Frank Stella, an artist of the postwar era whose seminal talent encompassed multiple genres, propelling him to worldwide prominence for more than six decades, and which was abetted by a passion for Thoroughbred racing and breeding, died at his home in the West Village of Manhattan on May 4. He was 87. 

Perfect Arc winning Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (Keeneland photo)

Stella’s modest racing and breeding operation at his 120-acre Delehanty Stock Farm, located in Dutchess County near Amenia, N.Y., produced a slew of accomplished New York-breds over several decades. His finest was multiple graded stakes winner Perfect Arc, a daughter of stallion Brown Arc, by the immortal Alleged, who captured the 1977 and 1978 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Stella bred, raced, and co-owned the filly with the late Paul K. Sorren (Brazil Stable). Out of the Argentine mare Podeica (Petronisi-Indian Order, by Ovid), who won the 1987 Polla de Potrancas (Argentine One Thousand Guineas), defeating 1998 Racing Hall of Fame inductee Bayakoa, Podeica won at the allowance level in the U.S. before retiring due to injury. 

Conceived and subsequently foaled at Delehanty on March 7, 1992, Perfect Arc was trained by Angel Penna Jr. Perfect Arc competed from age 2 through 4, and as a 3-year-old in 1995 she was a perfect 7-for-7, all on turf. With Hall of Fame rider John Velasquez in the irons, Perfect Arc won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland Race Course, leaving Auriette in her wake by two lengths on good turf in 1:49.84. At season’s end, she was named 1995 New York-bred Horse of the Year, champion 3-year-old filly, and champion turf female. Her perfect turf season included triumphs in the Grade 2 Rare Perfume Handicap at Belmont Park and Grade 3 Diana Handicap at Saratoga Race Course. 

In an abbreviated 1996 campaign, Perfect Arc added two wins in four starts, all on grass. She won the Grade 3 Noble Damsel Handicap at Belmont Park and finished second to champion Possibly Perfect in the Beverly D. Stakes at Arlington International Race Course. At year’s end, Perfect Arc was named 1996 N.Y. champion female. She finished her career with 10 victories in 13 starts (six stakes wins) and purse earnings of $668,230.

Renowned artist Frank Stella (Martin Francis photo)

Retired to Delehanty, Perfect Arc’s broodmare career produced three winners from seven runners, though nothing remotely approaching her class. She is the grandam of Starship Jubilee, a Grade-1 winner born in 2013 with purse earnings topping $1.6 million. Named Canada’s 2019 Horse of the Year and three-time champion turf female from 2017 to 2019, her initial eight runners were all winners. 

Other homebreds raced by Stella, each of whom was retired to his broodmare band, were Southern Tradition ($379,125), Very True ($329,452), and Fortunate Faith ($251,635). 

Stella was breeder of record for Fortunate Faith’s 2005 foal, Z Fortune, by Siphon (BRZ), who captured the 2008 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds. Sold to Big Apple Racing for $80,000 out of the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale, Z Fortune was trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen for Zayat Stable (who would realize Triple Crown glory in 2015 with American Pharoah). At odds of 19.20-to-1 with Robby Albarado aboard, the multiple graded stakes-placed runner finished 10^th to Big Brown in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. His stablemate, Z Humor, finished 14^th at odds of 63.60-to-1.

Z Fortune raced from ages 2 through 5 and amassed $432,942 in purse earnings.

Smitten by the racing bug in the early 1970s during a visit with Sorren to Hollywood Park, fully in keeping with the history of the turf, Stella was resolutely dedicated to breeding and racing on that surface. For that reason, his association with trainer Christophe Clement over the past dozen or so years proved ideal for both.     

“Mr. Stella was a great owner and a very simple man. You would never have known that he was this great artist,” Clement said. “In fact, he and my wife shared the same birthday [May 12]! He never put any pressure on his trainer and always put the horse first.”

Frank Stella at The Met in 2007. (Martin Francis photo)

Delehanty’s newest foal, a colt by Maxfield out of Tent City, by Desert Party, was foaled on Kentucky Derby Eve according to farm manager Jim Cassidy, who worked for Stella for nearly 50 years.

In 2009, Stella was among 10 recipients of the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony. His renown through the decades and work exhibited in galleries and museums around the globe as well as in private collections aside, however, Stella relished the inherent challenge of studying pedigrees, planning matings for his mares, and naming foals. As he noted in a 1999 interview, despite the vagaries of commercial success and “fashionable opinions” about what constitutes art, he never wearied of the adrenaline-fueled rush unique to the Sport of Kings. He also appreciated that racing’s finish line provides the ultimate arbiter of success. 

After saying there is “no level of success in the art world that can compare with success in racing,” Stella added, “There’s a kind of refreshing directness to the finish line, which I like. You don’t have that in the art world.”

Survivors include his wife, Dr. Harriet McGurk, their sons Patrick and Peter, three children from prior relationships, and five grandchildren. As of press time, funeral arrangements had not been announced.– Reg Lansberry