Owner Ken Ramsey fired back at trainer Wesley Ward in court on Thursday, reports bloodhorse.com, filing a response to the trainer's Aug. 3 motion for summary judgement alleging payments from the Ramseys have stopped.
Trainer Mike Maker also filed a similar motion in Kentucky civil court against the Ramseys in July. The Ramseys were sued earlier this year by both trainers for allegedly failing to pay board and training bills. Ken Ramsey told media and the trainers at the time the lawsuits became public that he intended to catch up on the nearly $2 million he owed Ward and Maker.
Ward's motion for summary judgement, filed in Jessamine Circuit Court on Aug. 3, states that the couple agreed to make minimum monthly payments of $100,000 until the total overdue balance of $974,790.40 was satisfied. Ward alleges he received his May payment of $100,000 as well as miscellaneous amounts from purses and claims, but after that the payments stopped. He also alleges that the couple did not pay all the amounts owed to him from purses and claims.
Ramsey's response claims that there is no written agreement between the owner and Ward which specifies a day rate, whether that rate applies to specific horses or a number of horses, and the timing of payments.
The response also indicates that Ramsey asked Ward to return 30 of his horses on July 5, and that Ward filed for an agister's lien to retain ownership of the horses until the alleged debt is paid. Ramsey has reportedly been unable to race those horses, and the response points out that under Kentucky law, plaintiffs “cannot stand idly by” to allow further damages to be incurred when they could be “easily prevented by the use of reasonable efforts, expense, and diligence to prevent, or arrest, the loss.”
Read more at bloodhorse.com.
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