Borell out as Runhappy's trainer

Distressed trainer Maria Borell said Monday that owner Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale has refused to communicate with her amid the uproar caused by his firing of Borell as the trainer of Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Runhappy.

Borell, speaking from her base at the Thoroughbred Center training facility in Lexington, Ky., said she was moving her other horses out of the barn where Runhappy now will be trained by Laura Wohlers and into different stalls at the training center.

On Saturday at Keeneland, Runhappy won the $1.5 million BC Sprint as the 8-5 favorite for McIngvale and Borell. Late Sunday afternoon, Borell posted several messages on Twitter saying she apparently had been fired in the aftermath of a dispute with Wohlers, McIngvale’s sister-in-law and racing manager and an intermittent trainer of his horses.

Borell said her only contact with McIngvale since Sunday was a brief exchange in which “he told me to call his wife. I’ve never spoken to her in my life. He refuses to speak to me.”

Reached Monday by phone at his business office, McIngvale referred to the Runhappy page on Facebook while declining to answer specific questions, including whether he intends to pay her the standard minimum of 10 percent that is owed a trainer following a victory. That amount is $82,000 from the $820,000 winner’s share.

Borell, 32, had confided in recent weeks to Daily Racing Form that a high degree of underlying tension existed between her and Wohlers, who told The Blood-Horse in a Sunday article: “The decision to move in a different direction was not made today.” A Monday call to Wohlers was not immediately returned.

Borell said Monday she did not know whether McIngvale intends to pay her.

Runhappy, a top contender for the 2015 Eclipse Award as top sprinter, is by far the best horse McIngvale has had during his long and tumultuous history as an owner. As the founder of the successful Gallery Furniture chain based in Houston, McIngvale started his first horse in 1997 and has churned through a multitude of trainers. He has employed horsemen as prominent as Bob Baffert and Nick Zito and as obscure as Leonard Atkinson, at one time a night watchman for the operation.

Wohlers, who managed Gallery Furniture for McIngvale, has long had a hand in McIngvale’s racing operations and first was listed as a head trainer in 1999. She trained Runhappy for the first two starts of his career, an erratic but brilliant debut win last December at Turfway Park and a ninth-place finish less than three weeks later in the Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds.

When Runhappy returned to action in an Indiana Grand allowance in July, it was after having been prepared by Borell, another unknown in the horse world thrust into the spotlight through McIngvale’s mercurial temperament. With Borell as trainer, Runhappy thrived, winning all five races under her care – accounting for all but one of Borell’s career win total – capped by the BC Sprint win Saturday.

Racing fans have been outspoken in their support of Borell on Twitter and Facebook while being nearly unanimous in their criticism of McIngvale and Wohlers. One fan wrote in part: “A tale of nepotism, petty jealousy, and continuing buffoonery.”

– additional reporting by Marcus Hersh