Paulson Horses Transferred from De Seroux

Eight horses owned by Michael Paulson will be transferred from trainer Laura de Seroux and sent to the East Coast Friday to trainers Michael Matz and Bill Mott.

"I've been moving our horses east for quite a few months now, and my ultimate goal was to get them all on the east coast," Paulson said Tuesday. "Looking at my dad's (Allen Paulson) pedigrees, we have a fair amount of turf pedigrees in our horses and there's more opportunities on the east coast and the tracks are softer and a litte easier on them, so it suits our horses better."

Four horses being sent east are currently in training and four others are rehabilitating.

Paulson also cited the California's workers' compensation situation, but said a disagreement with de Seroux's over the choice of races for 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri was not a contributing factor.

"The disagreement of where to race Azeri wasn't really a contributing factor because I've wanted to do this all along," Paulson said. "I'm sending them to several trainers -- Bill Mott, Michael Matz in Delaware, and probably at least one other trainer."

De Seroux's husband, Emmanuel, will continue to serve as a bloodstock consultant for Paulson.

"Nothing changes there. It was truly a business decision. When Laura first got the horses I said it was just a temporary thing to evaluate our horses, and they would be going to other trainers," Paulson explained. "Then we got sidetracked with Azeri and Astra and we didn't send the horses to other places. So they were with Laura for longer than I had planned to. I like Laura and think she's a good trainer. This has been in the works for awhile."