Susan Casner, accomplished owner and breeder, dies at 83

Susan Casner helped shape the modern Thoroughbred game from the ground up, and her influence is still visible in the horses, the breeding shed and the stable culture she helped build. She died May 27 at 83 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Born in Grand Island, Nebraska, Casner started in racing as a mutuel clerk at Aksarben Race Track in Omaha, where she met Bill Casner. The two spent six years traveling with a small racing stable before settling near Dallas, Texas, after the births of their daughters, Kayce and Karri. That early grind mattered. It gave Casner a working view of the sport that reached far beyond the winner’s circle, from the backside to the sales ring.

The Casners later found business success with Kenny Troutt in Excel Communications, and in 2000 Bill Casner and Troutt co-founded WinStar Farm, which has become one of the most influential breeding and racing operations in North America. Susan Casner was not a bystander in that rise. BloodHorse described her as instrumental in helping her husband develop a successful racing stable and later in the development of WinStar Farm, a role that showed up in the horses the operation produced and the relationships it sustained.

Her record as an owner and breeder carried real weight. She bred and owned Well Armed, the 2009 Dubai World Cup winner who stormed home by a record 14 lengths at Nad Al Sheba, and she bred and owned Colonel John, winner of the Travers Stakes and Santa Anita Derby. She also helped celebrate WinStar’s 2010 Kentucky Derby victory with Super Saver. Another piece of the family’s breeding story came in 2001, when the Casners bought Well Dressed for $150,000 at the Keeneland November Sale, a move that proved pivotal.

Casner’s imprint also lived in the details that racing people notice. She was the namesake of GSW Sharp Susan, and the family later created the Susan Casner Memorial Fund through For the Good, the organization founded by her daughter Kayce. She is remembered as a beloved wife, mother, grandmother and a treasured member of the Thoroughbred community, but the deeper truth is that her work helped produce the kind of horses and operations that keep the sport moving long after the headlines fade.