WinStar Farm Trainer Heath Departs, Brisset Steps In

WinStar Farm announced June 27 that the operation will move toward being a private training facility for its horses and horses owned in partnership, led by trainer Rodolphe Brisset.

Past trainer Destin Heath has departed from the farm and looks to hang his shingle in Lexington, which would materialize dreams he has put on the backburner for the past few years while working at WinStar.

"Destin has done a tremendous job, he has seen a lot of good horses come through the training center," WinStar president, CEO, and racing manager Elliott Walden on Monday. "We thank him for everything he has done and this will give him an opportunity to pursue some of his dreams."

Brisset has trained for WinStar since the inception of his training career, and the move is a logical step in advancing his career. Brisset will not be the sole trainer for WinStar and the farm will continue to have horses with other trainers.

"The line on what we have in mind is to get horses ready on our ground and then go right or left and run those horses for the hopeful win," trainer Rodolphe Brisset said June 27 when speaking with BloodHorse about the recent changes at WinStar Farm.

"We have had a change in direction for the farm and decided to focus more on Kentucky racing with our horses, so we hired Rodolphe to come to the training center at WinStar Farm," Walden said. "We will race off the training center, similar to how Graham Motion does at the Fair Hill Training Center and Todd Pletcher at Palm Beach Downs."

"The game plan is pretty simple. I will keep 20 horses on the public side; and everything will be fused Aug. 1," Brisset said. "I have already taken over the WinStar Training Center, and we have made some changes to be able to use the training center as a racetrack to get the horses ready to run."

Brisset feels WinStar made the right move in modeling its dirt track similar to Keeneland's. 

"We worked 45 horses between Thursday and Friday at WinStar and 20 horses Sunday at Keeneland, so over the last three days, over 60 horses have worked, and the switch from either track wasn't noticed; it feels like the same track," Brisset said. "It's excellent news for us, but at the same time, we don't have any data on the WinStar track, so we will keep 20 stalls off Rice Road as a backup plan … if we have horses that need to breeze on the Keeneland track."

Brisset explained that the summer plans going forward will involve training horses out of both Keeneland and WinStar, while 12 stalls will be secured at Saratoga Race Course for horses that are set to compete at the track's boutique summer meet. 

Terry Arnold will continue to oversee the farm's breaking and pre-training.

Heath, who has been with WinStar Farm for just shy of eight years, is excited to move in a new direction in his training career after leaving the farm on amicable terms.

"It has been a great opportunity to be at WinStar, and I'm very grateful for the people, horses, and the relationships I was able to develop while I was there," Heath said. "It was a steppingstone to give me the confidence to go on and do my own thing, eventually under my own banner."

Heath worked as an assistant at WinStar Farm for five years until he was promoted to head trainer in October 2018 following the exit of Richard Budge. During his tenure at WinStar, he oversaw the care of star runners such as Life Is Good , Corniche , Country Grammer , and Monomoy Girl .