Melvin F. Stute

Who is Melvin F. Stute?

Melvin Frederick "Mel" Stute is an American trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses. On December 11, 2010, at Hollywood Park Racetrack, he won the 2000th race of a career that includes a win in the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, the Preakness Stakes in 1986, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies that same year, and the 1987 Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Stute is the younger brother of trainer Warren Stute. His family moved to California in 1934 when Mel was seven years old. In his teens, Stute worked as a groom at Santa Anita Racetrack before winning his first race as a trainer in 1947 at Portland Meadows Racetrack in Portland, Oregon. Since then he has won twelve training titles at various California tracks of which six were at Fairplex Park Racetrack, where he is the all-time leader in races won.