A lawsuit filed against Breeders' Cup, the California Horse Racing Board, Del Mar, and unknown defendants accuses them of being responsible for wrongfully scratching White Abarrio minutes before the 2025 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1).
The action was brought in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Thoroughbred's owners, Gary Barber and Mark and Clint Cornett's C2 Racing Stable.
The complaint alleges that after days of rigorous pre-race scientific testing, veterinary exams, and a history of exhibiting a gait like that he displayed at Del Mar minutes before the race, White Abarrio was scratched because of that gait without justification.
"Defendants’ conduct was not a mere exercise of reasonable veterinary judgement (sic)," the complaint says. "It had no rational basis and constituted multiple violations of the regulatory rules and written protocols—including those implemented by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rules, the California Horse Racing Board Rules, and Defendants’ own Veterinary and Horsemen’s Guides. By ... relying instead on a last‑second, subjective impression, Defendants breached their legal obligations to Plaintiffs."
Experts associated with White Abarrio are cited as having been surprised by the scratch. Among them was multiple Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr.
"Ortiz had already ridden White Abarrio to multiple victories," according to the complaint. "In accordance with Defendants’ Protocols, veterinarians considering a last‑minute scratch ordinarily solicit the jockey’s assessment of the horse’s movement and condition, but Defendants’ Veterinary Team did not do so here. Instead, they scratched White Abarrio with no input from Mr. Ortiz, who, in his judgment, was warming up 'perfectly' before the race."
The 20-page complaint repeatedly asserts that White Abarrio's gait is well-documented.
"It was the same gait that had been noted in almost every pre-race veterinary inspection of White Abarrio throughout his career and in the numerous, daily pre-race veterinary inspections by Defendants’ own veterinarians leading up to the Breeders’ Cup race. It was the same gait with which White Abarrio had already run in 24 races and won 10 of them (including) the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Championship Classic race," the complaint alleges.
Among over 200 pages of documents are scientific tests administered Breeders' Cup week—a PET scan five days before the Dirt Mile and a Sleip gate assessment the day before the race.
The PET scan of "all four of White Abarrio’s feet, fetlocks, and both carpi identified only mild to moderate, relatively symmetric stress‑remodeling changes in the fetlock regions and expressly concluded that these findings 'remain within the range of normal for a racehorse in training,'" says the complaint, and the Sleip gait test "showed excellent results and no warnings."
The scratch, plaintiffs say, was based "on a visual inspection that lasted only a few seconds" during the horse's warmup when "one or more members of Defendants’ Veterinary Team decided that White Abarrio’s longstanding, characteristic gait represented a new pathology that rendered the horse 'unsound' in his left front leg. On that basis, (Dr. Brent) Cassady (the Del Mar track veterinarian) then recommended to the Race Stewards that they scratch White Abarrio from the race, which they then promptly did."
As always happens in such cases, White Abarrio was taken back to his barn after the scratch.
"His attending veterinarian was stunned by the scratch," the complaint states. "She immediately examined White Abarrio and watched him jog up and down the road by the barn. She found no lameness or any justification for the scratch." The complaint notes White Abarrio finished second in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) the following January.
The complaint relies on several legal theories, led by, alternatively, intentional, or negligent interference with prospective economic relations; and violation of a section of the California Business & Professions Code that prohibits any person from engaging in “any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice.”
Although plaintiffs claim over $10 million in damages linked to direct and substantial loss of race earnings and related economic benefits, significant out-of-pocket expenses, substantial impairment, and depression of White Abarrio’s stallion and commercial value, weakened breeder demand, and punitive damages, the first demand for relief set out at the conclusion of the complaint is an injunction, not monetary damages.
It asks that "Defendants, and all other persons who act in concert with Defendants, be permanently enjoined from engaging in unfair competition as defined in Business and Professions Code section 17200 et seq., including but not limited to, the acts and practices alleged in this Complaint."
Allegations in a complaint state only one side of a case. Contacted by BloodHorse, CHRB said it does not comment on pending litigation, and Breeders' Cup similarly said it does not comment on threatened or pending litigation. At publication of this story, HISA, which also has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation, has not issued a statement.
