Catalano ends association with Ramseys

Trainer Wayne Catalano has all but ended his four-year association with leading North American owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, Catalano confirmed Friday.

A few Ramsey horses still are in limbo, housed in Catalano’s stalls at Keeneland, but Catalano said he had given up about 15 other Ramsey-owned horses. Some, like the good Illinois-bred Coalport, who is with Mike Maker’s string in Florida, already have begun showing up with other trainers.

“We had different philosophies,” Catalano said of the split. “Believe me, this was a hard thing to do. We parted on good terms.”

Catalano-trained, Ramsey-owned horses won 74 races, including 11 stakes and five graded stakes. Their best horse was Stephanie’s Kitten, who won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2011, and the Grade 1 Just A Game Stakes this past summer. Catalano developed Stephanie’s Kitten from early in her 2-year-old season, but the filly, upon returning to the track this fall following recuperation from an injury, was sent to trainer Chad Brown.