Paynter (March 4, 2009 – November 10, 2023) was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse noted for a three-year-old racing season that included a second-place finish in the 2012 Belmont Stakes and a victory in the Haskell Invitational, cut short by a near-fatal case of colitis requiring abdominal surgery, complicated by laminitis. Most experts believed that even if he survived, his racing days were over. His struggle for life, updated via social media by his owners, gained him a large fan base and earned him the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Moment of the Year and Secretariat Vox Populi Award for 2012.
His surgery was successful and treatment for laminitis prevented harm to his feet, he was sent to the Fair Hill Training Center for recovery and rehabilitation. In his four-year-old year, he returned to the track in June 2013, eleven months after his 2012 Haskell victory, winning the first race of his comeback by lengths, then running in three more graded stakes races, placing second in two of them, demonstrating his ability to compete against top horses. In November 2013, he ran in the Breeders' Cup Classic and following the race was retired to WinStar Farm to stand at stud beginning with the 2014 breeding season.
Background Paynter is a bay horse with a white star on his forehead, a faint irregular snip on his nose, and a white left front pastern bred by Diamond A Racing Corporation of Kentucky. His sire is 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Awesome Again, and his dam is Tizso, who raced twice and is a full sister to the two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner Tiznow.
Originally named MC's Dream, Paynter sold for $325,000 at the Keeneland yearling sale. He was purchased by Ahmed Zayat's Zayat Stables, LLC and was started under saddle by horse trainer J.B. McKathan in Florida. After completing basic training, Zayat's adult son, Justin, selected Paynter, along with stablemate Bodemeister, to move on to the racing stable of trainer Bob Baffert. Paynter did not race as a two-year-old.
Racing career 2012: Three-year-old season Paynter won his maiden race on February 18, 2012, at Santa Anita Park. In an unusual move, he was taken directly from his maiden race to the Grade I Santa Anita Derby, where he had a troubled start and ran in sixth place before finishing fourth, lengths behind the winner. Viewed as not quite ready for the Triple Crown races, Paynter next ran in the Derby Trial, where, on a muddy track, he lost narrowly in the final furlong. In his first three races, he was ridden by Martin Garcia. His second win was in a mile allowance race on the undercard of the 2012 Preakness Stakes, when he was ridden by Mike Smith, who also rode Bodemeister in the Preakness later that day. Following Bodemeister's second-place finish in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, Paynter was entered into the Belmont with Smith as a jockey.
In the Belmont, Paynter led for most of the race until the final furlong when Smith came off the rail, allowing winner Union Rags to slip through and win by a neck. Paynter had already fended off two challengers during the race, and Smith had switched his whip from his right hand to his left in an attempt to fend off a late challenge from Atigun; Smith considered his decision to be an error that cost him the race.
Paynter's biggest win and first graded stakes win came in his next race, the mile, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Racetrack in July 2012. Baffert's assistant trainer, Jim Barnes, represented the stable at the race, as Baffert had cut back his schedule following a heart attack earlier in the year. Paynter went off as the even-money favorite. Ridden for the first time by jockey Rafael Bejarano, he followed the leader through the backstretch, then took the lead at the far turn, beating five other horses to win by lengths. His winning time was 1:48.87, earning him a Beyer Speed Figure of 108. The victory was also Baffert's third win in a row at the Haskell and sixth Haskell win in his career. Paynter's winnings of $600,000 put him close to a lifetime earnings figure of $1 million, at $952,224, considered impressive for a three-year-old horse who did not race as a two-year-old.
Paynter's next race was scheduled to be the Travers Stakes on August 25. With all three Triple Crown race winners for 2012 already retired from racing (all due to injury), Paynter was considered a contender to become the 3-year-old Horse of the Year if he continued to win races.
Illness and surgery On July 29, 2012, two days after his Haskell win, Paynter developed a fever, pneumonia, and diarrhea. He was hospitalized at the nearby Mid-Atlantic Equine Medical Center in New Jersey and then shipped on August 10, 2012, to Belmont Park, where he trained for several days. He was then shipped to Saratoga Race Course, home to the Travers Stakes, to recover further. However, he had no public workouts and missed the Travers. He was scheduled to be flown back to Baffert's home stable in California on August 27, but Paynter again developed a fever and diarrhea. He was sent to the Upstate Equine Medical Center in Schuylerville, New York, where he was diagnosed with colitis, an inflammation of the colon. Paynter's condition deteriorated and was deemed life-threatening. Ahmed and Justin Zayat began to tweet regular updates on his condition to the public. His care was supervised by Dr. Laura Javsicas, an equine internal medicine specialist. Her devotion to Paynter was admired by both Zayat and Baffert, who later said that Javsicas should receive an Eclipse Award. In turn, Paynter, characterized as an "aggressive" horse, was cooperative toward his caregivers and accepted treatment without causing problems.
Paynter developed an infection at a catheter site and blood clots in his veins due to problems with his protein levels. He lost weight, and suffering from fever, colitis, and diarrhea was given plasma and "aggressive" antibiotic treatment.
The medical staff were also worried, because a systemic illness with intestinal inflammation, such as colitis, is a common precursor to laminitis, a painful inflammation of the internal structures of the hoof. The staff had been using cryotherapy on his lower legs as a precaution. Although his blood test results and protein levels began to stabilize, he nevertheless developed laminitis in three of his feet on September 4, ten days after he arrived at the center. The veterinarians treating Paynter put casts on his lower legs to support his feet. Experts believed that even if he survived his racing days were over, and the Zayat family feared that euthanasia would be necessary.
After about three days, he seemed to be feeling better; his blood work became normal and his diarrhea cleared up, but he still had low-grade fevers. Against the odds, his hoof X-rays came back showing no separation of the laminae, and no rotation or sinking of the coffin bone in any of his feet. Although the cryotherapy had not prevented laminitis, it might have kept it from becoming worse. On September 21, the casts were removed from his legs. The laminitis treatment was successful and his feet were returning to normal, raising hopes that he could race again someday.
Paynter developed an increasing fan base as people followed the Zayat family's social media updates, drawing comparisons to the struggle of Barbaro a few years earlier. Both Ahmed and Justin Zayat sent out regular tweets and the hashtag #PowerUpPaynter was used to help organize updates to the public. Paynter received handmade posters from children and hundreds of get well cards.
Because fevers and colitis were still a problem, Javsicas performed an ultrasound and found a problem area in his colon, thus surgery was required. Paynter was very thin by this time, weighing less than 900 pounds, and surgery was considered high risk. On October 2, he was shipped to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Center (where Barbaro had also been treated) and saw Dr. Louise Southwood, a veterinary surgeon who specialized in equine intestinal medicine and colitis cases. The following morning, Paynter went into surgery and Southwood removed a growth "full of puss [sic] and bacteria" from his intestines. Southwood explained, "We finally got to the bottom of why he was spiking the fever." Paynter came out of the surgery well and Zayat tweeted, "Just think about the resilience of this guy." Baffert commented, "I can't believe this horse is still alive." Nine days later, a press release came out stating that Paynter was "cleared of any lingering symptoms of both [colitis and laminitis]", and expected to fully recover.
Rehabilitation and awards
Following surgery, Paynter started to regain his weight, putting on 35 pounds in the two weeks between his surgery and being sent to Fair Hill Training Center's Equine Therapy program on October 15 for rehabilitation. Nonetheless, he arrived at Fair Hill weighing only 912 pounds. At Fair Hill, he started with hand-walking and grazing, later being allowed short periods of exercise in a round pen. He had access to treatment in a horse-sized hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, an underwater treadmill called an AquaPacer, equine massage therapy, electromagnetic therapy, and the use of a cold saltwater spa. By November 15, he was close to 1,000 pounds and was allowed free daily turnout in a paddock. His normal temperament returned as he began to buck and kick during turnout. He also developed a taste for red peppermint candies, preferring them over green spearmint ones.
On December 26, Paynter was selected as the winner of the 2012 Secretariat Vox Populi Award. Penny Chenery, owner of Secretariat, for whom the award was named, said "Paynter's popularity stems from his ability to battle and exceed expectations, making him the perfect choice as the recipient of this year's Vox Populi Award ... After seeing firsthand the devastating effects of this disease, I am even more convinced that the industry must continue to fight laminitis. The progress we have made to date clearly benefited Paynter—a beautiful colt with a tremendous spirit." In January 2013, Paynter's survival and recovery was voted the "Moment of the Year" by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) in a field of 12 nominees, and the horse's connections were given that honor at the annual Eclipse Awards.
2013: Comeback
On December 29, 2012, Paynter was shipped from Fair Hill back to California, where he resumed race training with Baffert. When he left Fair Hill he weighed 1022 pounds and was described as "full of himself." Both Southwood and Javsicas believed that he could recover completely. While numerous horses recovering from colitis and abdominal surgery have been able to return to their previous levels of competition, Paynter's successful recovery from laminitis was the biggest factor in his ability to resume racing. He began jogging on the track on January 5, and had his first official workout on February 26. On June 14 he was entered into a 7-furlong allowance race at Betfair Hollywood Park. Ahmed Zayat said, "He has shown so much courage, so much tenacity. I just want to let the horse do the talking."