“Me, personally, I’m looking for an athlete,” trainer Charlie Frankfort tells Jeff Krulik in today’s Midweek Movie.
Jeff and Vas caught up with Frankfort while the trainer was on something of a busman’s holiday. With no horses in on this hot day in Delaware, he’s at the paddock, scouting the horses, and telling his buddies, the bettors, which ones he likes. “My part is to look at the horses, and their part is to bet on them,” he explains with a chuckle. “And we’re not doing that well.”
Frankfort served as an assistant to Todd Beattie, who’s won over 1,500 races in his career, a position Frankfort describes as “a cool spot.” But, as so often happens, life throws us curve balls, this time in the form of family, and Frankfort took a 17-year hiatus.
He returned and last year struck out on his own. He has two wins and eight other in-the-money finishes from 14 starts this year, a 71 percent top-three rate. “I don’t run a lot,” he says, “but when I take ’em over, I’m pretty sure my boys are going to run.”
Frankfort’s philosophy on what he’s looking for is pretty direct: athleticism over pedigree. “If he can’t outrun a fat man running backwards, it don’t matter who his daddy is,” he points out.
When Jeff and Vas visited with him, he was observing horses in the paddock before a conditioned claiming race. He sees only one he likes, and that’s the wager he passes up to his buddies. How do they do? Watch and find out!
Featured photo courtesy of Delaware Park.
