West Point Thoroughbreds breaks with Albertrani

The West Point Thoroughbreds ownership group has moved 10 horses from trainer Tom Albertrani, ending a business relationship that began in 2009, the partnership’s president confirmed Wednesday.

Among the horses moved was Twilight Eclipse, a Grade 1-winning gelding and earner of more than $2.1 million. The 8-year-old is with Graham Motion, a trainer with whom West Point has at least a dozen runners. Also receiving horses from West Point in this move were George Weaver, Tony Dutrow, and Tom Morley.

Twilight Eclipse won the Grade 1 Man o’ War in 2015 but has since gone just 1 for 15. He won four other graded stakes and has competed in four consecutive runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

“Tom Albertrani is a class guy,” Terry Finley, West Point’s president, wrote in a text. “I’ll be forever grateful for what he and his team did with Twilight Eclipse. This was a business decision.”

During their tenure together, West Point and Albertrani combined to win 55 races from 406 starters, with purse earnings of $6.2 million. Other stakes winners campaigned by them were Freedom Child, the winner of the 2013 Peter Pan; Empire Dreams, a five-time stakes-winning New York-bred who earned $812,751 and is now with Weaver; Belle of the Hall, and Awesome Vision.

“We had a good run. I guess they were looking to make changes going forward,” Albertrani said. “We had a good relationship, and we had a good run together.”

Albertrani said his stable size is still strong, with the backing of Godolphin Racing and others.

“We’re pretty solid, looking forward to the next crop coming in and going from there,” Albertrani said.