Bradley, Trainer of Groupie Doll, to Retire

In his lifetime in horse racing, Buff Bradley has done just about everything involving horses. He's bred them, raised them, trained them, and cared for them after their racing days. Now, he's ready for his next chapter, one that leaves horse training behind.

Bradley, 57, who won back-to-back runnings of the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) in 2012-13 with Groupie Doll , intends to retire from training at the end of the Churchill Downs spring meet that ends in late June. A trainer since 1993, he said next month he will begin directing his current owners and staff toward other barns.

"It was a multitude of things—just how the last few years have been, the business has changed a lot," Bradley said of his decision to stop training, first reported by Daily Racing Form's Marty McGee. "I'd love to get on the frontside, do work there. I love the industry part of it. It has changed so much. I worry about that. I hope that everything is implemented well, with the horsemen and everything.

"It's just time for a change. I've done this for a long time. I'm ready to move to something else."

Bradley, who recovered from a pair of cardiac ablations, feels in good health and is most interested in seeking a career in track management at a Kentucky racetrack. He said he has informed staff at Churchill Downs and Keeneland of his interest.

However his frontside ambitions turn out, he doesn't plan to fully leave his horsemanship behind. Though plans call for the sale of tracts of his family's Indian Ridge Farm in Frankfort, Ky., he desires to maintain a small portion to keep for a couple of broodmares and some retired racehorses.

Twenty-year-old Brass Hat , Bradley's first grade 1 winner, who won more than $2 million for his late father, Fred Bradley, is one of the retired racehorses that still reside at Indian Ridge.

Winner of the 2006 Donn Handicap (G1) at Gulfstream Park, Brass Hat, a gelded son of Prized , put the trainer in the spotlight and led to future opportunities, he said. Bradley has won 575 races and more than $19 million in purse money. Twenty of those wins came at the graded level, accomplished by four horses: Brass Hat, Groupie Doll, Divisidero  , and The Player  .

Gunpowder Farms' Divisidero won major stakes races for three years straight at Churchill Downs for Bradley on Derby Day. The Kitten's Joy   horse won the American Turf Stakes (G2T) in 2015 before adding back-to-back renewals of the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) in 2016-17.

Kelly Rubley trained Divisidero in his final years on the racetrack.

Most of Bradley's top prospects were homebreds and few were more meaningful than The Player. Bred by Bradley, his father, and Carl Hurst, he raced for Buff Bradley and Hurst after Fred Bradley's death in 2016. A graded stakes winner in 2017 and 2018, the charismatic son of Street Hero  fractured sesamoids in the New Orleans Handicap (G2) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in 2018 and was pulled up. Intent on saving his life, his owners sent him to Louisiana State University's School of Veterinary Medicine for surgery. After nearly six months of rehabilitation in Louisiana, he returned to Indian Ridge to complete his recovery in the fall of 2018. He now stands as a stallion at Crestwood Farm near Lexington for $2,500.

MITCHELL: The Remarkable Journey of The Player

Yet no Bradley horse captured the public's attention quite like Groupie Doll, the speedy daughter of Bowman's Band , a rare repeat Breeders' Cup winner, and again, one in which Bradley was a co-owner. She raced for the partnership of Bradley and his father, Hurst, and Brent Burns.

After her second Breeders' Cup triumph, Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm purchased her for $3.1 million from the Trackside Farm consignment at the 2013 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

"My ex-wife and I foaled her out at the farm, and we talked before that filly ever stood up. We said, 'This is the filly we've been waiting for,'" he recalled. "We had no idea what she was going to be, but she was just so pretty, before she even got up and nursed. Man, she was gorgeous. We just wanted a good-looking foal out of that mare, and she was the one. We were really excited about her early on, like I said, not even knowing.

"I feel like accomplishments for me in the racing business are being able to breed, being present to foal out Brass Hat and Groupie Doll, seeing their first breath of life, and getting up to the highest level of competition. I always thought that was pretty unique."