Small-Track Hero Sharp Warning Racked Up Wins in 2025

While Sovereignty reigned over North American racing in 2025—sweeping the Kentucky Derby (G1), Belmont Stakes (G1), and Travers Stakes (G1) while making a season-leading $5,692,020—Thoroughbred racing's winningest horse of last year carved out his own distinction far from the spotlight. The tireless gelding Sharp Warning became North America's wins leader while crisscrossing small tracks in the Intermountain West of the United States. From the Desert Southwest to the Rocky Mountains and Northern Plains, he showed up—winning more often than not—at venues both familiar and obscure. Turf Paradise and Arapahoe Park appeared alongside lesser-known stops such as Blackfoot and White Pine Racing, where local fans continue to support racing and short fair meets serve as a community centerpiece. Equibase lists Sharp Warning with 10 victories from 16 starts last year and earnings of $51,572, though that tally comes with an asterisk. He crossed the wire first for an 11th time when he prevailed Oct. 4 at Fort Pierre, S.D., at a fair meet that runs only one weekend each year. The track is not recognized with Equibase charts. Even if that 11th win is not counted, Sharp Warning outpaced five other horses with nine wins apiece in 2025: Silver Slugger, Busk, Motown Dynamic, Pacific Blue, and He's in Charge. Racing last year as an 8-year-old, Sharp Warning became a regular participant for owner/trainer Kayla Warren, who mapped a campaign that valued placement over ambition. Rather than chasing bigger purses, Warren focused on conditions that fit her sprinter, trusting that well-spotted opportunities would pile up. They did. Sharp Warning thrived as a starter allowance mainstay, keeping a busy racing schedule that Warren said suited his temperament. While he may not have logged many miles breezing between races, he accumulated plenty in the back of a trailer, heading down the road from one meet to the next, as did others in Warren's traveling stable. Beginning the year at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Sharp Warning lost his first two starts of the year before breaking through with a 6 1/2-length victory in a $4,000 claiming race Feb. 19. A nose starter allowance score followed March 31 at Turf Paradise. When the meet wrapped up, Warren hit the road in her recreational vehicle. Sharp Warning and her other horses did similarly, tugged down the highway in trailers behind several trucks. Arriving at Miles City, home of Montana's historic Eastern Montana Fair, Sharp Warning added another starter allowance victory. Then, after a couple of narrow defeats in subsequent starts at Miles City and Energy Downs in Wyoming, Sharp Warning hit a stretch over the summer and early fall when he was unbeatable within his class of racing. From July 12 through Oct. 4, he reeled off eight consecutive victories, a streak capped by his Fort Pierre triumph. "Every time we lead him up, I get nervous, especially when it was like eight in a row. I'm like, I know one day this is gonna come to an end," she said. "But long story short, he's just a fabulous horse. … Whatever lit in his heart this year just made him an exceptional kind of horse." Among the highlights was a pair of starter allowance stakes wins during the Eastern Idaho State Fair at Blackfoot, where Sharp Warning captured the Fun At The Fair Overnight Stakes and the Good Old Boys Stakes, both non-black-type events, in consecutive weeks late in the summer. Sharp Warning thrives on activity at the racetrack, Warren said. "If he runs on a Saturday, by Tuesday morning, he's going with the pony and training again," said Warren, who trains a mixed-breed stable of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. "The horse does not like to sit in the stall. He loves to train. He loves to run, and he's sound enough to do all that." Each of the two starter stakes carried a modest $4,500 purse, but Warren still treasures every victory. "I won my first race at a Navajo Nation bush track, and I was hooked," she said of her training career that began in 2012. She still appreciates racing at smaller tracks and at fair meets, and she embraces the community. Her hometown is Farmington, N.M., but her home-away-from-home is often near a racetrack somewhere in the western half of the country. Describing the scene in which she and her horses compete, she said, "When we pull into Miles City, Montana, as an example—they have what they call the World Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale. They have 50 of the best cowboys that come there. Well, in the mix of it, they run racehorses. The whole town, when you come in there, they just love it. The horsemen they love; they just treat you with open arms. The grandstands are full. The betting lines are full. It's just amazing to see." Sharp Warning's speed and consistency made him a win machine across stops such as Great Falls, White Pine Racing, and Blackfoot. Only late in the year at Arapahoe did Sharp Warning show signs of his form slipping. In his final two starts of 2025, he again held the lead into the stretch, only to be caught late both times while still running second. Overall, Sharp Warning owns an 18-11-10 record in 69 starts at Equibase-recognized tracks, earning $141,157, with success for multiple owners and trainers. Warren began training him in the spring of 2024, buying him from her friend and one of her mentors, owner/trainer Jim Crotts, she said. Sharp Warning moved into Warren's barn about four years after he won on debut at Golden Gate Fields in a maiden $22,500 claiming race for trainer Victor Trujillo and then-owner Madera Thoroughbreds Racing. Bred in California by Madera Thoroughbreds, Sharp Warning is out of the stakes-placed Swiss Yodeler mare Swiss Please, who has produced 10 foals, six starters and five winners. Madera Thoroughbreds bred her to the stallion Elusive Warning, who stood at the farm. He shares his sire's chestnut coat. With his 2025 complete, Sharp Warning is now enjoying a well-earned respite before embarking on a 2026 campaign at age 9. He is poised to resume his familiar role as a frequent traveler and a starter-allowance competitor. Warren plans to swim him to build a fitness foundation before easing him back into racetrack training. "He's currently turned out in Buckeye, Arizona, in a big ol' run, rolling around in the sand and enjoying life," Warren said.