Strawbridge: Racing in denial about image problems--he noted that American Thoroughbred racing has become associated with “a sinister substances mixed in a black bag” and called for reform.

George Strawbridge, Jr., has been deeply involved in Thoroughbred racing for most of his life, and his green and white Augustin Stable silks are familiar on both sides of the Atlantic. Among the top flat runners Strawbridge has raced alone or in partnership are Selkirk, a European star who went on to success as a sire; homebred Moonlight Cloud, a six-time G1 winner in France; American champions Informed Decision, Forever Together, and Waya; and such major stakes-winners as With Anticipation, Tikkanen, Collier Hill, Turgeon, and Silver Fling, who competed at the highest levels in Europe and the United States. A onetime amateur steeplechase rider, Strawbridge also is the National Steeplechase Association’s all-time leading owner by purse earnings, and his jump-racing notables include Hall of Fame ’chaser Cafe Prince and the winners of four Carolina Cups between 1982 and 2008 (Quiet Bay, Gogong, Invest West, and Imagina).

Today, his American string consists of about 20 horses in training, divided between his longtime trainer Jonathan Sheppard and Graham Motion. He also has 24 horses in Europe with trainers Ian Balding, Jonathan Pease, Freddie Head, and John Gosden.

Strawbridge, 77, has been an outspoken opponent of horse slaughter and race-day medications and is a member of the Water Hay Oats Alliance (WHOA), which advocates federal legislation to ban performance-enhancing drugs on race day under the oversight of the non-governmental United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). In 2011, as the Thoroughbred Club of America’s Honor Guest, he noted that American Thoroughbred racing has become associated with “a sinister substances mixed in a black bag” and called for reform.

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