KENNY TROUTT and Bill Casner are new names to most in the Thoroughbred industry, but they are far from novices. Troutt and Casner burst into the industry's consciousness in 2000 when they purchased what was then called Prestonwood Farm near Versailles, Kentucky, from brothers Art, Jack, and J. R. Preston.

Kenny Troutt
Birthdate: January 8, 1948
Birthplace: Mount Vernon, Illinois
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Education: Southern Illinois University
Principal businesses: WinStar Farm; formerly CEO of Excel Communications
Family: Lisa (wife), three children

Bill Casner
Birthdate: March 12, 1948
Birthplace: El Paso, Texas
Residence: Southlake, Texas
Education: Tarleton State University
Principal businesses: WinStar Farm, B & R Equipment
Family: Susan (wife), two children
Birthdate: January 8, 1948

Best horses raced by Win Star Farm: Bet Me Best (Casner), Dianehill (Ire), Happily Unbridled, License Fee, Mr. Mellon (in partnership with Tom VanMeter), Sicy d'Alsace (Fr) (Casner in partnership with Jack and Art Preston), Silken (GB), Stage Call (GB)

The names of Troutt and Casner then began to appear with regularity on sales summaries as buyers at some of the industry's highest-profile auctions. In 2000, the name of Kenny Troutt's wife, Lisa Troutt, ranked at the top of the list of buyers of broodmares with 20 purchases for $14.8-million.

Although Troutt and Casner have emerged as participants at the highest levels of the sport over the past five years, both were hands-on participants at a far different level about 20 years ago. In fact, both Troutt and Casner were intimately familiar with a pitchfork and other basics of Thoroughbred racing at an early age before they left the industry in the early 1980s to pursue more lucrative business ventures.

Casner grew up horse crazy in El Paso, Texas, and began to gallop Thoroughbreds at local Sunland Park as a teenager. He put himself through college at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, by galloping such horses as champion Chou Croute at various racetracks around the country, and then he embarked on a career as a trainer after graduation.

Raised in the housing projects near East St. Louis, Illinois, Troutt got into Thoroughbred racing through an uncle. After graduation from Southern Illinois University, he entered business in Omaha, Nebraska. Troutt owned nearby Land View Farm for six years until 1982, when he moved to Dallas.

Casner and Troutt met and became fast friends when they both tried to claim the same horse at the now-defunct Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack in Omaha.

Over the next 15 years, Troutt became chief executive officer of the telecommunications firm Excel Communications and Casner built the heavy equipment company B & R Equipment, earning millions in the process. By the mid-1990s, both men found themselves with both the time and the money to re-enter Thoroughbred racing at a far different level, and opportunity found them in the persons of the Preston brothers.

After 30 years, Troutt and Casner remain the closest of friends, and the reasons why their partnership works become immediately evident in conversation. Like partners in a long, successful marriage, the old friends often finish each other's sentences or supplement the other's comments. Each understands and respects the other man's strengths and is happy to give room to display them.

They are both passionate and opinionated about Thoroughbred racing, racehorses, and the direction the industry should take.

Troutt and Casner were interviewed by Thoroughbred Times Bloodstock/Sales Editor John P. Sparkman on July 15, the day of the first session of the Keeneland July sale of selected yearlings, at their private conference room in the Keeneland pavilion.

Thoroughbred Times: Why did you decide to get back in the Thoroughbred industry in the mid-1990s?

Bill Casner: "When I walked away from the racetrack, I thought I'd never get back into racing. I thought I'd extinguished the flame. If it was convenient to watch the Kentucky Derby (G1), I'd watch it, but I'd never go out of my way.

"[On] opening day of Lone Star [Park] in '96, I met Art Preston, and Art invited me down to his training center in Central Texas that Michael Dickinson had developed for him, and he kept after me to come down and look at it. Finally, one day [my wife] Susan and I drove down there. I walked through the shedrows and, [saw] those horses hanging their heads out, and [went] out and watch[ed] them train.

"I'll never forget, the next day, I drove to the store and got a Racing Form. And then the next night I went and got another one. And the next night when I bought the third one, I knew something was happening, and that was when the fire reignited. Racing is one of those things that's a passion. Once you have it, it may be dormant, but it remains.

"I started working on Kenny, and in the beginning he was non-receptive.

"The way we really got back in [was] we formed a partnership called Full Circle Racing, and Kenny said, 'Ah, hell, I'll do that; it's no big deal. It'll give us something to talk about.' It was Kenny, Pete Wittmann, Art Preston, and me.

"Art was really very instrumental in it. Of course, Art [and his brothers] had the farm here and it was the ideal partnership really, because we were able to be reintroduced to the business. There was a 16-year gap there."

Kenny Troutt: "When I got ... to know [the Prestons], that was when they had Victory Gallop. So, all of a sudden we were sitting next to a person that was living the dreams we'd had 20 years ago. I think that when I really crossed over was when we went to Saratoga [Race Course] and saw him [Victory Gallop] win the Whitney [Handicap (G1)].

"You're right there and part of the emotional thing. And Bill had the pleasure of going with Art to the Belmont [Stakes (G1)]. If you've been around horse racing, you know that if it's not your horse, the second-best thing is being around someone that has the [big] horse. That kind of really caught the bug for me."

TT: How did the purchase of Prestonwood come about?

Casner: "It was Art and Jack Preston who brought us into the highest level of the game. They allowed us to be part of their experiences and their world when they were at the top of the game. They invited me to Dubai-I mean it was absolutely a tremendous time."

Troutt: "And the people that they introduced us to, to [WinStar trainer] Elliott [Walden], and to [WinStar General Manager] Doug Cauthen. They were very gracious to take us under their wing and kind of fill the gap of that 20 years we were missing. We can't thank those two guys enough for what they did for us."

Casner: "They guided us through the waters at the beginning and helped us avoid some early mistakes. Even though we'd had experience, it was a whole different level. You're very vulnerable when you get back into the game and you're very emotional and you've got money in your pocket-"

Troutt: "Emotion and money don't mix."

Casner: "When J. R. Preston had throat cancer, I think they felt they had always done everything as a threesome. It was a business decision, an estate-planning move, that was necessary, and that was when Art mentioned that they may possibly want to sell the farm. That was the ideal way for us to get back in."

TT: Where does the name WinStar come from?

Casner: "Actually my wife, Susan, was instrumental in that. There was a meteor that fell on the property, I guess a thousand years ago. That was the 'star' and Susan put the 'win' in there."

Troutt: "It kind of brings together what everybody in horse racing is all about. You have the sta