Established in 2011
Since taking out his trainer’s license in 2011, Brendan Walsh has amassed over 600 wins and more than $48 million in prizemoney. Now consistently ranked within the Top Ten trainers in the US, his list of training achievements includes five individual Grade 1 winners and the 2023 Champion Three Year Old Filly and Kentucky Oaks heroine Pretty Mischievous.
Dedication from the Beginning
A native of Ireland, Brendan developed a passion for horses at an early age. He attended the races in Cork alongside his late father Patrick on a regular basis and fell in love with the sport of horse racing. Brendan’s fervor for horses was only deepened when he convinced his father to get him a pony. Despite being bucked off almost every day for the first two years of their relationship, Brendan eventually tamed the pony and learned some useful early lessons in patience and dedication that have stuck with him throughout his training career.
After a brief stint at the Irish apprentice school, Brendan decided he’d try the breeding side of the thoroughbred industry and gained a position on the prestigious Irish National Stud Course. Throughout the program he could not shake his love of riding and went to work for Godolphin’s breaking and pretraining operation at Kildangan Stud upon graduation. He was then offered a position riding Godolphin’s two-year olds in Dubai, where his talent and dedication were quickly recognized and he was granted the opportunity to travel around the world as a riding foreperson. This included trips to Arlington Park in Chicago, where he fell in love with American racing. Brendan decided to branch out from Godolphin to learn the business model and training techniques of trainers with multiple owners, and accepted an Assistant Trainer position with Mark Wallace in Newmarket, UK, where he played a role in the success of the stable. After three years in England, Brendan decided his future lay in American racing and he accepted an Assistant Trainer position with Kentucky based Eddie Kenneally. He stayed in that position for four years, where he learned the intricacies of the American industry.
Brendan Walsh Racing Today
Brendan took out his own license in 2011 and notched his first win in March, 2012. His early career was pushed into the limelight when his $10,000 claim Cary Street won the G3 Greenwood Cup and then the G2 Las Vegas Marathon on the Breeders’ Cup undercard in 2014. Other graded stakes victories by horses such as Scuba, Honorable Duty, Multiplier and Proctor’s Ledge further defined his early career and confirmed his aptitude for training top level horses. These early successes were integral to the growth of Brendan’s stable in both size and quality.
Under Brendan’s shrewd guidance, the stable continued to go from strength to strength during a hallmark year in 2019. He sent Plus Que Parfait to Dubai for a victory in the UAE Derby and followed that with an 8th place finish in that year’s Kentucky Derby. That autumn, he won his first Grade 1 with Maxfield in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity. Since then, he has achieved top level results in both dirt and turf racing. His list of Grade 1 winners now includes the 2023 Champion Three Year Old Filly Pretty Mischievous, multiple Grade 1 winners Maxfield, Santin, as well as top flight winners Ocean Road and Extravagant Kid. Such success in a relatively short period of time reflects Brendan’s dedication and unique skills developed through years of hard work in different jurisdictions.
Brendan Walsh Racing has flourished since its inception in 2011. In 2023, he broke into the top 10 ranking of trainers by earnings with 109 winners and just shy of $11.5 million in earnings. Brendan looks forward to building on this success over the coming years and invites new owners to join him on the journey.
