Ross Fenstermaker, trainer of Precisionist, dies at age 83
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Ross Fenstermaker, who trained Precisionist to the 1985 sprint championship and nearly won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with him in 1986, died in late April, according to his friends.
Fenstermaker was 83 and had battled the effects of a stroke.
Precisionist was by far Fenstermaker’s most successful runner in a 20-year training career from 1976 to 1996.
Owned and bred by Fred Hooper, Precisionist was effective at a variety of distances. In his title year of 1985, Precisionist won the BC Sprint at Aqueduct after a layoff of more than four months.
That’s testament to Ross’s ability to get a horse ready for a big effort,” said retired Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, who rode Precisionist that day.
In the winter of 1984-1985, Fenstermaker guided Precisionist to three consecutive wins in the now-defunct Strub Series at Santa Anita – the Grade 2 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds, Grade 1 San Fernando Stakes at 1 1/8 miles, and the Grade 1 Charles H. Strub Stakes at 1 1/4 miles. The latter two races were early season races for 4-year-olds.
McCarron rode Precisionist to all three of those wins and was the horse’s regular rider for much of his career.
“He’s in my top five, for sure,” McCarron said on Wednesday from his home in Kentucky.
“He was brilliant. He could run five-eighths in 55 and change and won going a mile and a quarter. He was phenomenal.”
Under Fenstermaker’s direction, Precisionist won 15 stakes from the ages of 2 to 5. Precisionist was second to Mighty Adversary in the 1984 Santa Anita Derby and later that season won the Grade 1 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park.
In 1986, Precisionist was kept at longer distances, winning five stakes including two Grade 1 races – the Californian Stakes at Hollywood Park and the Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park.
Precisionist finished third in the BC Classic at Santa Anita that November, beaten 2 1/4 lengths by Skywalker.
McCarron, a retired member of the Hall of Fame, remembered Fenstermaker as a hands-on trainer.
“Ross was very laid-back,” McCarron said. “He was a terrific horsemen and an excellent caretaker. He always did right by the horse. Mr. Hooper was adamant about not getting any vet bills. He didn’t want his horses treated with any medications. Ross handled his horses the old-fashioned way, with diligent horsemanship.
“He was easy to ride for. He seldom gave me instructions and had confidence in my ability to carry out the task at hand.”
A native of Idaho, Leland Ross Fenstermaker moved to California in the early 1960s and worked primarily as an exercise rider before launching his own stable in the mid-1970s, with the support of Hooper.
With other runners, all owned by Hooper, Fenstermaker won such major stakes as the 1978 Futurity Stakes at Belmont Park with Crested Wave; the 1981 Del Mar Debutante with Skillful Joy; and the 1982 Swaps Stakes with Journey At Sea.
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Fenstermaker trained into the 1990s, but did not have the same level of success in the later years of his career.
Fenstermaker struggled with health issues in recent decades, including a clot in his brain in the 2000s. He died in his sleep, according to California trainer Eddie Truman, a lifelong friend.
Truman said Fenstermaker closely followed racing in recent years, and enjoyed having a bet.
“He loved to watch the races and gamble,” Truman said. “He’d call and say, ‘I loved that horse in the fifth race.’ He was the true epitome of a race tracker.
“He was such a good horseman and a top hand on a horse.”
No services are planned at this time.
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