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Race For Winningest Horse Comes Down To Final Weekend Of ’23

North America's winningest Thoroughbred in terms of victories this year will have 10 wins, but the final weekend of 2023 will determine if the Midwest-based gelding Fayette Warrior (Exchange Rate) ends up alone atop the leaderboard or if he has to share the honor with two nine-win rivals in the mid-Atlantic who could tie the mark either Dec. 30 or 31.

The 7-year-old Fayette Warrior, who sports a lifetime record of 19-11-7 from 71 starts with $241,772 in earnings, has topped the continent since his last victory at Columbus against starter-allowance company Oct. 21. He then finished second Oct. 29, also at the Nebraska track, before owner/trainer Troy Bethke gave him a break to prepare for a 2024 campaign.

With Troy's son, Scott Bethke, riding Fayette Warrior in all 18 starts this year, the pair also posed for winner's circle photos at Energy Downs (three times), plus Fonner Park, Sweetwater County Fair, and Wyoming Downs (twice each).

“He's a little bitty horse. He probably barely reaches 15 hands. Just a small-statured horse, but he's got a big heart, and he likes to run,” Troy Bethke told TDN. “Every time we lead him up there, he gives you 100%. He's a spunky, cocky little guy; a good-looking rascal. He likes to train, likes to race–just a good little horse.

“We only had a couple of races where he didn't run great this year, and both of them he got in trouble,” Bethke said, noting that Fayette Warrior only finished out of the money three times. “One was on the backside where he got pinched into the rail, and then another one it was really muddy and he just didn't seem to handle the track that day. Scott's kind of grown attached to him, and in that particular race I think he kind of took care of him a little bit.

A $90,000 KEEJAN purchase for Calumet Farm back in 2017, Fayette Warrior debuted for trainer Wesley Ward at Saratoga in 2018 (seventh at the MSW level). But he won his next start at Kentucky Downs by 4 1/4 lengths, and was then was fourth and third in listed stakes at Belmont Park and Laurel Park

After that, Fayette Warrior drifted downward in class to circuits in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota while switching stables 13 times before finally landing with Bethke.

“I claimed him two years ago. We ran him at Canterbury, then in Nebraska and Colorado,” Bethke said. “This last summer, we started in Nebraska, then a gal who was an assistant for me went out to Wyoming and ran that circuit out there. Then he came back to Nebraska.

“We were trying to put him in races where he would run well. We knew that he was doing well, up towards the top [of the North American leaderboard],” Bethke said.

No matter the level of racing, achieving 10 victories “is a lot of wins” for any horse, Bethke said.

“He'll be coming back next year,” Bethke said. “He had a pretty hard, long campaign, so we stopped on him. I've got a little place in Minnesota, so we've got him turned out at the house here right now.

Anthony Farrior | Jim McCue

Reached by phone Dec. 29, Bethke said he wasn't aware there were two other horses entered this weekend to potentially tie Fayette Warrior.

Both of those runners are trained by Anthony Farrior, who told TDN in a separate phone interview that it wasn't his intent to go after the winningest horse title.

“It's just how the races came up,” said Farrior, whose stable primarily competes in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Farrior will run the 4-year-old filly Divine Fashion (Divining Rod) in the third race Saturday at Mahoning Valley, where she's the 7-5 morning-line favorite for a $5,000 starter-allowance.

He's also got the 3-year-old gelding Uncaptured Storm (Uncaptured) on the also-eligible list in the first race at Laurel on Sunday as the 5-2 morning-line choice. That's a $25,000 claimer open to non-winners of three (any age) or straight 3-year-olds (regardless of the number of victories).

“Uncaptured Storm, me and [trainer Mario] Serey claimed him back and forth [twice each this year]. He just seemed to get better as a grew up as a 3-year-old,” Farrior said, adding that being able to take advantage of a condition that pits a nine-time winner against horses who haven't broken through the three-lifetime level is “a little advantage.”

Divine Fashion is going to have to prove she's able to win on the road. All nine of her wins this season have come at Charles Town. The two times she's shipped elsewhere in 2023 (both to Laurel), she's lost.

“She just loves Charles Town,” Farrior said. “She always shows up and runs her race. When you get a nice starter filly at Charles Town [the condition goes back to] two years from the date, so that helps out a lot. She'd probably have won more if my other filly wasn't beating her earlier in the year.”

Farrior was referring to Dulcimer Dame (Mineshaft) a 6-year-old who won seven straight before the month of March ended but has been 0-for-5 since. She'll aim for win No. 8 on Sunday at Laurel.

“They're just sound horses and you can keep them running. So it's worked out great,” Farrior said.

All three of those Farrior-trained winners are owned, either in whole or in partnership, by Richard Burnsworth, whose record as a solo owner in 2023 is an impressive 79-for-298 (26%).

Beverly Park | Coady Photography

“He likes to win. He doesn't mess with me, and he lets me put them in where they belong,” Farrior said of his client.

One other gelding with nine wins, the 6-year-old Never Compromise (Graydar), most recently ran third at Charles Town Dec. 16 and won't make a subsequent start before the year is out. He's owned by Robert Cole Jr. and trained by Stephen Murdock.

In 2022, the continent's winningest horse was Beverly Park (Munnings) with 14 victories. He came back to win four this year.

Between 2012 and 2021, the North American leaderboard was topped by horses who won between eight (in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign) and 12 times.

You have to go back to 2011 to find a truly freakish outlier, which was when the Cole-owned starter-allowance stalwart Rapid Redux ran the table with a 19-for-19 record for trainer David Wells.

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Beverly Park Closes Out Year with 15th Win

There are better, faster horses in the sport, but there's not another one like Beverly Park (Munnings). In an era where five or six starts a year is considered a normal campaign for a horse and many trainers look for seven or eight weeks between starts, the 5-year-old made of blood, flesh and iron continued to laugh at conventional wisdom. In his 30^th start of the year, he won Saturday's third race at the Fair Grounds by 3 3/4 lengths, paying $3.80. The race was a starter optional claimer and it was his 15^th win on the year.

Beverly Park's 15 wins easily led the sport in 2022. Nine other horses are tied for second with eight victories. His 30 starts also led all horses. Pretty Loud (Boisterous) was next with 28. The Fair Grounds was the 14^th track Beverly Park has competed at this year.

“He is definitely an iron horse,” said owner-trainer Lynn Cash. “He's probably the horse of a lifetime. He travels well. He's been a fun horse. I just happened to grab onto his coattails while he was going by and he pulled me up. He's as sound a horse as has ever been. I've never had to do any work on him whatsoever.”

The story of Lynn Cash and Beverly Park began on Aug. 15, 2021 when he claimed the horse from trainer Dane Kobiskie for $12,500 out of a race at Belterra Park. Cash brought him back 13 days later and he won for his new barn. During 2021, he won seven of eight starts for Cash. His overall record for Cash's Build Wright Stables is 22-for-38.

Much of his 2022 campaign was spent in a starter allowances. Throughout the year, he was eligible for races where a horse had started for $5,000 or less in 2021 or 2022. Cash would take him around the country, shipping to wherever he could find a race at that level, traveling countless miles.

“I just love this horse,” he said. “Me and him, from the beginning, we have been the ones together on the road.”

What Cash learned early on was that while Beverly Park may not be a top-level horse when it came to talent, but he more than made up for that with his competitive spirit.

“He's just a competitor,” he said. “He's at the track, slow galloping or jogging and when a horse comes by that is working he wants to take off and go get them. He has so much heart. Every time, he leaves it out there.”

With a new year here, Cash will have a harder time finding races for Beverly Park as he will no longer be eligible for the starter allowance races at some tracks. He said if he can't find enough starter races he will try Beverly Park in allowance races. He also said it's not out of the question that he ventures into stakes company.

“At some point, I may give him his shot in stakes,” he said. “Maybe a Grade III in New York or something like that. They have a lot of small fields in stakes there. I think he deserves that chance.”

He said one goal for 2023 would be to again lead the nation in wins and added that he thought 11 or 12 victories next year was reasonable.

Cash wasn't sure where Beverly Park would run next but said a Jan. 11 race at Parx is a possibility. If not there, a return to the Fair Grounds for a Jan. 19 race could be in the offing. He could, of course, always run in both.

For now, there will be a few days rest and a chance to savor another big win.

“This one was really sweet,” Cash said. “They were very nice to us here at the Fair Grounds. A lot of people came up to us after the race. He's become a fan favorite. Just a special, special horse.”

The post Beverly Park Closes Out Year with 15th Win appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Beverly Park Wins His 14th Race of 2022

Beverly Park, the hardest-working horse in horse racing, came through again Monday, winning the fourth race at Mahoning Valley Race Course. Making his 29th start on the year, he won for the 14th time in 2022.

Beverly Park leads all horse in terms of wins on the year. Five horses are tied for second with eight wins each. His 29 starts also lead in that category with the runner-up, Pretty Loud (Boisterous), having started 27 times.

Sent off at 1-5 in the $17,600 starter allowance race for horses which have started for a claiming price of $5,000 or less in 2021-2022, Beverly Park broke sharply before dueling down the backstretch with Diamonds Enjoy (Kitten's Joy). He shook free approaching the turn and opened up on the field. But Flat Fun (Flat Out) closed strongly in the stretch to make the race close.

Beverly Park won by a diminishing neck. He paid $2.40. Apprentice Yan Aviles was aboard for the win. The running time for the six furlongs over a track listed as good was 1:13.

“He ran well,” owner-trainer Lynn Cash said. “The jockey might have gotten a little lackadaisical coming down the stretch. The jockey looked back two or three times. He looked back under each arm. I think the jockey got a little scare. If he had messed around and gotten beat that would have been really bad. But he dug back in and held that other horse off. The time wasn't that fast, but the track was slow. He broke sharper than he has in his last few races.”

There are just 19 days left on the year, but Cash said he will scour his collection of condition books and try to get another start into Beverly Park before 2022 concludes.

“I'll hope to get a race for him to go,” Cash said. “It comes down to that. He probably has one more start in him this year.”

Once 2023 begins, it will be harder for Cash to find races for his iron horse. Before he was claimed by Cash, Beverly Park ran in a $5,000 claiming race July 8, 2021. That race made him eligible at all tracks that card starter allowances for horses who have run at the $5,000 level in 2021 and 2022. At many tracks, with the start of the new year the conditions for the same races will be for horses that have started for $5,000 in 2022 and 2023. Cash said some tracks write starter races where horses are eligible if they have run for a certain price within two calendar years. That means he will be eligible for starter races at those tracks up until July of next year.

“When we run out of starter races for him, he's still eligible for two-other than allowances,” Cash said. “We'll probably start running in 'two other thans,' but those are tough races. We'll try to find spots for him.”

Cash said he will not run Beverly Park in claiming races, that the horse means too much to him to risk losing him to another stable.

“He'll probably run for another year and a half or so,” he said. “I don't have many mares, but at the very least I'll stand him at stud at my farm. His durability and his bullet-proofness, that's half the battle. His mother was a graded stakes winner and if he was six feet faster, he'd definitely be a sire. I'll never put him in a claiming race. I love this horse so much. Beverly Park is a part of Built Wright Stables. If I hadn't claimed him, nobody would know who I was.”

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Lynn Cash Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Don't tell owner-trainer Norman (Lynn) Cash that horses need eight weeks between races and can only run four or five times a year. Cash, who has been training only since April, 2021, has found success running his horses as often as possible. Led by the remarkable Beverly Park (Munnings), who, on Monday at Mahoning Valley, will make his 29th start of the year, Cash's stable has earned $3,816,293 on the year. He says it has been profitable in 17 of the 18 months it has been in business.

Brought in to talk about his unique approach to training and owning horses (Cash owns every horse in his stable), Cash was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland.

“I personally think that 11 or 12 days between races is absolutely perfect and it works for me,” Cash said. “If you go 10 or 11 days between races you can get 98% out of what the horse has to give you back. That's enough for them to recuperate. They're ready to go. Usually, you're working the horse anyway after a race; you're giving him a work that is a lot like a race. I thought maybe we should just race them into fitness instead of working them into fitness.”

On Beverly Park, Cash said he is a horse who loves to get out there and run.

“He's just such a competitor,” Cash said. “An iron horse, that absolutely fits him. We've not had to do any work on him. He's just an incredibly sound horse. He's just the epitome of a workhorse. Every time he gives everything that he has. He's just such a such a sweet and amazing horse.”

Cash owns a roofing business, which was his primary source of income before getting into racing. He has turned the day-to-day operation of that business over to his sons, so that he can focus on racing. He couldn't be happier with the decision to change careers midstream.

“I'm having the time of my life here,” he said. “They say I've changed careers. But I don't know about that because I don't call this work. This horse racing, it is addictive.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, Lane's End, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, XBTV and West Point Thoroughbreds, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley took a look back at the GI Cigar Mile H. win by the ultra-game Mind Control (Stay Thirsty), as well as last week's GII Remsen S. and GII Demoiselle S. They also discussed the latest news on alleged drug cheat Jason Servis, who appears ready to enter a guilty plea. Cadman and Finley also touched on the story of Maryland-bred star Post Time (Frosted), who is undefeated in three starts while being ridden in the afternoons by his regular exercise rider, Eric Camacho.

Click here to watch the show.

Click here for the audio-only version.

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