Christophe Clement is the son of successful French trainer Miguel Clement and grew up in his father’s Chantilly yard. After working for the family of Alec Head in France for a year and a half, Christophe came to the U.S. in 1986 to work at Taylor Made Farm before a stint with Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey. He then returned to Europe and worked for Luca Cumani in Newmarket for four years before venturing out on his own.

Clement, an exceptional trainer of grass horses, is perhaps best known as the conditioner of three-time Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti. He is also the trainer of 2014 Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist and Grade 1 winners Hard Not to Like and Discreet Marq among other stakes winners.

In 2019, Clement won graded stakes with Pure Sensation, Gucci Factor, and Decorated Invader, the latter a Grade 1 winner. His top horses in 2020 and 2021 included Gufo, winner of the Belmont Derby Invitational in 2020 and the Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes in 2021, and Mutamakina, winner of the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes in 2021.

Clement entered the 2021 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar with a dubious record: he had the most overall starters among trainers – 40 – without a win. That changed in the third race on Future Stars Friday when Pizza Bianca, a highly-regarded Saratoga maiden winner who entered off of a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine, rallied late to take the Juvenile Fillies Turf under Jose Ortiz.

Todd Pletcher was groomed for the success he has found since opening his own stable with seven horses in 1995. The son of trainer Jake Pletcher, he graduated from the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program with a degree in Animal Science. While a student, he spent his summers working for prominent trainers Henry Moreno, Charlie Whittingham, and D. Wayne Lukas. Two weeks after graduating, he went to work for Lukas, where he spent seven years before going out on his own. Within a few years, Pletcher had emerged as one of the world’s foremost trainers. He oversees a vast operation of some 200 horses with divisions at the nation’s leading tracks.

He has developed 10 champions: Uncle Mo, Rags to Riches, Lawyer Ron, English Channel, Wait a While, Fleet Indian, Speightstown, Ashado (twice), Shanghai Bobby, and Left Bank. He won his first Triple Crown race in 2007 when the filly Rags to Riches edged Curlin in the Belmont Stakes and earned his first Kentucky Derby victory with Super Saver in 2010. Pletcher has won the Eclipse Award as the outstanding trainer six times. He earned his 3,000th victory on Feb. 11, 2012 when Spring Hill Farm won the third race at Gulfstream Park.

In 2013, Pletcher was represented by five colts in the Kentucky Derby, easily the most of any trainer to run a horse in the race. He also sent five fillies to the Kentucky Oaks, nearly half the field. After letting his fleet sit out the Preakness, Pletcher saddled five horses for the Belmont Stakes including the only filly in the field, Unlimited Budget. The move proved to be a wise one as he ended up in the Belmont winner’s circle with Palace Malice.

In 2014, Pletcher continued his dominance in the sport by leading all trainers by purse earnings, graded stakes wins and stakes wins, securing his record seventh career Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer. In 2015 Pletcher trained Eclipse Award finalists and Breeders’ Cup winners Liam’s Map and Stopchargingmaria and again led all trainers by earnings.

During spring 2017, Pletcher assembled a formidable roster of Kentucky Derby candidates, as he adroitly placed his horses in key Derby preps at different tracks and then watched them accumulate qualifying points with wins or runner-up finishes. By April, he had a half-dozen live contenders for the Kentucky Derby lined up, topped by Florida Derby winner Always Dreaming, Tampa Bay Derby winner Tapwrit, and Rebel Stakes winner Malagacy.

He ended up running three horses in the Kentucky Derby, with Always Dreaming becoming his second career Derby winner. Although Always Dreaming came up short in the Preakness, Tapwrit gave him a 2017 Triple Crown double with a victory in the Belmont Stakes. Tapwrit’s win was Pletcher’s third in the Belmont Stakes.

In 2018, Pletcher won Grade 1 races with Audible, Magnum Moon, Hi Happy, Unbridled Mo, and Army Mule, and he picked up his 10th victory at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships when Bulletin won the inaugural Juvenile Turf Sprint on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.

Pletcher won his first Dubai World Cup day race in 2019, capturing the Godolphin Mile with Coal Front. That fall, he also scored a first-ever win in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic, as Vino Rosso took the $6 million race at Santa Anita Park. That boosted Pletcher’s win total at the World Championships to 11.

In 2021, Pletcher brought unbeaten Malathaat into the Longines Kentucky Oaks and picked up his fourth career win in the historic race after the filly defeated Search Results. That was an early highlight in a year which saw the trainer receive a nomination to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs. 

Earlier that summer, Pletcher assumed training Life Is Good from Bob Baffert, and the former Kentucky Derby winter-book favorite who missed the Triple Crown returned to run a sharp second in the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes and then win the Kelso Handicap. Sent off as the odds-on favorite in the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, the 3-year-old colt set a fast pace but found another gear in the stretch to win going away and give Pletcher his 12^th Breeders’ Cup victory.

Through the first half of 2022, Pletcher found success with Life Is Good, who dominated the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes Presented by 1/ST BET in his first start of the year, and the classy Mo Donegal. That Uncle Mo 3-year-old colt won the Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by Resorts World Casino and after finishing fifth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve returned five weeks later to give Pletcher his fourth win in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets. Life Is Good continued hi stellar campaign with Grade 1 wins in the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga and the Wodward Stakes at Belmont at the Big A.

In 2022, Pletcher campaigned 2-year-old Forte to stardom with three Grade 1 victories, including the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, and capped-off with a win in the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland. On the Saturday of the 2022 Breeders’ Cup, Pletcher earned his second win of the event when Malathaat won a three-horse photo to emerge victorious in the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

While growing up in Mechanicville, N.Y., Brown frequently attended the summer meet at nearby Saratoga Race Course with his family. He got his first experience around horses during high school working with Standardbred trainer Paul Kelley at Saratoga Raceway. While he was a student at Cornell University, where he was headed toward a career as a veterinarian, Brown worked summers for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. By the time he graduated from Cornell, Brown had decided that he would rather train horses and continued working for McGaughey.

He took an internship with a veterinarian then accepted an opportunity to work for Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel in 2002. Brown earned promotions in Frankel’s high-profile operation and was handling a division when he decided to go out on his own in November 2007. Brown has had a meteoric rise to national prominence, winning with the first horse he started at Saratoga Race Course and his first Breeders’ Cup starter, Maram, in 2008. In 2011, Brown earned his first Grade 1 victory, trained his first champion, Stacelita, winner of the Beverly D., and finished 16^th nationally with $5.2 million in purse earnings. In 2012, Brown trained his second champion with Zagora, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Brown ran his first horse in the Kentucky Derby in 2013 and finished a good fourth with Normandy Invasion. Brown has won such races as the Arlington Million and Sword Dancer Stakes but his biggest weekend of racing in his career so far had to come at the 2014 Breeders’ Cup where he won three races, including Lady Eli’s win in the Juvenile Fillies, Bobby’s Kitten’s Turf Sprint tally and Dayatthespa and Stephanie’s Kitten running first and second in the Filly & Mare Turf. In 2015, he won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Wavell Avenue and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf with Stephanie’s Kitten. He picked up his third win in the Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2016 with New Money Honey, and his fourth in 2017 with Rushing Fall, who was his ninth Breeders’ Cup winner overall. Brown was not finished at the 2017 Breeders’ Cup, as his colt Good Magic scored an upset win in the Sentient Jet Juvenile to become a leading Kentucky Derby prospect.

After the 2016 season, Chad Brown was named the Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer.

In 2017, Brown won his first American classic race when his Cloud Computing captured the 142nd Preakness Stakes. Brown repeated as the Eclipse Award winner as outstanding owner after once again leading all North American trainers in earnings. All in all, Brown was represented by 11 different Grade 1 winners in 2017. His top earner was Arlington Million winner and Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up Beach Patrol, with $1,749,975.

In 2018, Brown finished second in the Kentucky Derby with Good Magic, who later won the betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes. He also won Grade 1 races with Sistercharlie, Fourstar Crook, A Raving Beauty, Robert Bruce, Rushing Fall, Separationofpowers, Wow Cat, Complexity, Funtastic. In November at Churchill Downs, Brown extended his record of dominance in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with Newspaperofrecord, who rolled to a front-running runaway victory. The win was the third straight in the Juvenile Fillies Turf for Brown, the fourth in five years, and his fifth win in the race overall.

On 2018 Breeders’ Cup Saturday, Brown scored again in another race he had prior success in, as Sistercharlie gave him his fourth win in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf with a game victory over Wild Illusion. Brown also trained third-place A Raving Beauty.

Two days after winning the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer for the third consecutive time, Brown celebrated on Jan. 26, 2019, at a rain-soaked Gulfstream Park when Bricks and Mortar took the inaugural running of the $7 million Pegasus World Turf Cup Invitational, the richest grass race in North America. Bricks and Mortar was a perfect 5-for-5 for Brown in 2019 ahead of a start in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf.

On Future Stars Friday at the 2019 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Brown netted his 13th career win in the event when Structor closed powerfully to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Presented by Coolmore America, giving Brown his first win in that race. The next day, Brown enjoyed another day of firsts. He picked up his first win in the TVG Breeders’ Cup Mile when Uni rallied powerfully to prevail and then earned his first win in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (after a pair of seconds in 2016 and 2017) with Bricks and Mortar.

Brown surpassed the previous North American earnings record of Todd Pletcher ($28,116,097 in 2007) with purse earnings of $31,112,144 in 2019. He was honored at the Eclipse Awards with a fourth consecutive trophy as Outstanding Trainer.

Brown continued to reside in the elite echelon of trainers during 2020-22, campaigning top horses such as Raging Bull, Search Results, Dunbar Road, Public Sector, Bleecker Street, Jack Christopher, and Zandon. In 2022, Brown picked up his second win in a Triple Crown race when Early Voting, owned by Cloud Computing’s co-owner Klaravich Stables, took the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. His Zandon had finished third in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve two weeks prior.

Chad Brown added another Breeders’ Cup victory to his career tally in 2022 when his 4-year-old filly Goodnight Olive won the Breeders’ Cup filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland. In 2023, Brown won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf for the sixth time with Hard to Justify for his 17th career win at the World Championships.

Russell started her career in racing as an amateur jockey, competing in 20 amateur races, with two wins, between 2006 and 2017. During that period, she worked for numerous top trainers, including Brad Cox, Jonathan Sheppard, Jimmy Jerkens, and Ron Moquett.

In early 2018, Russell launched her own stable. She won with her first starter, Oh My, on February 25, 2018 at Laurel Park. She ended the year with eleven winners from 46 starters.

Russell reached new hights in 2023. Her 118 victories at Laurel and Pimlico Race Course made her the leading trainer in Maryland and she also claimed her fifth career individual meet training title at Laurel Park.

Born and raised in Louisville, Ky., Brad Cox began his career under trainers Burk Kessinger and Jimmy Baker, later earning a job as an assistant to trainer Dallas Stewart. Cox launched his solo training career in 2005 and has since trained multiple graded stakes Chocolate Ride and Call Pat as well as top-tier runners Spelling Again, Almasty, and Carve. In 2018, Cox was the leading trainer at the Fsir Grounds meet that ended March 31 with 54 winners.

Cox had three runners for the Longines Kentucky Oaks, including Monomoy Girl, who gave Cox his first career Grade 1 win in the Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland in April.  Monomoy Girl gamely dug in to fend off Wonder Gadot in a thrilling stretch drive to win the Kentucky Oaks, giving Cox another Grade 1 on his resume. After added a pair of Grade 1 wins over the summer, Monomoy Girl gave Cox his first Breeders’ Cup victory when she held off fast-closing Wow Cat to win the Longines Distaff on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.

In 2019 he trained speedy 3-year-old filly Covfefe to a track-record victory in the Adena Springs Miss Preakness Stakes, completing six furlongs in 1:07.70 and later that fall captured the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes with British Idiom, who went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 1. Cox’s memorable Breeders’ Cup continued on Nov. 2 when Covfefe took the 2019 Filly and Mare Sprint as the 3-2 favorite.

In 2020, Cox enjoyed the return of Monomoy Girl, who won her first three races of the year through September, including two graded stakes. He also picked up his second win in the Longines Kentucky Oaks with longshot Shedaresthedevil. His sustained success through October was only a prelude to a breakthrough November weekend at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, however.

At Keeneland, Cox tallied his fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh wins in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships with Juvenile Fillies Turf victress Aunt Pearl, TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance winner Essential Quality, Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile winner Knicks Go, and the sensational Monomoy Girl in the Distaff. Monomoy Girl captured her second Distaff for Cox and in all likelihood punched her ticket to the Racing Hall of Fame.

That memorable weekend at the 2020 Breeders’ Cup helped Cox win his first Eclipse Award as Outstanding Trainer. He finished 2020 ranked second by purse earnings among North American trainers with $18,983,832 and also second with 30 graded stakes winners.

In 2021, Cox raced in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve for the first time. He entered Mandaloun and Essential Quality, the favorite. Both raced well, finishing second and fourth, respectively. Five weeks later, Essential Quality returned to win the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, giving Cox his first win in a Triple Crown race.

Cox added a Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic win to his credentials in 2021, when he saddled Knicks Go to victory. The 4-year-old colt took the field gate-to-wire for his third Grade 1 win of the year.

Cox finished 2021 by establishing a single-season North American earnings record for a trainer with over $31.8 million, and he received his second consecutive Eclipse Award as Outstanding Trainer.

Less than two weeks later, on Feb. 21, 2022 the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission issued a ruling disqualifying Medina Spirit from first place in the 2021 Kentucky Derby based on the horse testing positive for betamethasone on raceday, elevating Mandaloun as the winner. Louisville native Cox thus added a Kentucky Derby victory to his list of accomplishments.

Cox was well-represented at the 2022 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland and scored a victory in the two-day event with perhaps the unlikeliest of his starters when 42-1 longshot Caravel went wire-to-wire to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

The son of Michigan-based trainer George Maker has been around the racing business his entire life. He bought his first horse when he was 13 with money he earned from working for his father and delivering newspapers. The horse won his first start. Maker spent 10 years working for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas before opening his own stable in 2003.

During his time with Lukas, he handled a number of standouts, including Cat Thief, Cash Run, Spain, Orientate, Surfside and the 1999 Horse of the Year Charismatic, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Based in Louisville, Ky., Maker has been the leading trainer at Keeneland, Churchill Downs and Turfway Park. He was the trainer of 2011 champion 2-year-old Hansen and has a long list of stakes winners that features Blue Grass winner Stately Victor, Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Furthest Land, Coolmore Lexington Stakes winner Derby Kitten, Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup winner Kitten’s Dumplings, and Secretariat Stakes winner Admiral Kitten.

Maker picked up his third victory in the Breeders’ Cup in 2020 when Fire at Will closed with a rush to pass Outadore late and post a 30-1 upset in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf presented by Coolmore America Nov. 6 at Keeneland. He paid $62.40 for a $2 win bet and joined Hansen (2011 Juvenile) and Furthest Land (2009 Dirt Mile) among Maker’s victors at the World Championships.

Brendan Walsh, a former assistant to Eddie Kenneally, picked up his first win as a trainer in 2012. The Ireland native notched his first graded stakes win in 2014 and in 2017 was present on the Triple Crown trail with Illinois Derby winner Multiplier. Walsh’s other top runners include multiple graded stakes winners Scuba, Proctor’s Ledge, and Honorable Duty.

In 2019 Walsh sent Derby hopeful Plus Que Parfait to Dubai to compete in the UAE Derby, and the ridgling responded willingly to win the $2.5 million race and earn a place in the Kentucky Derby starting gate.

One of several trainers for the global powerhouse Godolphin Stable, Walsh earned his first Grade 1 win when Godolphin homebred Maxfield won the 2019 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity. Maxfield added a second Grade 1 win in 2021, when Walsh set new career highs for wins with 81. The following year, Walsh set a new personal best in purse earnings with more than $8.6 million while winning three Grade 1 races in 2022. 

Walsh added a marquee win in May 2023 when he sent out Godolphin’s Pretty Mischievous to a victory in the $1.25-million Longines Kentucky Oaks, his first win in the most important U.S. race for 3-year-old fillies.

A Louisville, Ky. native, Weaver started out as a hot walker for trainer Mark Hennig. He took out his trainer’s license in 2002 after working as an assistant to Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas and Todd Pletcher.

Weaver earned his first Grade 1 win in 2013 when Lighthouse Bay won the Prioress Stakes. Other top horses trained by Weaver include Isotherm, Falling Sky and Saratoga County.

In 2019, Weaver-trained Vekoma earned a berth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve with a win in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes.

Jorge Abreu is a native of the Dominican Republic. He came to the United States in 1984 when he was nine years old and has steadily worked his way up the ladder to where he could finally commandeer his own outfit in 2016.

His first job in racing was with Murray Garren. Abreu then went on to gallop for Billy Badgett. His first assistant trainer job was with John Terranova, where he galloped for him too. Then, from Terranova, Abreu switched to Nick Zito when he had graded stakes winners including Bellamy Road and Sun King. After six years with Nick, he went over to Chad Brown’s barn and was an assistant for nine years.

Born in Hagerstown, Maryland, Dutrow is the son of the late Dick Dutrow, a long time Mid-Atlantic trainer, who had 3,665 career victories at the time of his death in Feb. 2000. His brothers Tony and Chip also are trainers. The Dutrow brothers went to the barns with their father as young children and Rick began working as an assistant to his father at the age of 16.

Dutrow went out on his own in the late 1990s when his father left New York to return to Maryland. Things were not easy at first; he had no money and was living in a tack room at Aqueduct. His stable consisted of one horse, Churkin, whom he had claimed for $16,000. Dutrow’s career began to take off in 2000. His lone stakes winner that year was Stalwart Member, who was owned by commodities trader Sanford Goldfarb. Goldfarb, leading owner by wins in New York in 2001, 02 and 03, was the main force in propelling Dutrow’s numbers skyward.

Dutrow’s career reached a pinnacle in 2008 with two champions, Big Brown, the year’s best 3-year-old male, and Benny The Bull, the year’s best sprinter. Big Brown’s dominance of his division featured wins in the Kentucky Derby, despite drawing post 20, and Preakness. Unfortunately, he failed to fire in the Belmont and was pulled up by jockey Kent Desormeaux. Following the debacle in the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown returned to the winner’s circle with a victory in the G1 Haskell Invitational and the Monmouth Stakes on turf, but was retired in early October, prior to the Breeders Cup Classic. Anyone who gets to live through anything as exciting as I have with Big Brown is living a very good life, Dutrow said.

Born in Manitoba, Canada in 1984, Atras began training in 2009. He won his first race on June 13, 2009 at Assiniboia Downs, near Winnipeg. 

Atras enjoyed success in Canada for several years, and won his first American stakes race at Turf Paradise in 2013, when he sent Flexiplus to victory in the Hasta La Vista Handicap. He later moved to the United States and was an assistant trainer for fellow Canadian Robertino Diodoro for several years. 

In 2019, Atras went back out on his own, and won his first stakes race in New York later that year with Royal Albert Hall in the Bernardini Stakes. 

Atras earned a pair of major career milestones in 2021. On Jan. 30, he won his first graded stakes race when American Power won the Grade 3 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct. On July 24 at Saratoga, he won his first grade 1 race, when Maracuja pulled the upset in the Coaching Club American Oaks, defeating Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat. 

A native of Texas, DePaz got his first racetrack job at Louisiana Downs for trainer Eddie Reese. He also worked for trainers John Servis and Ralph Nicks before he spent a year in Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas’ operation.

In 2006 DePaz joined trainer Todd Pletcher as a foreman and exercise rider before he was hired as an assistant to Ignacio Correas, Sagamore’s previous private trainer, in 2011. When Correas went out on his own in 2015, Sagamore handed the reins to DePaz.

Among the notable horses DePaz has trained for Sagamore are multiple graded-stakes placed Recruiting Ready , winner of the 2017 Chick Lang at Pimlico Race Course; Ginger N Rye , who won the 2017 Smart N Fancy at Saratoga; 2017 Tremont Stakes winner He Hate Me ; and 2017 Arlington-Washington Futurity winner Barry Lee , who came in second in the 2017 Futurity (G3) at Belmont Park.

David Donk caught the racing bug from his father who owned racehorses since 1968 and grew up across the road from the farm where the family horses were boarded, near Finger Lakes Racetrack in western New York. Donk worked at the track as a teenager and later worked under Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens until 1990, when he started training his own string of racehorses full time.

Donk trained turf runner Awad to a trio of Grade 1 wins and also conditioned such graded stakes winners as Pennine Ridge, Ordway, Incurable Optimist, Sharp Performance, Hessonite and King Kreesa.

New York-based Robert Falcone Jr. started training racehorses in 2014 at the age of 20. His lifelong love of horses led him to the track, where he worked under trainer Dominick Schettino in high school before taking over the training of horses belonging to his father, Robert Falcone Sr.

Falcone Jr. earned his first win in 2014 and tallied his first graded stakes win in 2016 when Mind Your Biscuits won the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga. He captured his first Grade 1 win later that year when the same horse won the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

Born in Hastings, Mich., Gorham grew up showing horses and came to the horse industry by way of Michigan State University Veterinary School, where he was graduated in 1977. With Marion he opened a small animal practice in Kalamazoo, Mich., and around 1984 added his primary field of interest, equine reproduction, to serve the sport horse industry. With the advent of Michigan’s state breeding program, the Gorhams established a Thoroughbred farm in Kalamazoo and began their breeding operation.

Their foray into racing picked up steam in 1987 when they entered into a partnership that bought four broodmares in foal and a couple of 2-year-olds. The next step was campaigning horses as an owner, and Gorham’s experiment paid off with multiple graded stakes winner Double Booked, who bankrolled $835,703 in 57 starts. Gorham still owns and tends Double Booked, now 27.

“Owning horses was a full-time job,” said Gorham. “I got a quick education in the business.”

In 1994 he took out his training license. Most of his wins came in Michigan for Henry Mast, still a principal client. The two own horses together and are co-breeders on others. Mast owns Mast Thoroughbreds, a farm in Caledonia, Mich., where he keeps broodmares and raises the foals to yearlings before sending them to Gorham to train.

Gorham’s stable stars have included Rockem Sockem, Michigan’s Horse of the Year for 2004 and 2005, and Weatherstorm, Horse of the Year for 2006. He currently has about 100 horses in training, including the 2-year-olds at his training center. He maintains his primary racing string at Thistledown and has another stable at Indiana Downs. Among his current standouts is Mast’s Prince of Time, an Indiana-bred stakes winner.

Racing is a family business for Gorham, who still finds time for his small-animal veterinary practice. His sister owns horses and is his business partner. His mother-in-law owned racehorses and his wife, Erin, bred and raced horses of her own.

Ray Handal got his first job Hot Walking at Calder Race Course in South Florida. In the summer of 2004 he was sent to Virginia for the Colonial Downs meet. There he was able to associate with other trainers and was offered a Groom position for the upcoming Saratoga meet with Jonathan Sheppard. On the way from Virginia to Saratoga Ray stopped at Mr. Sheppard’s farm in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. He was in awe of the beauty of the farm and the stable operation and realized that there was an opportunity for me to learn how to ride. Handal asked Mr. Sheppard if I could stay at his farm to learn to ride instead of going up to Saratoga and he said yes. There he spent the next two years hot walking, grooming, and learning to be an exercise rider.

Since his time at Mr. Sheppard’s farm, Handal has continued to work for some of the most talented horsemen in the industry. From Michael Matz he learned to refine his horsemanship and riding skills. From Kenny McPeek he learned how to run a stable as a business enterprise and what qualities to look for in order to find the “value buy” horse. From Christophe Clement I learned about muscle & body soreness, how to treat & relieve pain, and signs to look for in order to prevent bigger issues from developing.  From Anthony Dutrow he learned how to tailor training programs, improve performance and how to mentally and strategically prepare to become a trainer. From Tom Morley he was motivated to start Handal Racing after seeing a young trainer achieve success in the New York circuit.

Kantarmaci Racing is one of the hottest training stables on the East Coast.  The Kantarmaci Family had made their name in their native Turkey, where Mertkan and his brother Illkay learned the business from their dad, highly regarded trainer Tuncay Kantarmaci. Coming to America in 2016, the Kantarmaci’s are winning at high percentages on the NYRA circuit and building their name and their stable. They won the NYRA Under 20 Claiming Title 5 consecutive times (2018-19 Aqueduct winter, 2019 Belmont spring/summer, co-winning the 2019-20 Aqueduct winter, 2020-21 Aqueduct winter, 2021 Belmont spring/summer). Known to be some of the hardest working guys on the grounds, America’s Pastime Stables are thrilled to be partnered with these future stars in the industry.

Going back-and-forth between New York and Pennsylvania, Ilkay Kantarmaci is our lead trainer at Parx and assistant trainer for Mertkan in New York. Ilkay came to America alongside his brother Mertkan in 2016 from Turkey. Working together, the brothers have been very successful in their first 5 years in the States.

John Kimmel secured his first win as a trainer in 1987, and for several years afterward was one of the leading trainers on the New York circuit, saddling Grade 1 winner Hidden Lake and Grade 2 winner Successful Appeal among many other stakes winners.

During the 2000s, he was represented by such elite horses as 2004 Florida Derby winner Friends Lake and 2006 two-time Grade 1 winner Premium Tap, who ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Kimmel’s graded stakes winners were less plentiful during the 2010s, but he picked up his first Breeders’ Cup win in 2017 when Bar of Gold took the Filly and Mare Sprint in a 66.70-1 upset.

Kimmel is a 1980 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School.

A native of Colombia, John Ortiz moved to the U.S. as a young child when his father, jockey Carlos Ortiz, relocated from his home country to ride in New York.

Ortiz began his own career in the horse industry at age 16 hotwalking for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. He then gained experience working for other trainers and became Kellyn Gorder’s head assistant in 2011.

Ortiz started his own training career in 2016 at age 30 and picked up his first win at Turfway Park in December. He built his career mainly in Kentucky and Arkansas over the next several years, and won his first graded stakes when Zulu Alpha captured the 2019 Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland.

In 2022, Ortiz trained Barber Road, a colt who hit the board in all four of Oaklawn Park’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve preps. He accumulated enough qualifying points in those races (concluding with a runner-up finish in the Arkansas Derby) to secure a spot in the starting gate for Derby 148.

Chris Progno has been a mainstay at Finger Lakes Racetrack, continuing his family’s success on the circuit where his father, John, was a trainer for 30 years.

Located in Farmington, New York, Finger Lakes is located about 200 miles west of Saratoga Race Course. It’s also the home base of Progno, who was credited with his first wins as a trainer in 2003, though he did not start training full time until 2008.

While larger circuits mean bigger purse money and more prestige, Progno said the benefits of operating at smaller track can be more flexibility for his starters to ship into NYRA-run tracks.

“The way they write the condition books at Finger Lakes is that, because our purses are so much less, it allows us to win more races and still be eligible for certain restricted New York-bred races in Saratoga, Aqueduct and Belmont,” Progno said.

Born in Oxford, UK, Dan grew up around horses, showjumping competitively as a teenager. He studied at The University of Edinburgh and worked under trainers Richard Gibson, Jonathan Pease in France and the late steeplechase trainer Peter Monteith. Dan graduated from the Godolphin Flying Start program which included work placements with trainers Jeremy Nosesda in the UK, David Hayes in Australia, Godolphin in Dubai and Richard Mandella in California. He was assistant trainer to Richard Mandella in California from 2007 to 2009, working with Grade 1 winners The Tin Man, Into Mischief and Dixie Chatter. Served as assistant trainer to Tom Albertrani in New York, Florida and Kentucky from 2009 to 2011 working with Grade 1 winners Gozzip Girl, Flashing and Kentucky Derby starter Brilliant Speed. Dan took out his trainer’s license in November 2011 and saddled his first winner less than a month later.