From the desert Southwest to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Plains, he appeared – and more often than not won – in locations both known and unknown. Turf Paradise and Arapahoe Park appeared alongside lesser-known stops like Blackfoot and White Pine Racing, where local fans continue to support racing and short fair meetings serve as community hubs.
Equibase lists Sharp Warning with 10 wins from 16 starts last year and earnings of $51,572, although that figure is shown with an asterisk. He crossed the finish line first for the 11th time when he claimed victory on Oct. 4 in Fort Pierre, SD, in a stock market race that takes place just one weekend a year. The track is not recognized with Equibase maps.
Even excluding that 11th win, Sharp Warning surpassed five other horses with nine wins apiece in 2025: Silver Slugger, Busk, Motown Dynamic, Pacific Blue and He’s in Charge.
Last year, Sharp Warning raced as an 8-year-old and became a regular competitor for owner-trainer Kayla Warren, who charted a campaign that valued placement over ambition. Instead of chasing bigger purses, Warren focused on the conditions that suited her sprinter, confident that the well-identified opportunities would stack up. They did.
Sharp Warning thrived as a starter fee mainstay and maintained a busy racing schedule that Warren said suited his temperament. While he may not have logged many miles between races, he racked up plenty in the back of a trailer, traveling from one race to the next, like others in Warren’s traveling stable.
Early in the year at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Sharp Warning lost his first two starts of the year before breaking through with a 6 ½-length victory in a $4,000 claiming race on February 19. A nose start allowance score followed on March 31 at Turf Paradise.
When the meeting was over, Warren headed out in her recreational vehicle. Sharp Warning and her other horses did the same, pulled along the highway in trailers behind several trucks.
Arriving in Miles City, home of Montana’s historic Eastern Montana Fair, Sharp Warning added another win to its starter’s tally. Then, after a pair of narrow defeats in subsequent starts at Miles City and Energy Downs in Wyoming, Sharp Warning reached a period during the summer and early fall when he was unbeatable within his racing class.
From July 12 to October 4, he achieved eight consecutive victories, a streak capped by his triumph at Fort Pierre.
“Every time we lead him up there, I get nervous, especially if it was eight times in a row. I’m like, I know one day this will end,” she said. “But to make a long story short, he’s just a fantastic horse. Whatever came into his heart this year made him an exceptional kind of horse.”
Among the highlights were a pair of starter’s allowance victories at the Eastern Idaho State Fair at Blackfoot, where Sharp Warning captured the Fun At The Fair Overnight Stakes and the Good Old Boys Stakes, both non-black events, in consecutive weeks late in the summer.
Sharp Warning thrives on track activity, Warren said.
“If he goes running on Saturday, he goes back with the pony on Tuesday morning and trains again,” says Warren, who trains a mixed stable of thoroughbreds and quarter horses. “The horse doesn’t like to be in the stable. He likes to exercise. He likes to run, and he’s healthy enough to do all that.”
Each of the two starter bets brought home a modest $4,500, but Warren still cherishes every win.
“I won my first race at a Navajo Nation bush track, and I was hooked,” she said of her training career that began in 2012.
She still appreciates racing at smaller tracks and carnival events, and she embraces the community. Her hometown is Farmington, NM, but her home away from home is often near a race track somewhere in the western half of the country.
Describing the scene where she and her horses compete, she said, “For example, when we ride into Miles City, Montana, they have what they call the World Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale. They have 50 of the best cowboys that come there. Well, in the mix of that, they run racehorses. The whole town, when you get in there, loves it. The riders they love; they just treat you with open arms. The stands are full. The betting lines are full. It’s just great to see.”
Sharp Warning’s speed and consistency made him a winning machine at stops like Great Falls, White Pine Racing and Blackfoot. It was only late in the year at Arapahoe that Sharp Warning showed signs of his form declining. In his final two starts of 2025, he again held the lead down the stretch, but was caught late both times while still finishing second.
Overall, Sharp Warning owns a record of 11/18/10 in 69 starts at Equibase sanctioned tracks, earning $141,157, with success for multiple owners and trainers. Warren started training him in the spring of 2024 and purchased him from her boyfriend and one of her mentors, owner/trainer Jim Crotts, she said.
Sharp Warning moved into Warren’s barn about four years after winning in his debut at Golden Gate Fields in a $22,500 maiden race for trainer Victor Trujillo and then-owner Madera Thoroughbreds Racing.
Sharp Warning, bred in California by Madera Thoroughbreds, is outside the stakes-placed Swiss Yodeler mare Swiss Please, who has produced ten foals, six starters and five winners. Madera Thoroughbreds bred her to the stallion Elusive Warning, who was on the farm. He shares his father’s chestnut coat.
With his 2025 behind him, Sharp Warning is now enjoying a well-deserved rest before embarking on a 2026 campaign at the age of 9. He is ready to resume his familiar role as a frequent traveler and initiation fee participant.
Warren plans to take him swimming to build a fitness foundation before training him on the track again.
“He’s currently in Buckeye, Arizona, in a big pen, rolling in the sand and enjoying life,” Warren said.
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