Jimmy Croll, who died Friday at 88, was a Hall of Fame trainer whose horses included Bet Twice, the winner of the 1987 Belmont Stakes who thwarted Alysheba’s bid for the Triple Crown.

Croll was the trainer and owner of Holy Bull, voted horse of the year as a three-year-old in 1994. Holy Bull was favored to win the Kentucky Derby that year, but finished 12th in a field of 14. Croll insisted that unnamed conspirators had drugged the horse. Holy Bull went on to win a number of other stakes races and then became one of the most successful stallions in the country.

Born March 9, 1920, in Bryn Mawr, Pa., Warren Croll rode at hunt meets and fairs as a youngster. He studied veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania for two years before dropping out to work at the track. He got his trainer’s license in 1940 at Havre de Grace in Maryland. When New Jersey rescinded its law against gambling on horse racing at the end of World War II and reopened Monmouth Park racetrack, Croll moved to New Jersey to train horses full-time. He won his first stakes race in 1951 with War Phar at the Bowie racetrack in Maryland. Over the years, he would train over 60 more stakes winners.

In 1957, Croll began training for Rachel Carpenter, an heir to the A&P fortune. Her newly established Pelican Stable was near Gulfstream Park in Florida, where Croll worked winters. His first acquisition for her finished third in its first race, and the two began an association that lasted nearly 40 years. Another horse he trained for Carpenter, Parka, was the leading grass runner in America in 1965, and went on to win eleven stakes races. Other champions he trained for Pelican Stable included Al Hattab and Herecomesthebride.

At Monmouth, Croll became a crusty track presence, known especially for having a knack with sprinters. He told the Washington Post in 1996 that revving up young horses was his favorite part of the sport. “If I couldn’t train two-year-olds, I wouldn’t want to do this at all,” he said in 1996.

Monmouth’s annual Haskell Invitational became known as “Jimmy’s Race,” after Haskell won it three times, including with Bet Twice, his Belmont champ. Bet Twice also came in second at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but Croll once said he “never got the recognition he deserved.” Among his other standouts were Forward Gal, the 1970 American Champion two-year-old filly, and Mr. Prospector, a prominent sire. Housebuster became national sprint champion in 1990 and 1991.

In 1993, Rachel Carpenter died and left 19 horses to Croll. He sold 18 of them but held on to the two-year-old Holy Bull. The horse won the Florida Derby, the Met Mile, the Travers Stakes, the Haskell, and others. On the morning of the 1994 Kentucky Derby, the odds on Holy Bull were 11-5. Yet after a rocky start, he was far behind most of the field and acted lethargic. Croll insisted that foul play was the explanation: He claimed Holy Bull had been drugged with Halcion. “They got to my horse,” he told the Los Angeles Times. Croll said he knew who’d done it but refused to name names, and no blood sample was taken. Holy Bull went on to dominate several more big races and was named 1994 Horse of the Year. Holy Bull retired in 1995, and in his first season at stud was bred to 68 mares and got 58 of them in foal. Giacomo, one of Holy Bull’s sons, won the 2005 Kentucky Derby.

Croll said he was interviewed by the FBI, but nothing ever came of his suspicions that the Derby was sabotaged.

Later in 1994, Croll was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame at Saratoga Springs.

“I had a long career, but I saved the best for last,” he told the Asbury Park Press in 2001. He retired the next year but remained active as an owner.

He is survived by his wife, Bobbi, a daughter, Nancy, and a son Bill Croll, a trainer who runs his father’s stables.