By DRF.com
GLENDORA, Calif. (Jan. 3, 2025) – A celebration of life for the late trainer Mel Stute and his wife Annabelle, who died in December, is scheduled for Sunday at 9 a.m. at Clocker’s Corner at Santa Anita. A memorial service for the couple is scheduled for Saturday at Hope Lutheran Church in Glendora, Calif., at 2 p.m.
Mel Stute, who trained the legendary California-bred Snow Chief in the 1980s, died in 2020 at the age of 93. Annabelle Stute died in December at 92.
The Stutes’s survivors include their son, Gary, who has a stable at Santa Anita. Gary Stute saddled a winner at Santa Anita earlier this month.
Gary Stute said on Friday that a memorial service was not held for his father in 2020 because he died during the coronavirus pandemic.
Snow Chief won the Eclipse Award as the champion 3-year-old male of 1986, the year he won the Preakness Stakes and the Florida, Santa Anita, and Jersey derbies. Snow Chief was 11th in the Kentucky Derby.
Later that year, the Stute-trained Brave Raj won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and was named champion 2-year-old filly.
In 1987, the Stute-trained filly Very Subtle scored an upset win in the BC Sprint at Hollywood Park.