Trainer Bios

Brendan Walsh

Born: May 15, 1973, in Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland

Record at Keeneland

Total Wins: 69

Stakes Wins: 4

Career Firsts

First Grade 1 Win: 2019 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland with Maxfield

First Stakes Win: 2014 Greenwood Cup (G3) at Parx with Cary Street

First Graded Stakes Win: 2014 Greenwood Cup (G3) at Parx with Cary Street

First Career Win: March 2, 2012, at Gulfstream Park with Sandcastle

Starters in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes

At Keeneland

Earned first Grade 1 victory of career and first Keeneland stakes victory when Maxfield won the 2019 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity. Maxfield is a homebred owned by Godolphin, for whom he worked prior to obtaining his trainer’s license.

Won the 2023 Elkhorn (G2) during the Spring Meet with Verstappen.

In 2022, won the Commonwealth (G3) during the Spring Meet with Prevalence and the Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3) during the Fall Meet with Temple City Terror.

First Keeneland win came during the 2013 Fall Meet.

Career

Career earnings exceeding $49 million with 645 wins through May 12, 2024.

Won 2019 UAE Derby (G2) with Plus Que Parfait, who became Walsh’s first Kentucky Derby (G1) starter (and finished eighth).

Won 2017 Illinois Derby (G3) with Multiplier, who became Walsh’s first Triple Crown race starter (unplaced in 2017 Preakness and Belmont).

Early successes include two horses who won stakes at Santa Anita on Breeders’ Cup weekend at Santa Anita. The first was Cary Street, who he claimed for $10,000 in February 2013 and won the 2014 Las Vegas Marathon (G2). The second was Scuba, who won the 2016 Marathon.

Click here for his Equibase career record.

Background

Raised on a small farm in Ireland that included sheep and dairy cows, Brendan learned to ride on his childhood pony. He honed his horsemanship at the Irish National Stud and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Kildangan Stud, which led to working as an exercise rider and stable foreman for Sheikh Mohammed’s racing division in Dubai and at Arlington Park in Chicago. He then worked for 3½ years for Mark Wallace in Newmarket, England.

Brendan became an assistant to fellow Irishman Eddie Kenneally in 2007 to learn the U.S. training style prior to obtaining his trainer license in 2011.