Trading Trouble Gets It Done for Buck Butler

Earlier this year, William "Buck" Butler was a little worried about how his horses were performing. 2024 was a banner year for his stable. At the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Award Dinner in May, Butler took home trophies for breeder of the year, Horse of the Year, champion 3-year-old filly, champion female sprinter (all for My Mane Squeeze), champion male sprinter (Rotknee), and Broodmare of the Year (In Spite of Mama, dam of both Rotknee and My Mane Squeeze). He is also a finalist for the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association's Small Breeder of the Year for what his horses accomplished last year. But his top horses got off a slow start this year. Owned in partnership with WinStar Farm, My Mane Squeeze (Audible) was winless in her first three starts this year, all in graded stakes (though she did place in two of them). Rotknee has finished third, second, and fourth in his three races in 2025. "After a terrific 2024, I'm reverting to the mean," Butler said in June. "Proving that this breeder of the year doesn't know what the hell he's doing." Not so fast, Mr. Butler. In 34 starts so far this year, Butler's horses have compiled a record of 5-8-9, and millionaire My Mane Squeeze won for fun at Saratoga Race Course in July, taking the Johnstone Stakes by 6 1/4 lengths. And Aug. 9, his 2-year-old second-generation homebred Trading Trouble won a maiden special weight for New York-breds by two lengths, after a narrow second-place finish at Saratoga July 17. The even-money favorite going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, Trading Trouble broke from post 7 under rider Flavien Prat, settled into the two path, and stalked pacesetting Charlottesuniverse up the backstretch and around the far turn. Prat took a run at the leader in the stretch, but Charlottesuniverse put up a fight, yielding only within the final sixteenth. "I look on paper, and I don't always know what I'm looking at," the routinely self-deprecating Butler said, "but it looked like she was going to be a winner. You never know up here, especially in these maiden special weights. I didn't have high expectations for her first race. I did today." Joining Butler in the winner's circle was Dr. Edward Messina; the duo co-bred Trading Trouble's dam Tradeable (Exchange Rate), a half sister to Sanctuary City (Temple City), a multiple stakes-placed New York-bred that earned more than half a million dollars. Tradeable's dam, the stakes-placed Considerate (Leroixdesanimaux), was bred by Messina and raced by him and Butler. "Doc Messina is part of my family," Butler said. "We've been breeding together for a long time, and we've had a lot of fun." Messina bought Considerate's dam Consider It Done for $42,000 at the 2000 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The 3-year-old filly was unraced and had an unremarkable page. "She had nothing under her and she was very crooked," Messina said. "But I recognized that that was mismanagement, not genetics. My son said, 'Dad, that is the worst-looking mare on your list.' I said to him, 'She's not pretty now, but she will be later.'" It's always nice when a parent gets to say, "I told you so." Consider It Done produced nine foals for Messina, five of them winners, four of them earners of six figures, two of them graded stakes winners. Considerate is the lone foal out of Consider It Done that Messina raced. While Butler often breeds to Kentucky stallions, Trading Trouble is by New York's 2024 leading freshman sire and current leading second-crop sire Honest Mischief (Into Mischief), who stood for $7,500 in 2025 at Sequel Stallions New York near Hudson, N.Y. So far in 2025, Butler's horses have a top-three finish percentage of 65%. It's too early to know whether he'll be taking home more honors at the next New York-bred awards dinner, but with the TOBA awards dinner coming up Sept. 6, he might have to make a little more room on his trophy shelf.