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‘I Wouldn’t Trade The Experience For Anything’: Jill Byrne Leaving Colonial Post

After a four-year tenure at Virginia's Colonial Downs, vice president of racing operations Jill Byrne will step aside after the company's sale to Churchill Downs, Inc., reports The Racing Biz. Though CDI offered Byrne a chance to stay on, she ultimately decided to take a different path.

“It was four years of what we did to get to this point to make Colonial Downs and Virginia racing so valuable to Churchill Downs,” Byrne told The Racing Biz. “It was exhausting and rewarding at the same time when you're the one person responsible for the entire racing part of it — the safety and everything that goes with it. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.”

Byrne joined Colonial Downs from Breeders' Cup Limited where she served two years as senior director of Industry Relations focusing on the promotion and coordination of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series connecting owners, trainers and horses to the Breeders' Cup World Championships and with industry constituents and fans. She additionally produced the Player's Show, the official Breeders' Cup World Championships simulcast signal along with the Morning Works show. Prior to Breeders' Cup, Byrne was the director of Broadcast and Programing at Churchill Downs Racetrack for nearly a decade, overseeing broadcast and production of Churchill Downs race product including the Kentucky Oaks & Derby.

Prior to working at Churchill Downs, Byrne was a host, racing analyst and reporter for TVG. Growing up in a Virginia horse family, she spent countless hours in the stable area galloping and caring for Thoroughbreds trained by her father Pete Howe, who conditioned Eclipse Award winners Soothesayer and Proud Delta. These are the beginnings of her passion for horseracing, launching an era working with then husband Patrick Byrne, trainer of 1997 Horse of the Year and Eclipse Award winners Favorite Trick and Countess Diana as well as 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Awesome Again.

Despite the loss of her father in September, Byrne plans to remain active in the horse racing industry.

“I look forward to continue to make a positive impact in the horse racing industry that has literally been my life from the day I was born,” she said.

Rodolphe Brisset No Longer Training Privately For WinStar

Trainer Rodolphe Brisset is no longer a private trainer for WinStar Farm, reports the Daily Racing Form. According to WinStar president and CEO Elliott Walden, Neal McLaughlin and Terry Arnold will now oversee WinStar's training center.

“We are still working together – just going back to the way things were before,” Brisset told DRF. “I have 20 stalls at Keeneland and 20 at Oaklawn Park for now, many for WinStar and their clients. I just want to put the word out that I'm not private any more.”

A longtime assistant for Bill Mott, the French-born Brisset went out on his own in 2017, developing a relationship with WinStar in which he provided early racetrack training for many of the farm's young horses, including Triple Crown winner Justify. Brisset was announced as having taken over WinStar's training center in June of 2022.

“It just wasn't working the way we wanted it,” Brisset told DRF.

Rosella Hunter Named Business Manager Of National Steeplechase Association

A critical job in any office rests on the shoulders of its business manager, and effective Dec. 1, the National Steeplechase Association has a new one in Rosella Hunter, a native Californian who now makes the NSA's base of Fair Hill, MD., her home.

Besides running the office, Hunter, an equestrian with an eclectic background, will shoulder all financial matters, including general and horseman's bookkeeping, and insurance. In addition, she will act as liaison, servicing all licensed owners, trainers, and riders. Rosella can be reached via e-mail at rosella@nationalsteeplechase.com.

Growing up in a small farming community on the central coast of California, Hunter moved East, to Fair Hill, to campaign an eventer in 2007, and never looked back.

“I grew up showing horses on the West Coast, which led me to working with trainers at Golden Gate Fields, Bay Meadows, and some of the Southern circuit racetracks to re-train and re-home Thoroughbreds retired from racing,” Hunter said.

While attending the University of California at Fresno, Hunter studied agriculture business and pre-veterinary medicine, earning a bachelor of science degree.

With a growing interest in the Thoroughbred industry, Hunter landed a job with WinStar Farm in Kentucky after graduation, where she was foreman of the barren/maiden barn and helped keep watch over the newborn foals at night. Next, she moved on to WinStar's yearling division, prepping them for the sales at the farm and handling them in the ring.

Following her relocation to Fair Hill, Hunter purchased a barn at the Training Center and also continued her education at the University of Delaware, becoming a certified paralegal. But her resume doesn't end there. A licensed realtor in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, Hunter has managed the daily operations for a racehorse trainer, been an executive assistant for a property developer, and business manager for an excavation company.

Living near Fair Hill has its perks, and Hunter enjoys being able to walk her English Lab, Crew, and hacking out on her former lead pony turned pasture pet. In addition, she's an avid fisherman and in the warmer months can be found on her boat exploring the Eastern Shore.

What was it about the NSA job that attracted her?

“I love equestrian sports in general, but racing especially. I have a great appreciation for the horse and human athletes, as well as all the hard work and countless hours that are invested by everyone behind the stable gate. Now that I'm not hands-on in the barn, supporting our horsemen with a well organized and professional association, like the NSA, is the next best thing. My hope is to provide excellent service and support to our members, jockeys, and volunteers, and help grow our sport across the region.”

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Epsom Derby-Winning Jockey Richard Kingscote To Ride At Gulfstream Park This Winter

British jockey Richard Kingscote, winner of the Epsom Derby (G1) June 4 aboard favored Desert Crown, will spend part of his winter riding at Gulfstream Park's Championship Meet.

Kingscote told broadcaster Nick Luck on Nick Luck Daily Podcast Monday that he intends to ride beginning the middle of January. Gulfstream's Championship Meet, highlighted by the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) Jan. 28 and Florida Derby (G1) April 1, begins Dec. 26.

Kingscote not only won his first Epsom Derby this year for trainer Sir Michael Stoute but they also teamed up to win the Champion Stakes (G1) Oct. 15 with Bay Bridge, handing six-time Group 1 winner Baaeed his first career loss in his 11th start.

“I've been lucky enough to be offered to go to Gulfstream Park for a bit,” Kingscote told Luck. “Luckily enough, I've already had a trainer message me, email me, and the guys at Gulfstream Park have been really helpful getting an agent sorted and try to get me out there, which is great. I'm really looking forward to it.

“It's a different style of riding, so I think it can't do me any harm to learn something new and open up a new avenue to my riding…I've been lucky enough to go to some Breeders' Cups and it's just more doors and trying to push me way through a few.”

Kingscote first rode horses as a child growing up in the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, England. He attended the British Riding School and apprenticed with trainer Roger Charlton, riding his first winner in 2004. He became stable rider for Tom Dascombe in 2008 and notched other notable wins have come in the 2014 Irish St. Leger (G1) and 2018 Flying Five Stakes (G1) with Havana Grey.

In 2016, Kingscote won the Dubai Gold Cup on Brown Panther just four months after a spill where he broke his elbow in five places, left wrist and collarbone and suffered two punctured lungs. Last year, he was named All-Weather Champion Jockey for the first time.

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