Report: Grade 1-winning trainer Neil Pessin closes up shop

After 40 years, Neil Pessin has closed his training operation.

Pessin is closing his barn effective immediately, according to a report from Alan Carasso of Thoroughbred Daily News. He has not decided what comes next, though he hopes to stay in the horse racing industry and is interested in being a bloodstock agent.

Pessin won his first graded-stakes race in 1993 with Coaxing Matt, who won the Elkhorn (G2) at Keeneland. Coaxing Matt also won the Keeneland Breeders' Cup Stakes (G3) that autumn. His other graded-stakes winners included 2006 Transylvania (G3) winner Chin High, five-time graded winner Bell's the One, and 2023 Louisiana (G3) winner Happy American. Bell's the One, who won the 2020 Derby City Distaff (G1), was his only Grade 1 winner.

In a training career dating back to April of 1985 Pessin was 2,299: 260-252-293 with purses of $12,188,535. His top earner was Bell's the One, who earned just over $2 million in a career that ran from 2018 through 2022.

Many of Pessin's highest profile horses late in his career, including both Bell's the One and Happy American, were owned by Lothenbach Stables. After Bob Lothenbach died in November 2023 the horses he owned were dispersed. Pessin's string of horses afterward, and Pessin told TDN that he was down to three maidens on his shed row.

His final starter, Finn McSorley, finished eighth in a maiden special weight at Keeneland on April 25. His only starter outside the maiden ranks was Happy American, who Pessin purchased from the Lothenbach dispersal sale in 2024. Pessin sold Happy American at the Fasig-Tipton digital sale in February 2025, and he is now owned and trained by David Jacobson.