Troutt and Casner dissolve WinStar Farm partnership

Kenny Troutt and Bill Casner have dissolved their partnership in WinStar Farm after a 10-year run that included wins in some of the world's biggest races, including the Kentucky Derby and the Dubai World Cup, the two horsemen said on Wednesday.

In a release, Casner said that the dissolution "is a business strategy that is mutually beneficial at this point in our lives." As a result of the split, Troutt will become the sole owner of WinStar, a large breeding and racing operation in Versailles, Ky., and Casner and his wife, Susan, will continue to board mares at the farm, the statement said.

"Although we won't be direct partners on the farm, there will be many opportunities to partner going forward," said Troutt, in the statement the two released.

Neither Casner nor Troutt responded by Wednesday afternoon to requests for comment.

WinStar has raced several top-class horses, and this year, the partnership won two legs of the Triple Crown: the Kentucky Derby with Super Saver and the Belmont Stakes with Drosselmeyer. The farm's Well Armed won the 2009 Dubai World Cup, and WinStar's Colonel John won the 2008 Travers Stakes.

In 2010, horses owned by WinStar have earned more than $4.7 million, according to the Breeders' Cup.

WinStar has approximately 70 horses in training, split among Bill Mott, Todd Pletcher, Eoin Harty, Dale Romans, Dallas Stewart, and Shannon Ritter. The farm is home to approximately 100 broodmares and seven stallions: Bluegrass Cat, Colonel John, Distorted Humor, Sharp Humor, Speightstown, Spring At Last, and Tiznow.

WinStar was formed in 2000 when Troutt and Casner purchased the Prestonwood Farm property previously owned by the Preston brothers of Texas. Troutt and Casner, who also live in Texas, had raced 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop in partnership with Prestonwood before the acquisition.

As a teenager and young adult, Casner galloped horses at Sunland. He later founded a heavy-equipment company based in Dallas. Troutt founded Excel Communications, a long-distance telephone-service company, in 1988, and opened his first horse farm in the early 1980s, in Nebraska.