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. I