Awful: 'Mattress Mack' fires Borell day after fairytale BC Sprint win
 

What a colossal scumbag. Hope he never gets another winner and a tornado hits his mattress warehouse.

@BH_JBalan: Laura Wohlers confirms Maria Borell is no longer the trainer of Runhappy. Wohlers will take over care. Probably running next in Malibu.

Wow.

@raypaulick: After 15 years & 1,000+ starters as owner, @MattressMack had 0 G1 wins. Then @IMariaValentine won G1 King's Bishop, BC Sprint w Runhappy

what an a-hole....and to think I tweeted congrats to that dip$hit

Just when you thought that Coburn could not be eclipsed. Wow, what a d'bag.

And that is why he never had success b4 this. I know people like this they think bc they are rich they are smarter then everyone else. Typical rich jerk off

There is a special place in hell for these people I hope.

What a crock of B.S.



A statement from Linda McInvale posted on Runhappy's FB page.

"Hi everyone- We know you would all like a statement and thoughts about today. First of all this was not a decision made today, on a whim, or hastily. Gallery Racing has nothing but admiration and respect for Maria, and wishes her nothing but success in the future. RunHappy was not off or lame today, and although Maria and Laura Wohlers may have disagreed on that, RunHappy saw the vet and he confirmed nothing was wrong. Gallery Racing would never and will never make any decision for any horse unless it is in the very best interest of the animal; this is the main reason we do not run on any drugs. This was an internal decision made a while ago and Gallery Racing wanted to allow Maria to finish the campaign with RunHappy and get a Breeder's Cup win under her name and on record. Gallery Racing hopes she has an incredible career. We hope you will understand there are two sides to every story and we have our reasons for the decision. Gallery Racing will always have RunHappy's health and happiness as our primary concern. We see his future being very bright and God willing, it will be! Gallery Racing would like to thank all of the RunHappy fans for your incredible support!"

Maybe she should go all Barry Irwin and tell the world how she is tired of owners lying to her. Hope she gets a few quality clients for the long haul

With Runhappy's performance on and on . . . she will, at least I hope she will. No reflection on her. I think she has huge upside as a trainer . . . all she needs if a few more chances. I like her!!!

He is a dip wad . . .go figure.

Maria Borell Fired as Trainer - RunHappy
 

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/br...print-victory/

She goes 5 for 5 with the horse and fired for virtually no reason.

Pathetic. A real shame. A very stupid person with too much money selling mattresses. Then he gets a nice horse, hires a fledgling but very smart and astute young trainer to win him a Breeders Cup and the maroon fires her. I know people in Houston . . . that can . . and I leave it at that!!!

Runhappy deserves more form an owner than him!!! Pathetic!!!

Somebody help me here. What does Wholers now about horse racing or training? Never heard of either Borell or her but in my book, it sounds like an inside arrangement between the Mattress Maniac and his favorite, maybe. I mean this is insane . . . who the helk is Wholers anyway?

Something not related to horse racing or training that's going on behind the scenes here, I guarantee it!!!

This is from the comment section in the Paulick report.... These are not my words, but if this is true would it change anything?


Avatar

ADavidson • 33 minutes ago





Maria is being sued for animal neglect and property damage done to a farm she leased. She owes dozens of people at the training center money. She's NOT a good person or good horseman!! This is KARMA at work.

True is the real question. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw one of his small mattresses.

Someone in the business who really cares about race horses will come to her rescue if deserved. Not knowing all the facts none of us can figure this out but I'll take a stand and say it smells real fishy to me, against the mattress mole and all of this connections. How do you think he got where he is in the wonderful world of Houston mattresses . . . by being a nice guy?

It's his sister in law.. She's been his "trainer" on and off for years.

http://www.horseracingnation.com/person/Laura_Wohlers#

Sounds like someone ate some sour grapes. What a soap opera this is turning into!

She won one race with Runhappy . . . and one other with another horse . . . Impressive?! Like I said, there's more to this than logic for sure.

If there were any genuine animal-neglect issues surrounding a Breeders' Cup-winning trainer, I feel like PETA would have made a huge deal about it straight away.

Not even PETA. They did a piece on her for NBC and their research would've turned it up if there were reports in the media. If there was any merit, I find it hard to believe Mac, etc wouldn't have already been aware and nobody would've criticized them for pulling their horse and saying 'sorry I know he's a BC horse, but we can't stand for this.' Nobody would've blamed them which means either they knew and didn't care or there's nothing to care about in the first place.

I dunno about you guys but my radar went up during the trophy presentation and an interview with Mac. He was talking about the Runhappy Team and mentioned the people involved which you could read as 'oh ok there's several people he wants to acknowledge' but I expected him to mention her more prominently and when he didn't, I started paying attention. You know what many BC owners do? Thank the trainer profusely or at the very least they're the first one you bring up and you make a bigger deal than just throwing her name sort of in there with your racing manager and some others. Most owners would know a young trainer like that getting her first BC win would be a huge deal. Did he mention that or anything about her having a bright future? Nope. One of the reasons he picked her was being a young person willing to get up early/stay late, work hard etc. but there was just something weird about the tone. It diminished her accomplishment to me because it implied she was just willing to put in the effort rather than a person with a particular talent that just needed a break. Like any warm body could've done it. She met his needs at the time and was someone he thought wouldn't give him any difficulty because she needed the job. A higher profile trainer'd cost more and might bow up on some demand.

One of the reasons Runhappy was put in her care was supposedly her experience as a vet tech. I wouldn't be shocked if she attempts to rehab other horses and we all know they aren't always in stellar shape or devoid of mud from rolling. There's no telling what they looked like or if there were ignorant people overreacting is what I'm saying. Til she got Runhappy she was a struggling trainer, and I could very well believe she owed someone money from before, but that ain't a reason to fire her on its face. I do know some people claiming to rehab that are actually well-intentioned hoarders. That's always a possibility I suppose, but I really think there's Mac-related shenanigans in any case.

http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Res...e=T&eID=267751

She was an 0-22 trainer prior to training RunHappy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...896_story.html

"Wohlers heard from a friend about Borell and sent Runhappy to her Kentucky farm. McIngvale approved of the choice: “She was young and ambitious, and we were looking for a trainer who would do things our way.”

I bet the sister-in-law wants a G1 on her resume too and this is a quick way to get it.

An argument with Mac's sister-in-law is totally gonna get you canned (was it over whether he was sound for something like the Malibu?) and I can believe they've been trying to tell her what to do since the King's Bishop. They didn't know he was gonna do this well and when he did, they thought they could just make her a figurehead but being a person of substance she didn't wanna roll over and compromise her principles. I don't buy for a minute that there was absolutely no physical issue. Who'd know Runhappy inside and out better than Maria with her experience? Maybe it ended up not being as serious, but nothing? Nah. They probably didn't think they could get away with firing her before. Turns out Laura Wohlers allegedly found and initially trained Runhappy and got too busy at the store or something? http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...030-story.html Seriously, lady, work at a store, train horses, one or the other. Not someone I'd want training if she's also focused on the family business.

I only knew this guy from Wimbeldon and the money he pumped in with Baffert. I also remember they had a horse named Work purchased for 950k and was deemed a special horse before it ran, then the horse was injured

From a betting perspective this horse appears to be a total bet against next out. Can't imagine the training routine and what got them to this point ain't gonna be flipped upside down.

was with a guy who met Maria after the post draw..got his pic taken..said she was all class. Hopefully she lands on her feet

If anyone's following along, they did end up joggin the horse this morning.

@RuffianIsQueen: #Runhappy jogged 2 miles this morning, most on his own! He's such an amazing horse despite how the fandom wants to see. #GoHap!

The odds of this horse making it's next race are getting slimmer each passing day.

Just gross. I can't imagine they won't pay the girl? Or maybe I can.

http://www.drf.com/news/preview/bore...happys-trainer

Taking the horse away is one thing -- it makes no sense in a vacuum but this is what he does. It's terrible but it's not new to this owner.

But not paying the trainer is a totally different and lower low.

Does it work like that? I thought the track held the money and distributed it to jockey and trainer, just to avoid this sort of thing.

No. The trainers get paid by the owners.

I'd like to say what I really think of him but then I get banned.:mad::eek:

Maria's new FB Page.

https://www.facebook.com/Team-Maria-900645973357934/

ha, really seems like something that could be exploited.

It's na page devoted to her, but pretty sure it's not officially jer's. Just someone trying to support her cause. Kinda like the dolts that make Twitter pages representing a horse.

She's the one that sent me the link.

Oh wow to me it read like a page by fans to support her.

It is.. I was just saying she is the one that mentioned it.

Here is her personal one.https://www.facebook.com/IamMariaValentine?fref=nf

You know, I almost expected that and said 'you watch, they'll try to get out of paying her,' but I thought maybe I was just being overly cynical. Nope. It's like they're following a script of how to look even worse than they just did. Yeah, Mac, she wasn't your private trainer. You were just the only big fish she had. Pay up, loser. :$:

Just wondering why she wasn't getting the trainers part of the purse since the first time Runhappy won, or am I missing something? I thought the norm was a monthly billing. I'm thinking I'd at least be looking for a check from winning a Gr1 at Saratoga