"[3] He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1995, and was a five-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer.
Thereafter, he worked construction by day and gambled at the tracks by night,[7] eventually volunteering as a hot walker so he could get a free pass to the evening races.
[3] Early in his career in 1960s New York City, Frankel assisted the prominent trainer Buddy Jacobson.
[10] In the next few years, he continued to prosper in New York and during the winter of 1970–71, he enjoyed some success at the West Coast meeting at Santa Anita.
These horses typically showed dramatic improvement under his care, sometimes winning their next start against higher-priced claiming levels.
Frankel was an avid follower of the training techniques of Charlie Whittingham, trainer of champions such as Ferdinand and Sunday Silence.
On June 26, 2005, Wild Desert, owned by several businesspeople including former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, gave Frankel his first victory in the $1 million Queen's Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at Woodbine Racetrack.
On November 1, 2014, Bobby's Kitten, named after the late Hall of Fame trainer, captured the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita Park.
The colt, bred out of Galileo and Kind, was trained in Newmarket (England) by Sir Henry Cecil, won all of his 14 starts, and received the highest rating ever awarded by the British publication Timeform.