Ness, Gargan back training for Midwest Thoroughbreds

Jamie Ness in the Mid-Atlantic and Danny Gargan in New York are training horses again for Richard and Karen Papiese’s Midwest Thoroughbreds Inc.

Gargan, who has won 84 races from 344 starters for Midwest, had his most recent runners for the operation in December 2017.

Ness helped put Midwest on the map (and vice versa) during the earlier days of the operation and has trained 1,577 winners from 5,462 Midwest starters. Ness’s most recent starters for Midwest came during January 2016.

Midwest also currently has horses with trainers Armando De La Cerda, Roger Brueggemann, and Georgina Baxter.

Midwest, many times the annual leading owner in North America by wins, peaked using that metric during 2012, when they won 542 races. Seasonal win totals have declined ever since, falling to 61 last year as Rich Papiese has focused more on higher-quality stock over playing the claiming game. For instance, Who’s In Charge, a Take Charge Indy colt, won his career debut for De La Cerda on Feb. 2 at Gulfstream in a maiden special weight race.