Stanley Hough, 72, Retires From Training Career For The Second Time

Longtime Thoroughbred trainer Stanley Hough first retired in 2012, but he was coaxed back into the shed row in 2018 by mentee Hunter Rankin on behalf of Kevin Plank's Sagamore Farm. Hough and Rankin, racing manager and president, respectively, had been rebuilding the Sagamore program since 2015, and there were a couple special 2-year-olds Hough wanted to keep a closer eye on.

One of those was Global Campaign, a half-brother to G1 winner Bolt d'Oro. The colt's career got off to a good start in 2019 with wins in the G3 Peter Pan and the G3 Monmouth Cup, but he really blossomed in 2020 with a victory in the Grade 1 Woodward and a third-place finish in the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic. Global Campaign earned a total of $1,321,080 on the track with six wins from 10 starts.

The 4-year-old son of Curlin has since been retired to co-owner WinStar Farm to prepare for a career at stud, however, and Sagamore Farm announced the termination of its horse racing involvement in early November.

Now 72 years old, Hough made the decision to head back into retirement.

“When WinStar decided it was better for the horse to go to stud—because he is being very well received—for me, it was a bittersweet thing, but it helped me make the decision,” Hough told bloodhorse.com. “I still have some horses I own part of and that will go on for a while, but in terms of training, I'm going to let someone else do it. COVID-19 has been hard for everybody, and I've been away from home a lot. I'm not getting any younger, which is obvious, but I decided I would pack it in for good this time.”

Hough's resume at his retirement stands at 2,212 wins from 12,921 starters with total earnings of $47,892,444.