Furious - by Diane McClure

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Through the HBO documentary “Running for Their Lives” I recently became aware of the pipeline of sending horses from the backstretch to the slaughterhouse. We need to establish a core value system with a policy plan whereby we can expose and eliminate these pipeline participants.

Several racetracks have taken the initiative to state that sending racehorses to an auction where a large percentage of them end up at slaughter is unacceptable.

The first week of July, Suffolk Downs’ management told their horsemen that sending horses to slaughter was no longer an alternative and that there would be repercussions, such as loss of stabling, for those making that choice.

The Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association in conjunction with Philadelphia Park management announced the formation of PTHA’s Turning For Home, a nonprofit horse rescue dedicated to helping local owners and trainers secure safe homes and second careers for their retired racehorses.

Charles Town Races has publicly stated that it has banned the two prominently known kill buyers from its backstretch.

One merely has to visit a public auction and “flip lips” to identify Thoroughbreds via tattoo that are in “the stable to table in seven days” flow. I personally identified 15 Thoroughbreds in the direct kill pens at the Sugarcreek auction in Ohio. Horses had raced as recently as five days before at Thistledown. Horses were also identified as last running at Beulah Park, Mountaineer, and Charles Town. There was even a retired steeplechase horse who last raced in Fair Hill, Md.

Upon a recent visit to the New Holland Auction in Pennsylvania, I discovered a 3-year-old Thoroughbred gelding. He was emaciated, scarred from a halter burning his skin, and three-legged lame with a swollen left knee.

I identified him through his tattoo as Falcon Fury. He had made his last three starts at Delaware Park, where he had been claimed from an owner and trainer I currently work for. I called them, and even though they had not owned or trained him for his last two starts, they were shaken by this discovery. Both told me they would financially support whatever I had to do to save him. The trainer’s assistant contacted the racing secretary, the general manager, and the stewards. She confirmed and informed them the horse had last run at Delaware Park July 2, was signed out of the stable gate July 6 by the trainer, and was at the New Holland auction July 21.

Delaware officals have also made it clear they will not tolerate this behavior. They called the last trainer of record into their offices and then sent him to the auction to find the horse. He found us and immediately denied any knowledge of how this horse ended up in this position. However, he admitted he had placed six other horses with the same dealer. He acknowledged he was in a compromised position with the officials at Delaware and they insisted he pay the purchase price and shipping costs. This helped us, but does not provide for a lifetime of care now required for a damaged horse. It was, however, a start.

Delaware’s general manager, John Mooney, assured me the track intends to handle this situation appropriately and is committed to working with the horsemen to help them make the right choice when it comes to retiring and placing horses.

This is another example of a racetrack stepping up and owning responsibility for this situation. Ultimately, we should be able to fix this industry-wide flaw from within. If every owner and trainer would assume responsibility for their own horses, this problem would not exist.

I would venture to say anyone who has watched the documentary would have to acknowledge the pipeline exists. Anyone who looks in the eye of one of these abandoned and abused horses and is not affected by what he or she sees should not be considered a horseperson.

An owner, a trainer, and an assistant trainer proved to me last week that there are enough good horsemen left to make a difference. If all racetracks would adopt a policy to help horsemen handle “unwanted” horses, they would be supporting the kind of horsemen needed to secure the future of our sport. If all tracks would adopt zero-tolerance for shedrow-to-slaughter practices, they would be moving toward eliminating the participants that do not belong in our industry.

Diana McClure is a licensed trainer who with her husband, Michael Cooney, owns and operates DMC Training Center in Berryville, Va.

Piece of Cake - by Joe Hickey

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:06:00 GMT

Stepping down from his Windfields jet, E.P. Taylor bounded across the tarmac into the terminal building, where he pulled up short in front of a vending machine.
“Help me, Joe. I don’t have any U.S. change.”
As I sorted through my change for quarters, the Canadian tycoon described by biographer Peter Newman as “the ultimate personification of the riches gained and power wielded,” fumed, “Never mind. Damned if I’m going to pay 75 cents for a slice of stale pound cake!”
This, in July 1974, was the only time in a quarter-century as Mr. Taylor’s point man for Maryland operations that I had ever known him to balk at price, either buying or selling.
He didn’t flinch when, a year earlier, the price for Cragwood Stable’s sire prospect Tentam was $2.2 million, a record figure for a horse in training.
He didn’t haggle when I introduced him to a neighbor who was interested in selling her farm. “Your price, madam?” When she responded, he beamed, “Good. I’ll have my Toronto office cut a check in the morning.”
As we departed, I asked Mr. Taylor if he wanted to drive through the farm, to inspect his latest acquisition. “No, that won’t be necessary. I’ve flown over this property so often I know what’s here. This exercise is mainly to protect my flank.”
When E.P. Taylor would fly in from out of the country, he had to land for customs inspection at New Castle Airport, the approach to which took him over Delaware Park, home turf to the extended du Pont sporting families. It had, however, fallen on lean times.
E.P. had a plan to buy and energize Delaware Park: concentrate on 2-year-old and turf races so that New York and New Jersey trainers could set up separate divisions for runners lacking racing opportunities on the home front.
“Let’s go see if they are ready to talk, Joe.”
As we waited in the turf club to feel out senior staff, we noted executives hunched over a small table, engaged in some sort of frenetic activity. Asked later about this, an officer replied, “Oh, that. We were playing Pac-Man.” The boss was not amused.
As it developed, the board was still hopeful of a turnaround. By the time they were ready to sell, Mr. Taylor was gravely ill. William Rickman, the elder, wound up buying Delaware Park. His enterprising son, also named William, now enjoys “slotsa” success with the Stanton oval.
The evening of the pound cake caper, Mr. Taylor, Windfields’ vice president of Thoroughbred operations Joe Thomas, and I met over dinner to discuss the purchase and syndication of the sire prospect Halo, then training forwardly at Belmont Park with MacKenzie Miller, after a $600,000 sale to Irving Allen’s Derisley Wood Stud in England had been voided because Halo was a cribber.
Undaunted that the $600,000 Halo was now priced at a million, Mr. Taylor also shook off the cribber knock. Wasn’t Kelso, just a whinny away at Woodstock Farm, a world-class cribber?
The deal was struck and the 5-year-old son of Hail to Reason—Cosmah, by Cosmic Bomb, was syndicated for $1,200,000—40 shares at $30,000 each. Shortly thereafter, Halo won the $100,000 United Nations Handicap in Windfields’ turquoise and gold.
As with so many of Windfields’ great latter-day successes, Mr. Taylor did not get to savor Halo’s. Stricken by a debilitating stroke in October 1980, the great breeder was non compos mentis while Halo reigned as leading sire of 1983, the year his son Sunny’s Halo won the Kentucky Derby.
In February 1984, Charles Taylor (who had succeeded his father as Windfields president), Joe Thomas, and I met in a Manhattan brownstone to arrange the sale of Halo to Tom Tatham (Oak Creek Breeders) and Arthur B. Hancock III (Stone Farm) for $36 million—that was some price for a 15-year-old stallion.
It was a great deal for both buyer and seller. Original shareholders who had bought in at $30,000 and had the use of the stallion for 10 years received $900,000 if the 1984 breeding right was included. Otherwise, the bounty was $700,000.
Re-syndicated in Kentucky, Halo went on to earn his second sire title (1989) on the back of his gifted Horse of the Year son, Sunday Silence.

Joe Hickey, who lives in Easton, Md., has been a publicist, writer, breeding farm administrator, and racing commissioner.

Final Turn : Delaware Park

Furious - by Diane McClure

Piece of Cake - by Joe Hickey