Charlie LoPresti, best known as the trainer of two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan, has quietly retired from racing at the age of 63. The New York native began training in 1993 and disbanded his stable at the close of 2020 but remains an active participant in the business.
The news was first reported by Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form.
"I haven't been racing horses for six or seven months now, and I didn't want to make a production about it. I wanted it to be quiet," said LoPresti. "I had some really, really good horses and those horses were great horses. I give the horses more credit than me."
LoPresti saddled his last starter in October at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. His final win came close to six months earlier in May at Churchill Downs with Lessons From Avery, who took a 1 1/8-mile allowance optional claiming race on the turf. LoPresti's remaining horses were turned over to his nephew Reeve McGaughey, a son of Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, who established his own stable in 2020.
LoPresti retires with a record of 310 wins from 2,205 lifetime starts and $20,043,754 in earnings. Responsible for 23 of those wins and almost half of those purse earnings was Wise Dan, a gelded son of Wiseman's Ferry who thrilled the crowds up and down the East Coast and in Canada from 2010 to 2014.
Bred and campaigned by the late Morton Fink, Wise Dan earned his first top-level score at 4 on the dirt in the Clark Handicap (G1) at Churchill. Switched to the turf during his 5-year-old season, Wise Dan soon set himself apart in class banking back-to-back grade 1 wins in the Ricoh Woodbine Mile and Breeders' Cup Mile in 2012 and 2013.
Wise Dan doubled up again the next two seasons, winning back-to-back runnings of the Maker's 46 Mile (G1T) and Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (G1T) in 2013 and 2014. He also took non-consecutive victories of the Shadwell Turf Mile (G1T) in 2012 and 2014. He retired with a 23-2-0 record from 31 starts and $7,552,920 in earnings. Now 14 years old, the gelding lives on LoPresti's Forest Lane Farm in Athens, Ky., along with his half brother, grade 2 winner Successful Dan, who was also trained by LoPresti.
Wise Dan was awarded the titles of champion grass horse and champion older horse in 2012 and 2013, the same years he was also named Horse of the Year. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020.
Just because he's hung up his training hat, LoPresti has no intentions of walking away from the sport. Working with his wife, Amy, LoPresti said he stays busy breaking and training young horses on his farm for longtime clients.
That being said, LoPresti said he wouldn't mind a slightly slower pace of life going forward.
"I'm still very much involved in the business. We have our farm, and I still break yearlings for a lot of people," said LoPresti. "This morning I went to Keeneland and watched my nephew train some of the old ones that I had and the new ones he has. Some of the 2-year-olds that I broke for people were out training, so I was able to talk to people about them, and I get a lot of pleasure from that.
"I'm not a great big operation but we break yearlings for clients we've had a long time. But there are other things I want to do. I want to spend more time with my bird dogs, and I have a registered herd of Angus cattle and I have some Quarter Horses that I like to rope on. I'm 63 years old and will I ever find another Wise Dan? Probably not. I was lucky to have a horse like that. I've been very fortunate in the business. But the racetrack takes up a lot of your time, and I have other things I want to do. That is really what made me make the decision."
For LoPresti, the greatest joy he's received from his almost 30 years in the racing business have been his horses and the relationships they've helped him build in the business from the backstretch to the winner's circle.
"It's not only Wise Dan. I could talk about a lot of horses we broke on our farm that went on to be Kentucky Derby (G1) winners," said LoPresti. "It's just neat to be able to slow down a little now. It's good for people to see that horses like him mean something, and that they have a good life and a good retirement. It's not just about the money; it's about what horses like him did for their owners and for me. I've met so many people through these horses … I could go on and on about the people in this business that I became friends with. The horses are the ones that did it for us.
"Racing is a wonderful thing and horses are a wonderful thing. I'm not walking away from this; it's just time to say that that chapter of my life is over and I'm ready to start a new chapter—but I'm not closing the book on it either.
"When a horse we break here at the farm and give early training to goes on to win a big stakes race, I feel like I'm part of that, too. I'm a little bit slower than I used to be, but I'm still alive and kicking."
