Offer Falls Through for Leading Owner Gill's Horses, Farm

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Mike Gill, the nation's leading owner, says he recently nearly sold his racing operation for $17 million. His horses and farm remain on the market, he says, for the right price.

"I'll sell, but I'm not going to create a fire sale," he says. "If it doesn't happen, then I'll continue running the operation."

Gill said this spring he was getting out of the business because controversies in Florida, Delaware and other states had taken the fun out of it. He said he planned to stop claiming horses and gradually reduce his stable to nothing. He not only has continued to claim horses but also has hired the California trainer Nick Canani to take over his 60 horses at Bowie in Maryland, his base.

Gill, who lives in New Hampshire, says he tried not claiming horses, but he lost the horses to claims that were paying the bills. He decided to carry on, business as usual, while trying to sell his operation in total.

He says someone signed a 30-day option to buy his approximately 250 horses and Pennsylvania farm for $17 million but then failed to execute the option. Gill says a confidentiality agreement prohibits him from identifying the person.

"I just can't sell them piecemeal," he says of his horses, "or else I'll run the business in the ground. If you're not active, then you're in trouble." Gill says he has 60 horses at Bowie, which will be trained by Canani. Gill's current trainer at Bowie, Gamaliel Vazquez, will work as Mark Shuman's assistant on the farm and then this fall take 40 horses to South Florida.

Jerry Robb continues training Gill's 40 horses at Laurel. Gill also has horses at Charles Town and on farms in Florida and Maryland.

On July 11, Gill's Saranoia was euthanized after breaking a leg in a race at Monmouth Park. Gill had paid $800,000 for the strapping son of Seattle Slew, the most he has ever paid for a horse.

He says he knows people accuse him of everything from running sore horses to using illegal drugs to impulsively firing trainers and jockeys. He vehemently denies each accusation.

Of Saranoia, Gill says: "He was 100% sound. An $800,000 horse I'm going to run sore?"

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