White Abarrio owners sue over last-minute Breeders’ Cup scratch

White Abarrio’s owners took their fight over the horse’s last-minute Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile scratch to Los Angeles County Superior Court, turning a race-day decision into a legal test of how much power championship veterinarians can exercise when a marquee horse is on the verge of running.

The complaint names Breeders’ Cup Limited, the California Horse Racing Board and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, and seeks damages believed to top $10 million. At the center of the case is the scratch of the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner in the post parade at Del Mar on Nov. 1, 2025, only minutes before post time, after an on-track veterinarian recommended the horse be withdrawn because of apparent lameness in his left foreleg.

White Abarrio’s connections say the call overrode a chain of pre-race evaluations that had already cleared the horse. They say the gelding underwent PET imaging and gait analysis and was examined repeatedly by Breeders’ Cup veterinarians in the days before the Dirt Mile, including on race day. In their view, the final scratch did not just remove one horse from one race. It raised a larger question about what standards govern a championship-event scratch and how much documentation owners are entitled to see when a high-profile runner is pulled at the last moment.

That question matters because the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar were built around scale and stakes: 14 Grade 1 races and more than $34 million in purses and awards over Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2025. In that setting, a scratch minutes before a major dirt mile reshapes betting pools, upends race strategy and exposes the fault line between animal welfare decisions and the rights of owners who believe their horse was fit to run.

After the scratch, C2 Racing Stable and Gary Barber publicly demanded a full and transparent investigation and asked that relevant documents be preserved and disclosed. The owners later retained counsel and kept challenging the decision. Breeders’ Cup and Del Mar declined to comment on the lawsuit because of pending litigation.

White Abarrio’s team points to what came next as part of its case. The horse later finished second to stablemate Skippylongstocking in the 2026 Pegasus World Cup, a result that reinforced the owners’ belief that he remained competitive at the highest level. For owners, veterinarians and future Breeders’ Cup entrants, the suit could define how much discretion stewards and on-track vets retain in a championship setting, and how much transparency will be required the next time a star horse is stopped at the gate.