The legal fight over White Abarrio's controversial withdrawal from the 2025 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile has ended with confidential settlements covering every party, while the owners have publicly shifted responsibility toward the California Horse Racing Board. C2 Racing Stable and Gary Barber dismissed their claims against Breeders' Cup Limited and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club with prejudice, according to reporting by Thoroughbred Daily News.
The owners said their review led them to conclude that Breeders' Cup and Del Mar were not responsible for the late scratch, instead identifying the CHRB as responsible. Their statement also stressed that the dismissal involved no admission of fault, liability or wrongdoing by any party. Attorney Craig Robertson told Horse Racing Nation that two separate settlement agreements had been reached and that their terms were confidential.
That resolution closes a dispute that began after White Abarrio was pulled from the $1 million Dirt Mile in the minutes before the start at Del Mar. The April complaint reportedly sought more than $10 million and alleged that officials relied on a subjective assessment of the gray horse's “choppy” gait despite pre-race examinations and diagnostic work. BloodHorse reported that the case also involved allegations that White Abarrio had undergone positron emission tomography and Sleip gait evaluations before the race.
The settlement arrives after the horse supplied a substantial reminder of why his connections believed he belonged on the Breeders' Cup stage. White Abarrio finished second in the 2026 Pegasus World Cup Invitational, then defeated reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty by two lengths in the Oaklawn Handicap. He later was fourth in the Stephen Foster and seventh in the Whitney before his retirement. His final record was 28 starts, 11 wins, three seconds and three thirds, with earnings of $8,598,170, according to coverage of the settlement and his career.
White Abarrio's racing career therefore ends with four Grade 1 victories, including the 2023 Breeders' Cup Classic and the 2025 Pegasus World Cup, but the Dirt Mile episode will remain part of his public legacy. The case also illustrates the difficult line between a regulatory veterinarian's duty to protect a horse and an owner's expectation that a qualified runner will receive the opportunity to compete. With the litigation resolved rather than decided at trial, the public record offers no judicial finding on the scratch itself.
The son of Race Day is now moving into a different phase. Gainesway has listed him for the 2027 breeding season at an introductory fee of $17,500, making the former Classic winner a commercial stallion prospect as well as the central figure in one of racing's most closely watched veterinary disputes. Gainesway's roster announcement, reported by BloodHorse, noted that White Abarrio recorded 11 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures during his career.