Breeder/Owner Ray Stark Dead at 88

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Ray Stark, who bred millionaires Cacoethes and Subordination as well as California grade I winner Fabulous Notion, died Jan. 17 at his Los Angeles home after a long illness. He was 88.

An award-winning Hollywood producer, Stark bred Cacoethes with his late wife, Fran. As a 3-year-old in England, Cacoethes won a pair of group stakes, but is best remembered for finishing third in Nashwan's Ever Ready Epsom Derby (Eng-I). The following year, Cacoethes won the 1990 Turf Classic Handicap (gr. IT) at Belmont Park and ran third in the Japan Cup (Jpn-I).

Stark, who owned Rancho Corral De Quati near Los Olivos, Calif., bred Fabulous Notion alone and Subordination with close friend Herbert Allen Sr. Fabulous Notion won all five starts as a 2-year-old in 1982, including the second running of the Hollywood Starlet Stakes. The following year, she captured the Santa Susana Stakes (gr. I) and two other added-money races.

Subordination won eight graded stakes, including the 1997 Hollywood Derby (gr. IT) and 1998 Eddie Read Handicap (gr. IT) on the West Coast. His dam, Not So Careless, remains at Rancho Corral De Quati. She is barren for 2004 and is booked to Johannesburg.

Stark bred 10 stakes winners alone and in partnership, and raced two of them, Margaret Booth and World of Suzy Wong, with his wife. World of Suzy Wong was named after a movie bearing that name.

Stark received the Motion Picture Academy's highest prize for a producer in 1980: the Irving G. Thalberg Award for consistent high quality of production. His resume included such popular films as "Funny Girl," "The Way We Were," and "The Sunshine Boys."

Rancho Corral De Quati will continue to operate as a horse farm.

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