The suicide death of Steve VanBebber, the nation's leading Quarter Horse trainer who was found dead in a motel room in Brenham, Texas, on Tuesday, has left the racing community baffled.

	“	It will be difficult to replace the ability that Steve brought to the barn. We're stunned. It's just like losing a family member. ”
		— Ted Abrams Sr.

VanBebber, 50, was on top of the racing world, friends said, and filling the void he leaves will not be easy.

"I am shocked at the news because Steve [was] such a positive and alive individual," said Gilbert Ortiz, who with VanBebber formed one of the winningest jockey-trainer teams in Quarter Horse racing. "With his success, it is stunning he would do this to himself."

VanBebber, who had about 120 horses in training, ranks as the third all-time winningest trainer in Quarter Horse history. He dominated tracks in Texas, winning the training title at every Quarter Horse meet ever run at Sam Houston Race Park and Lone Star Park. At those short meets alone last year, VanBebber started 366 horses.

"You don't replace a man like Steve VanBebber," said Mike Shamburg, Quarter Horse racing secretary at Lone Star. "It's a huge void as far as the number of horses he had, and the quality of horses he ran."

"One of Steve's best talents was positioning a horse in a race that he fit," said Ted Abrams Sr., a longtime VanBebber client who with his son Ted, Jr., races Grade 1 winner War Colors. "He never overestimated or underestimated his horses. It will be difficult to replace the ability that Steve brought to the barn. We're stunned. It's just like losing a family member."

Some of VanBebber's peers have speculated the trainer may have been diagnosed with a terminal illness when he was hospitalized briefly during the fall meet at Lone Star. But that is not the case, said Priscilla Ortiz, wife of Gilbert, who spoke to VanBebber's wife, Janet, on Thursday. "She said there was no cancer; he was not terminally ill," said Ortiz.