Racing Executive Kilroe Dies at 84

Frank E. (Jimmy) Kilroe, a bellwether for racing on both coasts and the man who led Southern California racing into the national limelight during the 1970s, died Saturday night at his home in San Marino.

Kilroe, 84, had been in failing health, suffering several recent strokes. His first stroke, in 1989, came a year before his retirement from Santa Anita, where he started as racing secretary in 1950 and had become senior vice president for racing by 1982.

It was in the 1970s when Kilroe astutely ran the racing departments at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar, a position that enabled him to mold the programs at those tracks into a year-round circuit that had no equal.

Kilroe received the Eclipse Award of Merit in 1979 and the Joe Palmer Award from the National Turf Writers Assn. in 1982. He was elected to the Jockey Club in 1981.