trainer

Trainer Wesley Ward, known particularly for his prowess with 2-year-olds and his success when shipping to Royal Ascot, recorded his 2,000th win as a trainer Thursday when Gold for Kitten (Kitten's Joy) won the sixth race at Churchill Downs. Among Ward's top horses as a trainer have been English highweight and MG1SW Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy); French highweight and G1SW No Nay Never (Scat Daddy); Eclipse champion and Breeders' Cup winner Judy the Beauty (Ghostzapper); and additional Breeders' Cup winners Hootenanny (Quality Road), Four Wheel Drive (American Pharoah), and Golden...

Nobody was paying a great deal of attention to him back then, either. But before ceding the weekend headlines to those storied Oaklawn handicaps, the GI Apple Blossom and GII Oaklawn, perhaps we can all take a step back and pay an overdue tribute to a novice who came to Hot Springs in the winter of 1977. Charlie LoPresti had just turned 20 and, learning the ropes under trainer Joe Cantey, was able to count Cox's Ridge and Miss Raja among the first Thoroughbreds to stimulate the skill and devotion...

Neil French, a licensed trainer since 1971 who was based in Southern California, passed away from heart failure Saturday, Apr. 10, at Arcadia Methodist Hospital near Santa Anita. He was 68. French grew up with a father who was a farrier at Los Alamitos before switching to training, first Quarter Horses and eventually Thoroughbreds. French rode his father's horses in the mornings and then became a trainer on his own as a teenager. Among French's top horses were SW Pencil Point (Ire) (Sharpen Up), SW & GSP June's Reward (Hail...

Trainer Rebecca Bastiman passed away following a long illness according to her Facebook page, Rebecca Bastiman Racing. The trainer was 40. A statement on Bastiman's Facebook page read, "It comes with extreme sadness and heartache that I'm posting this, but sadly Rebecca Bastiman has peacefully passed away after a long illness. "Being a trainer was her dream her life, her everything, she put 110% into the love and care of her four-legged friends. "Rebecca was a dedicated trainer and a hard worker, she was first on the yard and last...

Leading National Hunt trainer Gordon Elliott, the subject of a firestorm this weekend after a photo of him sitting on a dead horse was circulated over the weekend, admitted that the photo was genuine. Hours after saying he would cooperate with investigators without specifically addressing the validity of the photo, he relented and said that the photo was real. The photo shows Elliott sitting astride a stricken horse on the ground. In it, the trainer is making a peace sign. Some versions circulated have the caption "New work rider." His...

On Feb. 6, the Oxford-born Dan Blacker celebrated his first graded stakes win as a trainer when Hit The Road (More Than Ready) took Santa Anita's GIII Thunder Road S., unleashing a powerful turn of foot inside the final furlong to win by an eye-catching 3 3/4 lengths. The progressive 4-year-old now has his sights set on Grade I glory in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile over the same course and distance as the Thunder Road on Mar. 6, and a victory there would epitomize everything Blacker has been working...

Paul D'Arcy, who trained Indian Haven (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) to win the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas in 2003, will saddle his final runner at Kempton on Wednesday. The soon-to-be 65-year-old will leg up John Egan on Knight of Kings (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) in the first race, a seven-furlong maiden over the all-weather. Egan was also aboard Indian Haven for his Classic score. A jockey prior to turning his hand to training, D'Arcy began training in 1993. "I've no regrets, I turn 65 in February and always planned to...

Retired trainer Ralph Biszantz passed away Tuesday in Ocala, Florida after a brief battle with melanoma. Biszantz was 78. His death was confirmed by his brother, owner and breeder Gary Biszantz. "He was living in Ocala and he had a couple of ex-race horses that he took care of," Gary Biszantz said. "The cancer came on him pretty quickly. It only took about three months and the melanoma spread through his lungs. It was a sad way to go, but he wasn't in a lot of pain. It was a...

Now 87, trainer King Leatherbury likes to tell a joke, the one about his destiny and his family's burial plot. "I feel perfectly good and healthy but when I visit my family plot down there, where my whole family has been buried, there's this little sign. It says, 'King Leatherbury, coming soon.'" In the meantime, Leatherbury is not done yet or ready to walk away from a career that has earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame and fifth place on the list of all-time winningest trainers with...

Jack Carava, who saddled better than 1,100 winners in a career dating back to 1986, has announced he is trading in his stopwatch in exchange for a condition book, as he will book mounts on behalf of Tyler Baze beginning with the Santa Anita fall meet Sept. 19. Baze is returning to California following an eight-month absence. "The time is right," said Carava, 54, who has operated both a public and private stable in Southern California for the past 33 years. "I've had a lot of success with Tyler over...

David Lanigan has recently joined Four Star Sales as bloodstock advisor, emphasizing on the private purchase of horses in-training and racing management. Lanigan closed his Newmarket training operation this spring to prepare for his family's planned return to Lexington. Training under Sir Henry Cecil for five years before going out on his own 13 years ago, he retired from training with over 200 winners including top stakes horses, Main Sequence, Meeznah, Interception and Worth Waiting. Prior to working for Cecil, he worked with Four Star Sales' Kerry Cauthen at John...

When working on a plan for a new business 12 months ago, few would have set out contingencies for a global pandemic. Fortunately for George Boughey, who this month celebrates his first anniversary as a Newmarket trainer, the shutdown of racing between mid-March and the beginning of June brought only a brief hiatus to the promising start made from when he saddled his first winner on Aug. 13. That footnote in history belongs to Three C's (Ire), a Kodiac (GB) gelding who has won twice in the year before joining...