angeles area at 88.

Hazelton died after suffering a stroke but had been in relatively poor health for some time. His death was reported by his son, Scott Hazelton, the well-known television racing analyst who had been helping take care of his father since Richard Hazelton moved to California from his home in Illinois several years ago.

It was in Illinois that Hazelton achieved much of his success, particularly at the defunct Sportsman’s Park in Cicero. Hazelton won 17 straight training titles there from 1971 to 1987 and 18 overall. Hazelton also won seven training titles at Arlington Park and for several years had the most wins there among any trainer.

His last starter came in 2011, and Hazelton ended his career with 4,745 winners, according to The Jockey Club’s database.

Hazelton, born Sept. 2, 1930, in Phoenix, was the son of George Hazelton, who trained Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, and Richard began race-riding as a young teenager, winning the jockey’s title at Caliente Racecourse in Mexico in 1945. Hazelton took up training in the 1950s and quickly found success, piling up winners year after year while specializing in 2-year-olds and sprinters.

During his heyday, Hazelton would winter his stable in Arizona before shipping into Sportsman’s Park in the spring, sometimes flying all his horses, even shipping them by train.

“The stories never end,” said Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who met Hazelton in 1994 and lived at his apartment near Sportsman’s for a time. “‘Great’ is not a good enough adjective for Richard as a horseman. King Richard was an accurate description of him.”

Indeed, the Chicago racing press especially referred to Hazelton as King Richard, though Hazelton, reserved and private, eschewed the limelight. Neil Milbert, former turf writer for the Chicago Tribune, tells of chasing Hazelton through the Sportsman’s grandstand after his horses swept the top three placings in the 1984 National Jockey Club Handicap.

“I can’t talk,” Hazelton said. “My best chicken is fighting, and I have to catch a plane.”

Cockfighting ranked a close second behind horses in Hazelton’s passions, and Hazelton, who was married several times and had wild days as a young man, might have felt most at ease around animals.

“I think it was safe to say Richard did horses better than people,” Asmussen said.

Still, Hazelton was as liked as he was admired on the backstretches of many tracks.

“I think everybody loved Richard,” said trainer Hugh Robertson, who met Hazelton when he came to Chicago in 1987. “Good guy, great horse trainer, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”

No services are scheduled for Hazelton, but his son Scott said a memorial is planned to coincide with the Breeders’ Cup this fall at Santa Anita.