Coach Rodolphe “Rudy” Brisset is returning on his own after nearly six months as a semi-private coach at WinStar Farm’s training center near Versailles, Ky.
WinStar announced on June 27 that it had hired Brisset to focus more on the Kentucky circuit and race away from the training center similar to how other coaches use the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland and Palms. Beach Downs in South Florida. Brisset is not the only trainer for WinStar, who is still working with other trainers, and Brisset retains the ability to train up to 20 horses for other clients.
As first reported by Daily Racing Farm, the final arrangement doesn’t seem to work for either side.
“It didn’t work out as we envisioned it,” Elliott Walden, president, chief executive officer and racing director of WinStar told BloodHorse. “It’s no one’s fault. We’ve had tremendous success with our training center over the years and look to the future.”
Neal McLaughlin will now head the training center and Terry Arnold will manage the pre-training and rehabilitation program.
Brisset echoes Walden’s words: “It doesn’t seem like things are going the way we want them to. It’s no big deal. We’re still working together and I’m still training WinStar horses. We are. just going back to where we were before I went semi-private.Really, I just wanted to announce that we are now public and can accept clients from anywhere.
“WinStar and I want the same thing—win the bet and get the 1st. Sometimes you take a step back to take a bigger step forward,” he added.
Brisset said he will have 20 booths at Keenelandwhere he works from April to December and then there will be 20 booths at Oaklawn Park. The coach said the main goal for his racing business and ranch is to support races year-round in Kentucky.
“We’ve been going to Turfway for the last two years and I’d love to be there right now but the meeting has already started so we won’t be able to have a booth. Keeneland is our hometown, so we’ll be just practice from there and transport in,” he said.
Born in Tours, France, Brisset, 39, graduated from a racing academy run by the French Association de Formation et d’Action Sociale des Écuries de Course. In 2005, Brisset moved to the United States to work for coach Patrick Biancone and later Hall of Fame coach Bill Mott, with whom he began working as a gymnast and quickly promoted to assistant coach. Brisset worked for Mott for 11 years and then went out separately in 2017.
Brisset has saddled 171 winners since then, including 14 black winners. His top performers include many graded stake winners Fleer and other classified stake winners Say Veuve to me , positive spirit , My magnificent rose , We who and Yugiri . His runners have made over $11.7 million to date and made nearly $11,200 per start.
