White Abarrio, vet-scratched from BC Dirt Mile, will race again, connections say

DEL MAR, Calif. - The connections of White Abarrio, upset about the circumstances surrounding the on-track scratch of their horse just minutes before the start of Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar, said they do plan on racing the horse again.

“He’s definitely going to race again,” Mark Cornett, part owner of White Abarrio, said Sunday morning at Del Mar. “There’s no reason not to race the horse again.”

White Abarrio, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who has won 10 of 24 starts and earned $7.1 million, was the subject of much veterinary scrutiny during the lead-up to the Breeders’ Cup. He was one of several horses required to get a PET-scan last week, the results of which must have been satisfactory or he would been scratched before or on the morning of race day. There were several veterinarian scratches on Friday and Saturday morning, including Mystik Dan (Dirt Mile), Sweet Azteca and Tamara (Filly and Mare Sprint) on Saturday morning.

Cornett, in a post on X, wrote “WHITE ABARRIO is doing great, zero soundness concerns after yesterday's unfortunate actions taken by BC vets. 24 starts – no issues - passed 2 PET scans ’23 & ’25 by BC and an estimated 15 BC vet inspections since arriving over a week and they scratch on track 5 MPT. If there was any question about WHITE ABARRIO being sound, he would not have shipped for the BC, period.”

California racing officials said the track followed normal scratch protocols. After watching the horse warm up in the post parade, the on-track vet, Dr. Brent Cassady, called the stewards, recommending a scratch. The stewards, as they virtually always do, followed the recommendation and scratched White Abarrio.

“The horse was scratched with our regular routine,” said Kim Sawyer, one of three presiding stewards at Del Mar.

Cornett and Joseph said they were never told by any veterinarian or Breeders’ Cup official the reason for the scratch. They said they received an e-mail on Sunday from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) _ which is notified of all vet scratches - that White Abarrio was “off left front.”

As a result of the scratch, the owners do get a refund of the $30,000 in pre-entry and entry fees they had to pay. Still, Cornett said the expense was greater than that.

“This cost me 50 grand to come out here personally, my family and everything else,” he said.

Cornett said White Abarrio would ship to Gulfstream in the coming days. There are workout and blood test protocols he will have to pass to get off the vet’s list to race again.

White Abarrio won the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream in January to begin the year. That could be a race his connections target again in late January 2026.

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