NEWS
Fruchtman, owner of Bally Ache, dies
Posted: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 3:48 PM
by Jeff Lowe
Leonard Fruchtman, who raced 1960 Preakness Stakes winner Bally Ache, died on December 22 in Toledo, Ohio. He was 86.
A former steel company executive, Fruchtman raced Thoroughbreds for more than 30 years. He also owned Miles Park in Kentucky and Santa Fe Downs in New Mexico during the 1970s, according to his son, Michael.
Fruchtman purchased Bally Ache privately as a yearling from Marvin and Alan Gaines’s Twin Oak Farm in a two-horse package for $5,000.
Bally Ache won five stakes as a two-year-old and scored in the Bahamas Stakes, Hibiscus Stakes, Flamingo Stakes, and Florida Derby in 1960 before finishing second to Venetian Way in the Kentucky Derby.
After the Derby, Fruchtman sold a majority interest in Bally Ache to a syndicate led by Joseph Arnold for $1.25-million, with Fruchtman retaining a minor share. Days later, Bally Ache secured a four-length victory in the Preakness Stakes.
Fruchtman did not regret the sale.
“If you don’t sell bargains, you can’t make many sales,” he said after the Preakness.
Trained by Jimmy Pitt, Bally Ache went on to win the Jersey Derby before partially dislocating his right front ankle in a prep race for the Hawthorne Gold Cup at Hawthorne Race Course in October. He died 20 days later from acute colitis.
Fruchtman also raced Our Michael, an eight-time stakes winner in the mid-1960s and the sire of Our Gary, who won three stakes for Fruchtman in 1979 and ‘80.
Our Gary sired David’s Sin, Fruchtman’s 1986 Nebraska Stallion Derby winner.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
