Frank LaBoccetta, who trained a number of stakes winners on the New York circuit, including 1982 Wood Memorial winner Air Forbes Won, over a 34-plus-year training career, died on Nov. 1 from a heart attack, according to his wife, Theresa. He was 85.

Born in Brooklyn, LaBoccetta attended John Adams High School, only a few blocks away from Aqueduct. According to his biography in a New York Racing Association media guide, LaBoccetta got his first experience around horses in 1955 overseeing polo ponies for the Hall of Fame trainer Hollie Hughes.

Kelly worked as groom for trainer Walter Kelley and eventually went out on his own to train in November 1970.

LaBoccetta saddled his first winner, Roman Decision, in May 1972. Equibase statistics show that from 1972-2004, LaBoccetta won 675 races from 4,963 starters. His horses earned $11,773,440.

Other stakes winners trained by LaBoccetta included Creator, Exattic, Joyful Ruler, Lovin Lass, Mugatea, Mr. Shawklit, Raja’s Revenge, Rocamadour II, and Seascape. He also won 19 races and over $140,000 with the claiming horse Delta Traffic.

LaBoccetta was the leading trainer at the 1977 Aqueduct fall meet and the 1977-78 winter meet.

After retirement, LaBoccetta worked for trainers David Jacobson and, most recently, Ed Barker.

“He was like another set of eyes for me,” Barker said. “He was a really, really good guy. There was not a bad bone in his whole body. He was a really good horseman.”

LaBoccetta stopped working for Barker after the Belmont summer meet in July, unable to make the trip to Saratoga.

“He was unable to go because he wasn’t driving. I was driving him to the track,” said Theresa LaBoccetta, to whom Frank was married for 59 years. “He was missing it all summer. He would still get up at 3:30. I’d be sleeping and I’m hearing coming up and down the stairs.”

Frank LaBoccetta was predeceased by his son Frank LaBoccetta Jr., a former jockey and trainer who died in 2021. He is survived by another son, James.