Hearing officer recommends Kentucky trainer’s license be restored to Maria Borell

Kentucky’s licensing gate may be about to reopen for Maria Borell, a trainer whose name still carries both a Breeders’ Cup victory and one of racing’s most painful scandals. Clayton Patrick, the hearing officer in the Public Protection Cabinet’s Office of Administrative Hearings, recommended that the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation reissue Borell’s trainer’s license after finding she met her burden of proof on every theory the agency raised.

Patrick said the corporation’s objections, centered on candor, financial responsibility and her long absence from Kentucky racing, were not enough to justify a denial. In his order, he wrote that Borell had met her burden “by a preponderance of the evidence” and said the KHRGC case “lacked substance and was not convincing.” He also concluded the earlier Kentucky denial should not have relied on the expunged animal-cruelty case.

For Borell, the recommendation is a major step toward a return to the sport nearly a decade after she last started a horse on May 11, 2016. Her most visible moment at the top of the game came with Runhappy, who won the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31, 2015, before owner Jim McIngvale, known as “Mattress Mack,” fired her the next day and handed the barn to racing manager Laura Wohlers.

The case that shadowed her career began in late June 2016, when Maria Borell and her father, Charles Borell, were charged with 43 misdemeanor counts of second-degree animal cruelty after 43 malnourished horses were found on a Mercer County farm during an investigation into two missing Thoroughbreds. Charles Borell later entered an Alford plea to nine counts, received two years’ probation and was fined $4,300. Maria Borell’s own case was dismissed with prejudice on July 20, 2023, then expunged, and the dismissal order sent her $7,500 bond and $2,500 in escrow to Thoroughbred Charities of America.

The comeback bid has already crossed state lines. Borell was issued a trainer’s license in California in September 2024 after passing steward and official-veterinarian tests. She filed for a Kentucky license on June 1, 2025, then withdrew it after a June 17, 2025 review committee hearing signaled a denial was likely. She later sued the agency, arguing it had effectively turned her away in 2024 and 2025 without enough explanation.

Patrick’s recommendation is not final. The parties have 15 calendar days to file exceptions, and the KHRGC must then issue a final decision that it can adopt, reject or amend. If Borell gets back in, Kentucky will be signaling that expunged charges and a long absence do not automatically bar a trainer from a second act, even in a sport that still measures trust as tightly as it measures wins.