Whereas Sovereignty reigned supreme in North American horse racing in 2025, successful the Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby, NYRA Bets Belmont Stakes and DraftKings Travers Stakes whereas incomes a season-high $5,692,020, final 12 months’s winningest horse in Thoroughbred racing made a reputation for himself removed from the highlight. The tireless gelding Sharp Warning turned North America’s victory chief as he criss-crossed the small programs of the Western U.S. Intermountain.
From the deserts of the Southwest to the Rocky Mountains to the Northern Plains, he has steadily gained in locations each acquainted and obscure. Turf Paradise and Arapahoe Park seem alongside lesser-known stops like Blackfoot Racing and White Pine Racing, with native followers persevering with to help the races and quick honest competitions serving as neighborhood highlights.
Equibase lists Sharpe Warning as having 10 wins in 16 begins and earnings of $51,572 final 12 months, however these numbers are marked with an asterisk. He crossed the end line in first place for the eleventh time when he gained the match, which is held just one weekend a 12 months, on Oct. 4 in Fort Pierre, South Dakota. Tracks should not acknowledged by Equibase charts.
Even when that eleventh win does not depend, Sharp Warning nonetheless topped 5 different horses with 9 wins in 2025 (Silver Slugger, Bask, Motown Dynamic, Pacific Blue and He is in Cost).
Sharp Warning, who entered the race final 12 months as an eight-year-old horse, has grow to be a daily entrant for proprietor and coach Kayla Warren, who plans a marketing campaign that emphasizes placement over ambition. Somewhat than chasing larger purses, Warren centered on the circumstances that suited his sprinters and believed that well-spotted alternatives would stack up. They did.
Sharpe Warning developed right into a mainstay within the working allowance and had a busy racing schedule that suited Warren’s temperament. He could not have logged as many miles within the wind between races, however like the opposite horses in Warren’s steady, he racked up loads of miles using on the street from race to race at the back of a trailer.
Beginning the 12 months at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Sharp Warning misplaced his first two begins earlier than breaking by with a six-and-a-half size victory within the $4,000 race on February nineteenth. Nostril starter allowance rating adopted Turf Paradise on March thirty first.
After the match ended, Warren hit the street in his RV. Sharp Warning and the opposite horses had been equally taken down the freeway on a trailer behind a number of vans.
Arriving in Miles Metropolis, Montana, dwelling of the historic Jap Montana Honest, Sharp Warning added to his starter allowance win. After shedding a number of begins at Miles Metropolis and Power Downs in Wyoming, Sharp Warning continued to carry out properly all through the summer time and early fall, turning into unbeatable in races in his class.
From July 12 to October 4, he gained eight straight races, culminating with a win at Fort Pierre.
“Each time we lead him, I get nervous, particularly when it is like eight wins in a row. It is like, I do know that is going to finish in some unspecified time in the future,” she stated. “However merely put, he is only a nice horse. … No matter has lit his coronary heart this 12 months has made him a unprecedented sort of horse.”
Among the many highlights had been a pair of Starter Allowance Stakes wins on the Jap Idaho Stakes Honest at Blackfoot, and Sharp Warning gained the non-Black races the Followers on the Honest In a single day Stakes and the Good Outdated Boys Stakes in consecutive weeks in late summer time.
Sharp Warning is rising due to its work on the racetrack, Warren stated.
“If I run on Saturday, I will be there with the horse and coaching once more by Tuesday morning,” stated Warren, who trains at a combined Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse steady. “This horse does not like to take a seat in a stall. He loves to coach. He likes to run. And he is wholesome sufficient to do all of it.”
The 2 starter stakes introduced modest purses of $4,500 every, however Warren nonetheless cherishes each win.
“I gained my first race at a bush observe on the Navajo Nation and was hooked,” she stated of her coaching profession, which started in 2012.
She nonetheless appreciates racing at small circuits and honest competitions and embraces the neighborhood. Her hometown is Farmington, New Mexico, however her second dwelling is usually situated close to a racetrack someplace within the western half of the nation.
“For example, should you cease in Miles Metropolis, Montana, they’ve the world-famous Miles Metropolis Bucking Horse Sale. They’ve 50 of the most effective cowboys there. Properly, combined in with that, they run race horses. The entire city, while you come there, they simply like it. The jockeys they love simply deal with you with open arms. The grandstands are packed. It is actually superb to see the betting strains full.”
Sharp Warning’s pace and stability earned him wins at stops like Nice Falls, White Pine Racing, and Blackfoot. It wasn’t till the tip of the 12 months at Arapahoe that Sharpe Warning confirmed indicators of declining. In his last two begins of 2025, he once more held the lead going into the part, however each instances he was caught behind whereas working second.
General, Sharp Warning has an 18-11-10 file in 69 begins at Equibase accredited racetracks, incomes $141,157 and has been profitable for a number of house owners and trainers. Warren started coaching the horse within the spring of 2024, buying the horse from proprietor and coach Jim Klotz, a pal and mentor.
Sharp Warning moved to Warren’s steady practically 4 years after he gained his debut in a $22,500 first race at Golden Gate Fields for coach Victor Trujillo and then-owner Madera Thoroughbred Racing.
Sharp Warning, bred in California by Madera Thoroughbreds, is out of the Swiss yodeler mare Swiss Please, who has produced 10 foals, six runners and 5 winners. Madera Thoroughbred bred her to Elusive Warning, a stallion that stood on the farm. He shares his father’s chestnut fur.
Having accomplished his 2025 marketing campaign, Sharpe Warning is having fun with a well-earned relaxation earlier than embarking on the 2026 marketing campaign at 9 years outdated. He’s a frequent traveler and is able to resume his acquainted function as a contender for the entry-level allowance.
Warren plans to construct up his health base with swimming earlier than taking him again to coaching on the racetrack.
“He is presently working huge in Buckeye, Arizona, rolling round within the sand and having fun with life,” Warren stated.
