Trainer, MLB Player Hank Allen Passes at 83

Harold A. “Hank” Allen, a Major League Baseball player who later became a successful Thoroughbred trainer in Maryland, died May 29. He was 83.

Allen was a native of Pennsylvania but spent many years in Upper Marlboro, Md. He was a trainer for more than 20 years, from 1976-1998, and in the later years was stabled at the Bowie Training Center.

Allen won 286 races, with 298 seconds and 248 thirds for total earnings of $3.64 million. He trained Northern Wolf, winner of the inaugural 1990 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash in which he set the six-furlong track record of 1:09 at Pimlico Race Course. Northern Wolf, who earned almost $500,000, won six stakes and competed in the 1989 Preakness.

Other top horses trained by Allen were multiple stakes winners Sparrowvon ($341,332) and Grade III winner Island Champ ($293,694).

Born July 23, 1940, in Wampum, Pa., he was the son of the late Coy W. and Era Rhodes Allen. He was married to the late El Dora Hughey and together they had two children. He then later married Charlotte Allen.

His professional baseball career included time with the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators, Milwaukee Brewers, and Chicago White Sox. He was a member of “The Allen Brothers” professional baseball trio, which once ranked No. 11 in the “MLB: Brother Combination.”

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