By T. D. Thornton
Charles A. Borell, the leaseholder at a Mercer County farm where 43 neglected horses were deemed to have been “abandoned” by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDOA), was arrested June 29 upon his return to that property. He has been charged with 43 counts of cruelty to animals, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by 90 days to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $500 for each count.
Charles is the father of Breeders' Cup-winning trainer Maria Borell, who KDOA officials have said is associated with the ownership of those horses.
On Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Robert C. Stout, the KDOA state veterinarian, said “I understand that there is a warrant for her also. I haven't seen it, but I understand there is.”
Stout added that the charges pending for Maria Borell are similar to the ones levied against her father–one cruelty charge per abandoned horse–and that he doesn't think anyone else will be charged.
When asked if law enforcement officials now consider Maria Borell as a fugitive from justice or if she simply hasn't shown up, Stout said, “I don't know. That's a lawyer question that I can't answer. And no, she has not shown up.”
Maria Borell has not returned several requests from TDN this week asking for her side of the story, including a message sent Wednesday afternoon.
Charles Borell proved far easier to find for law enforcement officials: “He came to the farm, and one of my investigators met him at the gate, did all the things that policemen do, and delivered him to the sheriff,” Stout said.
A woman who answered the phone at the Mercer County Sheriff's office refused to give any details on that department's involvement in the case.
Stout said he did not know whether Charles Borell was being held at a county or regional jail, and did not have any information on a bail bond or arraignment date. As of deadline for this story, Charles Borell's case was not listed on the Thursday or Friday docket for Mercer County District Court.
At this time last year, few people in the racing world had heard of either of the Borells. Maria Borell had never trained a Thoroughbred winner from 22 lifetime starts. Then she took over as the trainer of Runhappy (Super Saver), who blossomed into a graded stakes-winning sprinter.
But 24 hours after Runhappy won the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, Maria Borell was fired, and she sued client Gallery Racing Stables, LLC, for breach of contract and defamation. Over the winter Maria Borell relocated to Florida, where a training stint with Drawing Away Stable also ended in a dismissal.
According several articles published this spring on the website US Racing, Maria Borell's name, and later her father's, began surfacing in a series of troubling incidents involving questionable equine care, damage to leased properties, and personal financial difficulties in Kentucky.
The KDOA and Mercer County Sheriff began investigating the case of the neglected horses at the leased farm June 3. They found underfed, underwatered, and confined horses of all ages with open sores and untrimmed feet. Rusty Ford, the KDOA equine programs manager, said June 28 that the horses met the legal “criteria for abandonment.”
Stout said the farm had been leased to Beacon Hill Farm, LLC. Public documents for that company list Charles as its filing agent. But according to the Kentucky Secretary of State, that LLC's license to transact business in Kentucky had been revoked Sept. 30, 2014, for failing to file an annual report.
This past Monday, the KDOA, along with a team of volunteer workers and veterinarians, began administering care to the stricken horses, and six of them were removed from the property on Tuesday for better care offsite. Stout said on Wednesday there have been no further movements of horses off the property, and that all the animals appear to be responding reasonably well.
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