Whereas Sovereignty reigned over North American racing in 2025 — sweeping the Kentucky Derby Introduced by Woodford Reserve, Belmont Stakes Introduced by NYRA Bets, and DraftKings Travers Stakes whereas making a season-leading $5,692,020 —Thoroughbred racing’s winningest horse of final 12 months carved out his personal distinction removed from the highlight. The tireless gelding Sharp Warning turned North America’s wins chief whereas crisscrossing small tracks within the Intermountain West of america.
From the Desert Southwest to the Rocky Mountains and Northern Plains, he confirmed up —successful as a rule — at venues each acquainted and obscure. Turf Paradise and Arapahoe Park appeared alongside lesser-known stops equivalent to Blackfoot and White Pine Racing, the place native followers proceed to assist racing and brief truthful meets function a group centerpiece.
Equibase lists Sharp Warning with 10 victories from 16 begins final 12 months and earnings of $51,572, although that tally comes with an asterisk. He crossed the end line first for an eleventh time when he prevailed Oct. 4 at Fort Pierre, S.D., at a good meet that runs just one weekend annually. The observe shouldn’t be acknowledged with Equibase charts.
Even when that eleventh win shouldn’t be counted, Sharp Warning outpaced 5 different horses with 9 wins apiece in 2025: Silver Slugger, Busk, Motown Dynamic, Pacific Blue, and He’s in Cost.
Racing final 12 months as an 8-year-old, Sharp Warning turned a daily participant for owner-trainer Kayla Warren, who mapped a marketing campaign that valued placement over ambition. Relatively than chasing greater purses, Warren targeted on situations that match her sprinter, trusting that well-spotted alternatives would pile up. They did.
Sharp Warning thrived as a starter allowance mainstay, maintaining a busy racing schedule that Warren stated suited his temperament. Whereas he might not have logged many miles breezing between races, he gathered loads behind a trailer, heading down the highway from one meet to the following, as did others in Warren’s touring secure.
Starting the 12 months at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Sharp Warning misplaced his first two begins of the 12 months earlier than breaking by means of with a 6 ½length victory in a $4,000 claiming race Feb. 19. A nostril starter allowance rating adopted March 31 at Turf Paradise.
When the meet wrapped up, Warren hit the highway in her leisure automobile. Sharp Warning and her different horses did equally, tugged down the freeway in trailers behind a number of vans.
Arriving at Miles Metropolis, residence of Montana’s historic Japanese Montana Truthful, Sharp Warning added one other starter allowance victory. Then, after a few slim defeats in subsequent begins at Miles Metropolis and Power Downs in Wyoming, Sharp Warning hit a stretch over the summer season and early fall when he was unbeatable inside his class of racing.
From July 12 by means of Oct. 4, he reeled off eight consecutive victories, a streak capped by his Fort Pierre triumph.
“Each time we lead him up, I get nervous, particularly when it was like eight in a row. I’m like, I do know sooner or later that is gonna come to an finish,” she stated. “However lengthy story brief, he’s only a fabulous horse. … No matter lit in his coronary heart this 12 months simply made him an distinctive form of horse.”
Among the many highlights was a pair of starter allowance stakes wins in the course of the Japanese Idaho State Truthful at Blackfoot, the place Sharp Warning captured the Enjoyable At The Truthful In a single day Stakes and the Good Previous Boys Stakes, each non-black-type occasions, in consecutive weeks late in the summertime.
Sharp Warning thrives on exercise on the racetrack, Warren stated.
“If he runs on a Saturday, by Tuesday morning, he’s going with the horse and coaching once more,” stated Warren, who trains a mixed-breed secure of Thoroughbreds and Quarter-Horses. “The horse doesn’t like to take a seat within the stall. He loves to coach. He likes to run, and he’s sound sufficient to do all that.”
Every of the 2 starter stakes carried a modest $4,500 purse, however Warren nonetheless treasures each victory.
“I received my first race at a Navajo Nation bush observe, and I used to be hooked,” she stated of her coaching profession that started in 2012.
She nonetheless appreciates racing at smaller tracks and at truthful meets, and he or she embraces the group. Her hometown is Farmington, N.M., however her home-away-from-home is commonly close to a racetrack someplace within the western half of the nation.
Describing the scene through which she and her horses compete, she stated, “Once we pull into Miles Metropolis, Montana, for instance — they’ve what they name the World Well-known Miles Metropolis Bucking Horse Sale. They’ve 50 of the most effective cowboys that come there. Nicely, within the mixture of it, they run racehorses. The entire city, if you are available in there, they simply adore it. The horsemen they love; they simply deal with you with open arms. The grandstands are full. The betting strains are full. It’s simply wonderful to see.”
Sharp Warning’s pace and consistency made him a win machine throughout stops equivalent to Nice Falls, White Pine Racing, and Blackfoot. Solely late within the 12 months at Arapahoe did Sharp Warning present indicators of his kind slipping. In his closing two begins of 2025, he once more held the lead into the stretch, solely to be caught late each instances whereas nonetheless working second.
General, Sharp Warning owns an 18-11-10 report in 69 begins at Equibase-recognized tracks, incomes $141,157, with success for a number of house owners and trainers. Warren started coaching him within the spring of 2024, shopping for him from her good friend and certainly one of her mentors, proprietor/coach Jim Crotts, she stated.
Sharp Warning moved into Warren’s barn about 4 years after he received on debut at Golden Gate Fields in a maiden $22,500 claiming race for coach Victor Trujillo and then-owner Madera Thoroughbreds Racing.
Bred in California by Madera Thoroughbreds, Sharp Warning is out of the stakes-placed Swiss Yodeler mare Swiss Please, who has produced 10 foals, six starters and 5 winners. Madera Thoroughbreds bred her to the stallion Elusive Warning, who stood on the farm. He shares his sire’s chestnut coat.
Along with his 2025 full, Sharp Warning is now having fun with a well-earned respite earlier than embarking on a 2026 marketing campaign at age 9. He’s poised to renew his acquainted position as a frequent traveler and a starter-allowance competitor.
Warren plans to swim him to construct a health basis earlier than easing him again into racetrack coaching.
“He’s at present turned out in Buckeye, Arizona, in a giant ol’ run, rolling round within the sand and having fun with life,” Warren stated.
