Mark Cornett

White Abarrio (Race Day), listed as the even-money favorite in Saturday's GIII Mr. Prospector Stakes at Gulfstream, will be scratched, reports co-owner Mark Cornett. Cornett said that the ownership team and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. have decided instead to train the veteran up to the Jan. 24 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational. White Abarrio was an easy winner of the 2024 Pegasus. "We don't want to run in the Mr. Prospector anymore because we have come up with a plan for him," Cornett said. "The main goal has been the...

It was one of the better Breeders' Cups that we have seen in a long time and it featured great performances and safe racing, exactly the daily double the Breeders' Cup hopes to hit every year. But the good news has been overshadowed this week by a controversy. Why was White Abarrio (Race Day) scratched just minutes before the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile? The owners, C2 Racing Stable, LLC and Gary Barber, want to know, claiming the horse was "perfectly sound." "There's nothing wrong with him," co-owner Mark Cornett...

Reigning Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter Soul of an Angel (Atreides--Factor One, by The Factor) set a new record price for the Fasig-Tipton Digital platform Tuesday, selling to Australia's Chatsworth Stud for $2.6 million in a one-horse flash sale. Winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint in November, Soul of an Angel was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent. Throughout the sale, Soul of an Angel remained at her current base of Gulfstream Park in Florida. "Soul of an Angel took us to the pinnacle of horse...

It was a tough day for the G1 Saudi Cup. Within hours of the breaking news that 2024 3-year-old male champion Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) will not run in the G1 Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Feb. 22, the $20-million race lost another star when the owners of White Abarrio (Race Day) announced that they had also decided to keep their 6-year-old home and focus on a U.S. campaign. "We are going to bypass Saudi," co-owner Mark Cornett said. "We will stay here and...

Inherently, horse racing is an exercise in faith, like when a horse is foaled or has the health and good fortune to make its first career start. Or, if it is one of the very fortunate few to make it into the starting gate on the first Saturday in May. However, Mark and Clint Cornett experienced another leap of faith stemming from the decision to return White Abarrio (Race Day), winner of the GI Whitney and GI Breeders' Cup Classic while under the care of Rick Dutrow Jr., to his...

After White Abarrio (Race Day) trounced his competition in an allowance race Friday, his connections started plotting his upcoming schedule, with the GI Pegasus World Cup as the main goal. Normally, the Dec. 21 GIII Harlan's Holiday S. is the main prep for the Pegasus, but co-owner Mark Cornett said he is leaning toward running the soon-to-be 6-year-old instead in the Dec. 28 GIII Prospector S. at Gulfstream. The Mr. Prospector is run at seven furlongs while the Harlan's Holiday is a mile-and-a-sixteenth race. "We will look at the two...

The last few weeks have been and will continue to be important ones for Mark Cornett's C2 Racing Stable, which he owns alongside his brother Clint. A few weeks ago, the Cornett brothers won the GI PNC Bank Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint with longshot Soul of an Angel (Atreides). And later this week, their stable's star, GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio (Race Day), will have first start since finishing a disappointing fifth in the GI Metropolitan Handicap June 8. He'll run in an allowance race...

Mark Cornett, who owns and operates C2 Racing with his brother Clint Cornett, joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss what's in store for stable stars White Abarrio, Soul of an Angel and more.

White Abarrio (Race Day), the winner of the 2023 GI Breeders Cup Classic, is close to his first workout after being given a freshener by his connections. However, co-owner Mark Cornett reports that the now 5-year-old horse will not be ready in time to defend his title in this year's Breeders' Cup. "The Breeders' Cup Classic is not in our plans," Cornett said. "We're not going in that direction. There's no way he can be ready for that and we want to get a good race in him off this...

Stonestreet Stable's Emery (More Than Ready), whose lone career loss to date came when fourth in the GI Frizette Stakes at Aqueduct last October, returns to the New York oval as the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the GIII Victory Ride Stakes Thursday. The 6 1/2-furlong race with a field of five is the lone graded event on tap for the holiday. Trained by Brad Cox, Emery was a first-out winner at Saratoga last August before finishing some five lengths adrift of champion Just F Y I (Justify) in the Frizette....

After a disappointing showing in Saturday's GI Metropolitan H. at Saratoga, the owners of White Abarrio (Race Day) have decided to send last year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner back to trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. Dave Grening of the Daily Racing Form was first with the story. White Abarrio was with Joseph until last spring when the trainer was temporarily suspended by Churchill Downs after two of his horse died around the time of the Derby. Joseph's situation in New York was also in limbo and owners Clint and Mark...

The team at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company does everything it can to run a clean sale. Under OBS's conditions of sale, no medication may be administered within 24 hours of a horse's under-tack performance, 10 to 15% of the horses who are going to sell are tested, and in 2019, OBS prohibited the use of bronchodilators like Clenbuterol at all of its sales. It may not be enough. The Jeffrey Englehart story has suggested that may be the case. Englehart bought a Classic Empire colt at the OBS auction...