Wayne Catalano
Record at Keeneland
Career Firsts
Starters in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes
At Keeneland
Won first Keeneland race during the 2000 Fall Meet.
First Keeneland stakes win was the 2011 Darley Alcibiades (G1) with Stephanie’s Kitten, who next won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G2).
Sent out Room Service to win the 2014 Central Bank Ashland (G1) in a dead heat with Rosalind. Also won the 2013 Bourbon (G3) with Poker Player.
During the 2022 Fall Meet, he sent out Manny Wah to win the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G2) and Andthewinneris to win the Castle & Key Bourbon (G2).
Career
Breeders’ Cup wins (3): 2006 Juvenile Fillies with Dreaming of Anna; 2009 Juvenile Fillies with She Be Wild; 2011 Juvenile Fillies Turf with Stephanie’s Kitten.
Trained Eclipse Award winners She Be Wild (2009) and Dreaming of Anna (2006). Both were champion 2-year-old fillies.
North American career earnings exceed $75 million with 2,982 wins through Nov. 28, 2023.
Won 2,000th race on Feb. 24, 2010, at Hawthorne with Dunscombe in the third race.
Click here for his Equibase record.
Background
Wayne grew up in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans and was 15 when an uncle, Jack Links, introduced him to Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg. Wayne “learned the game from the ground up,” he said of his experience cleaning stalls and tack, hot-walking and grooming.
Another groom in the Van Berg operation was future trainer Frank Brothers. Wayne began exercising horses and became a jockey when he turned 18. He won his first race on May 20, 1974, at Churchill Downs on a horse trained by Van Berg named Hellfire. He rode until 1983, winning 1,792 races, before chronic knee problems forced him to retire. Turning to training, Wayne sent out his first starter in 1983.