Suit Alleges Stakes-Winning Broodmare Prospect is Male

A New York-bred stakes winner that sold for $150,000 at Keeneland as a broodmare prospect is actually a male, according to a lawsuit pending in Fayette Circuit Court in Lexington.

Kept True  went through the Keeneland January 2021 Horses of All Ages Sale, where she was purchased as a 5-year-old broodmare prospect by Michelle and Albert Crawford's Crawford Farms near Lexington. Over the course of the previous 27 months, Kept True compiled a record of five wins, two seconds, and two thirds from 14 starts and earnings of $323,659 running against females at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course.

Owner-breeder Jeff Treadway raced Kept True (as Treadway Racing Stables) and secured Hidden Brook as consignor for the January Sale. According to Crawford's lawsuit, Hidden Brook, as agent for Treadway, engaged Hagyard Equine Medical Institute to issue a certificate of reproductive status as to whether Kept True was pregnant, or if not pregnant, suitable for mating according to American Association of Equine Practitioners standards. Such a certificate is required by Keeneland for horses offered as broodmare prospects.

Dr. Karen Wolfsdorf signed off on the certificate, which was submitted to Keeneland's record repository, and according to Crawford, Kept True was bought in reliance upon the same. Bloodstock agent John Moynihan assisted Crawford in buying Kept True and other broodmare prospects at the sale, according to Crawford attorney Mike Meuser of Lexington.

Without having Kept True examined by its own veterinarian before the horse was removed from Keeneland's grounds, Crawford took possession of Kept True, only to be told later, through a series of examinations and tests, Kept True (Yes It's True ) is a mare in outward appearance only.

According to the complaint filed by Meuser, Kept True was examined by Crawford's own veterinarian, Dr. Jeremy Whitman, who reported "obvious abnormalities in the horse's reproductive organs," primarily that the horse has no ovaries. Next, a karyotype test report from Texas A&M University revealed a genetic condition that gives Kept True the "appearance of a female horse, but the chromosomes of a male horse."

Veterinarians at Cornell University Hospital for Animals confirmed Dr. Whitman's findings and reported that the karyotype testing demonstrates Kept True has XY (male) chromosomes and that, in short, Kept True is unsound for breeding.

The lawsuit arose, according to the complaint, after Crawford contacted Treadway, Hidden Brook and Wolfsdorf asking for rescission of the sale and reimbursement of the expenses of Kept True's care, and they refused.

The suit named as defendants all the parties involved in the sale, some of whom are entangled in various defenses and cross-claims, but Crawford has been unable to undo the sale of the broodmare that, according to its experts, wasn't.

Keeneland responded to the suit with a motion to dismiss based on a variety of provisions in its conditions of sale, one of which was that Crawford was contractually required to reject the sale within 24 hours after the end of the session in which the horse was sold. Meuser told BloodHorse that Fayette Circuit Judge Kimberly Bunnell granted the motion.

Hidden Brook, the consignor, filed a motion for summary judgment, which was granted by Bunnell in an April 28 order saying in essence that Crawford's claim against the consignor is barred because it alleges a claim of tort (negligent misrepresentation) in a case governed by contractual rules set out in Keeneland's conditions of sale. Crawford takes issue with the decision and appealed to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Processing of the appeal may be stayed until other claims are resolved in the trial court.

Those other claims include the allegations made against Hagyard and Wolfsdorf, who issued the certificate of Kept True's reproductive status. They also filed a motion for summary judgment, but Bunnell denied the motion, leaving the claim against them open for further litigation. A cross-claim filed by Hidden Brook against the veterinarian defendants is undecided at this point but would be rendered moot if the summary judgment in its favor is upheld.

The attorney for Treadway, the seller of Kept True, filed an answer to the complaint denying liability. That claim is also unresolved.

As for the fillies and mares beaten in New York by a horse with male chromosomes and no female reproductive organs, there may be no recourse for the purse money. An inquiry to the New York State Gaming Commission was not answered when this article was published, but Rule 4039.19 appears to govern the matter. It limits the receipt of objections not based on fraud or willful misstatement, which have no time limit if not unnecessarily delayed, to 48 hours after the last race of the last day of the meeting, excluding Sundays.