From Eight Broodmares to Equine Innovation: Coteau Grove Farms Named 2026 TOBA Breeder of the Year Finalist
From Eight Broodmares to Equine Innovation: Coteau Grove Farms Named 2026 TOBA Breeder of the Year Finalist
Eighteen years after buying its first mares, the Louisiana farm is a national finalist — and the sourcing foundation behind an evidence-based, peer-reviewed equine allograft that supports recovery from joint, tendon, and ligament injuries.
SUNSET, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When Keith and Ginger Myers bought eight broodmares at the 2008 Keeneland November Sale, they set out to build a Louisiana Thoroughbred operation that could compete nationally. Eighteen years later, Coteau Grove Farms has been named a finalist for the 2026 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association National Breeder of the Year Award, alongside the late Brereton C. Jones, Don Alberto Corporation, Godolphin, and Juddmonte. The winner will be announced September 10, 2026, in Versailles, Kentucky.1
“A breeding program is not built in a season,” said Keith Myers, Owner of Coteau Grove Farms and Partner of Equine Performance Labs. “It is built by making thoughtful choices over time and caring for horses as individuals.”
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Today CGF is a 478-acre operation spanning breeding, sales preparation, performance, and rehabilitation. Its graduates include Grade 1 winner No Parole; multiple Grade 2 winner and millionaire Touchuponastar; Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed Tumbarumba; and Grade 2 winner Margie’s Intention.
“A breeding program is not built in a season,” said Keith Myers, Owner of Coteau Grove Farms and Partner of Equine Performance Labs. “It is built by making thoughtful choices over time and caring for horses as individuals.”
Where the Legacy Meets Regenerative Medicine
That philosophy led CGF into a foundational partnership with Equine Performance Labs (EPL), founded in 2022 to bring controlled research and quality systems to equine regenerative medicine. The mares that foal at Coteau Grove are there for CGF’s own breeding and sales program; under an exclusive partnership, the cords from full-term natural deliveries — tissue that would otherwise be discarded — are collected for equicenta® CTM, EPL’s ready-to-use cryopreserved allograft for joints, tendons, and ligaments. The first collection occurred during CGF’s 2023 foaling season.
The advantage is the mares themselves:
- The same band, year over year: longitudinal health and reproductive history on the same individual mares across multiple seasons.
- Limited outside exposure: the mares are not commingled with outside horses, reducing disease risk.
- Documented care: CGF’s standard of care and veterinary oversight are of the highest standards, traceable through to foal health and tissue quality.
- Athletic pedigree: stakes-winning mares bred to leading Kentucky and Louisiana stallions, with inclusion criteria applied to every mare and foal.
The Evidence That Followed
A 2025 study in BMC Medicine — a characterization and safety evaluation of an equine umbilical cord allograft — found that hundreds of proteins were present at consistent high and moderate levels across different donors, with the most abundant proteins varying by only about 5 percent from batch to batch within the same donor — a notably tight range for a biologic tissue. No adverse events were observed after injection into joints and ligaments.2 That consistency carried through to performance: in 2026, a prospective controlled trial in Frontiers in Veterinary Science followed 138 lame performance horses with 195 conditions across eight U.S. practices, where a single injection eased lameness, pain, and swelling more than clinician-selected standard of care, with results holding through 12 weeks and horses roughly 2.7 times more likely to return to their prior level of performance.3
“With a tissue-based biologic like equicenta® CTM, consistency in the raw material is a large part of what makes clinical results repeatable, along with our consistent proprietary processing,” said Heather Rogers, CEO of Equine Performance Labs. “You cannot manufacture that uniformity downstream. It has to be there when the cord is collected.”
“We already care for these mares to the highest standard we know, because our own program depends on it,” Myers said. “Working with EPL means that care helps horses beyond our farm instead of ending at foaling.”
About Coteau Grove Farms
Coteau Grove Farms is a 478-acre family-owned Thoroughbred breeding, performance, and rehabilitation operation in Sunset, Louisiana. Founded in 2008 by Keith and Ginger Myers, CGF is a finalist for the 2026 TOBA National Breeder of the Year Award.
Learn more about Coteau Grove Farms
About Equine Performance Labs
Guided by “Horse First. Sport Second,” Equine Performance Labs develops regenerative products for horses under an ISO 13485-certified quality management system, with a focus on controlled research and responsible sourcing.
Learn more about Equine Performance Labs
Citations
1 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, “Finalists Announced for 41st TOBA National Awards” (2026), provided as PDF. Verify against TOBA at https://toba.org/11049-2/
2 Bertone AL, Reinemeyer C, Tsaprailis G, Ragland D, Leise B. “Cryopreserved equine umbilical cord tissue allograft characterization and biocompatibility in vivo in musculoskeletal tissues: a controlled study.” BMC Medicine. 2025 Jul 23;23(1):439. doi:10.1186/s12916-025-04231-7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40702469/
3 Bertone AL, Davern AJ, Sutter WW, et al. “Cryopreserved umbilical allograft (equicenta® CTM) improves clinical outcomes compared with clinician-selected standard of care in performance horses: a pragmatic prospective controlled trial.” Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2026. doi:10.3389/fvets.2026.1833933. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2026.1833933/full
Contacts
Media Contact
Rachel Rodrigue
Director of Marketing, Equine Performance Labs
rachel@equineperformancelabs.com
(888) 979-3625
