Paynter (horse)

Paynter
Paynter at the 2012 Belmont Stakes
Sire	Awesome Again
Grandsire	Deputy Minister
Dam	Tizso
Damsire	Cees Tizzy
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	March 4, 2009
Country	United States
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Diamond A Racing Corp
Owner	Zayat Stables LLC
Trainer	Bob Baffert
Record	11:4-4-0
Earnings	$1,101,924
Major wins
Haskell Invitational (2012)
Awards
Secretariat Vox Populi Award (2012) National Thoroughbred Racing Association Moment of the Year (2012)

Paynter (foaled March 4, 2009) is an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse notable for a promising three-year-old racing season that included a second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes and a victory in the Haskell Invitational, cut short by a near-fatal case of colitis requiring abdominal surgery, complicated by laminitis. Most experts believed that even if he survived, his racing days were over. His struggle for life, regularly updated via social media by his owners, gained him a large fan base and earned him the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Moment of the Year and Secretariat Vox Populi Award for 2012. His surgery was successful, and innovative treatment for laminitis prevented harm to his feet, so he was sent to the Fair Hill Training Center for recovery and rehabilitation. In his four-year-old year, he returned to the track in June 2013, almost eleven months after his 2012 Haskell victory, winning the first race of his comeback by  4 ¹⁄₂ lengths, then running in three more graded stakes races, placing second in two of them, demonstrating his ability to compete against top horses. In November, 2013, he ran in the Breeders' Cup Classic and following the race was retired to WinStar Farm to stand at stud beginning with the 2014 breeding season.

Paynter is a bay horse with a white star on his forehead, a faint irregular snip on his nose, and a white left front pastern bred by Diamond A Racing Corporation of Kentucky. His sire is 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Awesome Again, and his dam is Tizso, who raced twice and is a full sister to the two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner Tiznow.