Maria Borell, the one-time trainer of 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Runhappy, will have 43 charges of animal cruelty filed against her dismissed as a result of an agreement between Borell and prosecutors in Mercer County, Ky., according to her attorney. Russell Baldani, Borell’s attorney, said Wednesday that a proposed order to dismiss the charges was filed this week and is expected to be approved by a judge in Mercer County District Court on Thursday. The proposed order also will lift a ban that had prohibited Borell from caring for horses in the state, and it will direct her $7,500 bond and $2,500 escrow to a Thoroughbred retirement charity. Borell was charged with 43 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty in 2016, along with her father, Charles, after dozens of horses on a Mercer County farm property were declared by state veterinarians to be in various states of malnourishment. At the time, Maria Borell was working in Florida, while her father was in Kentucky. A jury trial for Maria Borell had been set for July 12, but the trial was delayed after Baldani and the local prosecutor, Ted Dean, began discussions on an out-of-court resolution, Baldani said. Baldani said that he argued that the charges would be “difficult to prove” at trial, considering that the horses were not directly in Maria Borell’s care at the time. He said that Maria Borell had been in Florida working since December 2015, seven months prior to the case arising. “My belief is that she was not legally responsible for the care of the horses, even if they were in a condition that would satisfy the charge of cruelty to animals, which I don’t think was a sure thing either,” Baldani said. Shortly after charging the Borells, the Mercer Country prosecutor’s office reached a deal in which Charles Borell accepted nine counts of animal cruelty under a so-called Alford plea, in which the defendant does not admit guilt. He was placed on probation for two years and fined $4,300. Baldani said that Charles Borell was prepared to testify that Maria Borell was not in a position to care for the horses at the time the charges were filed. Kentucky statutes do not allow suspects to be extradited on misdemeanor charges, and Maria Borell avoided Kentucky for several years in order to avoid an adjudication of the case. However, Borell told Daily Racing Form last year that she had returned to Kentucky in order to deal with the charges. In the summer of 2022, she entered a not guilty plea in the case. Under the deal reached with the Mercer Country prosecutors, the $10,000 in bond and escrow money will be donated to Thoroughbred Charities of America, which incurred thousands of dollars in costs in caring for and transporting the horses that were alleged to be malnourished. Borell trained Runhappy for a year, culminating in the 2015 Sprint win. One day after the Sprint, she was fired by the colt’s owner, Jim McIngvale.