By DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Nov. 30, 2024) — Ben Cecil, trainer of California-bred multiple-stakes winner Eddie’s New Dream, died on Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 56.
Cecil had a nearly unparalleled introduction to Thoroughbred racing. He was the nephew of the legendary British trainer Henry Cecil. Growing up in Britain, it was easy for Ben Cecil to follow his uncle’s career during a time when he had one of Europe’s leading stables. Henry Cecil won 25 classic races in Britain.
On a day trip with his uncle to Newbury Racecourse, west of London, a teenaged Ben Cecil saw the sport from a different perspective, realizing what he wanted to do.
“I was hooked,” Cecil told Daily Racing Form in a 2013 interview shortly after his uncle’s death. “He was the whole reason I got into this game.”
Instead of staying in Britain, Cecil wanted a more independent approach to his involvement in the sport, and relocated to California after working for trainers in Australia and Britain.
In Southern California, Cecil was an assistant for trainer Gary Jones, at a time when Jones had one of the state’s leading stables, and later as an assistant for Rodney Rash.
Cecil’s career began in 1996 after Rash’s death. Cecil assumed control of a 33-horse stable full of leading runners, particularly turf horses. Less than a week after Rash’s death, Cecil won the Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream Park with Celtic Ash.
Cecil won 325 races in his career from 2,420 starters who earned more than $24.9 million.
Cecil’s death was confirmed by his longtime friend, Derek Lawson, a jockey’s agent in Southern California. Survivors include his wife, Kristy, a television producer, and two children, Francesca and Hugo.
Benjamin David Amherst Cecil was born in Oxford, England, on Aug. 6, 1968. His late father, David, was Henry’s twin brother.
In terms of earnings, Cecil’s first three years were his most successful, with the stable reaching at least $1.9 million in earnings from 1996 to 1998.
Through the years, Cecil had his greatest success with fillies and mares.
In 1997, Cecil won the first of five Grade 1 races in his career with Donna Viola in the Beverly Hills Handicap. The following year, the British import Squeak won two Grade 1 turf races at Hollywood Park – the Beverly Hills Handicap and Matriarch Stakes.
Cecil trained Golden Apples, the champion turf female of 2002. During a seven-race campaign that year, Golden Apples won three times, including consecutive Grade 1 wins in the Beverly D Stakes at Arlington Park and the Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita.
More recently, Cecil trained the four-time California-bred stakes winner Eddie’s New Dream, a mare who earned $716,450 for owner and breeders Paul and Zillah Reddams. The Reddams, among California’s most prominent breeders, supported Cecil for decades.
Cecil’s success was not limited to fillies and mares. Crystal Hearted briefly held the course record at a mile on turf at Del Mar after winning the 1999 Wickerr Handicap. Cecil won stakes with such notable males as Ferneley, winner of the 2009 Del Mar Mile Handicap; and Magellan, winner of the 1998 American Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Despite his illness, Cecil maintained a small stable in recent weeks. He won a maiden race with Look Forward at Del Mar on Nov. 8.