Wally Dollase, thoroughbred trainer of champions, dies at 78

Published Oct. 31, 2015 8:07 p.m. ET

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ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) Wally Dollase, the trainer of Eclipse Award champions Itsallgreektome and Jewel Princess, has died after a long illness. He was 78.

His daughter, Michelle Dollase, told officials at Santa Anita racetrack in California that her father died Friday night in Kentucky.

Dollase had his greatest success from 1990-2006, winning 78 stakes, including 18 Grade 1 races across North America. He twice won the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, with Deputy Commander in 1997 and Ten Most Wanted in 2003, the same year the horse finished second in the Belmont Stakes.

Among his horses was Itsallgreektome, the 1990 Eclipse male turf horse of the year, and Jewel Princess, the 1996 Eclipse older filly or mare horse of the year. She won the 1996 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Woodbine.

He won a trio of prestigious Grade 1 races at Santa Anita: the Malibu with King of the Heap in 1996, the Santa Margarita Handicap with Jewel Princess in 1998 and the Las Virgenes with A.P. Adventure in 2004.

Dollase had 522 victories in 3,014 career races and purse earnings of $37,770,697, according to Equibase. His last active year was 2011.

Born Aug. 1, 1937, in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, Dollase had a reputation as a consummate horseman who paid close attention to detail while including his family in his Southern California-based operation after moving them from San Francisco.

His youngest child, Aimee, is an assistant trainer for Tom Proctor in Los Angeles; Michelle trains at San Luis Rey Downs in Southern California; and son Craig has a stable based at Los Alamitos in Orange County, California.

Dollase's other survivors are wife Cincy and daughter Carrie.

Funeral arrangements were pending.