By: Erin Shea Inspired by what he experienced while wagering at the 2017 Breeders' Cup at Del Mar , Bob Hutton returned to Arizona with an idea to raise money for Thoroughbred aftercare. Hutton, the president of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association, was making wagers on AmTote machines that had a pop-up interface to ask bettors if they would like to donate a portion of their...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Sarah MacHarg was searching for a potential 2018 Thoroughbred Makeover horse while spending time with friends who worked at Jim and Susan Hill's Margaux Farm near Midway, Ky. While waiting for her friends to finish their day's work, she noticed a playful horse. "He was very cheeky and very cat and mouse. He would try to get you to come to his stall," she said. "And if I walked...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea In only six years The Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Incentive Program—a program that offers annual awards for off-track Thoroughbreds to encourage the retraining of racehorses—has grown from offering awards and classes at 150 horse shows to 1,200 shows in 42 states and six Canadian provinces for 2018. In those six years, fueled by major strides in Thoroughbred aftercare, T.I.P...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Vinceremos , the Machmer Hall-bred who ran in the 2014 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), was on a familiar path. Even with his promising start on the Derby trail and a grade 3 win as a 3-year-old, as time went on he started to drop down through the claiming ranks. The son of Pioneerof the Nile was first claimed for $25,000 at Saratoga Race Course in August of 2015...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The team behind the Thoroughbred Classic Horse Show would love to see their 2018 edition of their annual Holiday Classic event go off without a hitch. Forces outside of the organizers' control affected the past two editions of the December show—in 2016 it was cancelled due to an outbreak of Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1), and in 2017 the equine community in Southern California...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea On the track, multiple graded stakes winner Nates Mineshaft was a versatile racehorse through 39 starts in nine seasons. Making his graded debut at age 5, the son of Mineshaft picked up three graded wins including a score in the 1 1/8-mile New Orleans Handicap (G2). The next season he won on the turf in an optional-claiming allowance, and made a start in the Arlington Million...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The last horse through the ring in the penultimate session of the 2017 Keeneland November sale was a chestnut son of Street Cry. Named Street Jersey , he was consigned as Hip 3914 by Hunter Valley Farm as a stallion prospect. Street Jersey accumulated a record of 1-1-4 and earnings of $69,750 from seven starts for breeder Charles Fipke. While not as successful on the track...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The Stronach family's Adena Springs is known in the Thoroughbred industry as a successful breeder and owner participating in the highest levels of the game in the United States and Canada, but the Stronachs are also advocates for responsible aftercare. In addition to supporting outside aftercare nonprofits and initiatives, Adena Springs has its own aftercare program to help...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The racing industry in Minnesota has recently increased its efforts to help retiring horses with life off the track. Thanks to legislation passed in 2015, fines collected from rulings at Canterbury Park and Running Aces Casino & Racetrack were allocated to a fund, which awarded $46,000 to three aftercare organizations this fall. The three organizations selected were Bowman...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea With a place in her heart for horses giving it their all on the track, trainer Patti Shirley made an important announcement when she was interviewed after her trainee Russian Elite won the featured race of the day Dec. 21, 2004 at Sunland Park . With a captive audience, Shirley announced she was going to start an aftercare organization. As soon as the interview was over, she...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The 64 organizations accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance are as diverse as the aftercare landscape itself. Many adopt out former runners for second careers, others are sanctuaries, and some are organizations that help both horses and humans. In addition to helping Thoroughbreds, there is one similarity among all of the nonprofits—they've all passed the rigorous...
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A hard-knocker who gave his all on the track, Saratoga Boot earned $267,372 in his 73 starts. Racing from ages 2 until 10, the gelded son of Storm Boot compiled an impressive 16-10-13 record. Not wanting to see the horse break down, trainer Eddie Clouston retired him after he ran fourth in a claiming race in October at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack, & Resort....
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Incentive Program Youth Ambassadors are a special group of young off-track Thoroughbred supporters who want to share their passion for ex-racehorses with the equestrian world. Twelve individuals are selected each year to help promote the T.I.P., which encourages the retraining of OTTBs for other disciplines. While a love of the breed unites the...
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With a solid purchase price and now in the care of one of the largest operations in the world with Darley, it seemed that the youngster, named Regiment, had a bright future ahead on the racetrack. But it wasn't on the racetrack where he began to shine. ...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Three years ago at the 2014 Breeders' Cup World Championships, a gelding named Cary Street flew three wide around the final turn of a 1 3/4-mile event, came storming into the Santa Anita Park stretch, and pulled away from his competition to register a 9 1/4-length victory in the $200,000 Las Vegas Marathon Stakes (G2). "I claimed him for $10,000 (in February of 2013) and I...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Often we hear stories of off-track Thoroughbreds winning hunter/jumper classes, competing in the upper levels of eventing, and even taking home prizes in barrel racing competitions, but it's not as common to see them become police mounts, typically a job that's reserved for warmbloods or draft crosses. One such off-track Thoroughbred is SSO Valor, who has been a part of the...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Jockey Megan Fadlovich attended this year's Thoroughbred Makeover presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America without a mount. The rider, who has earned more than $4.7 million in her career to date, helps retire racehorses when she's not busy at the track. Although she's currently recovering from an injury incurred in a spill at Presque Isle Downs , Fadlovich came to Kentucky...
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The 2017 Thoroughbred Makeover presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America had approximately 300 horses compete in 10 different disciplines all in one weekend at one venue....
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Even though the primary goal of the 21-year-old ReRun Thoroughbred Adoption is to find second careers and new homes off the track for retired Thoroughbred racehorses, the organization gets significant attention from a few of its permanent residents. One of the most popular is Saratoga Snacks , who won almost $700,000. The New York-bred son of Tale of the Cat was previously...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Both the human and animal population of Puerto Rico are struggling to regain their footing after the island was pounded by Hurricane Maria Sept. 20. Many are scrambling to secure food, water, electricity, and signals for mobile phones, and included in the chaos are approximately 950 horses at Hipodromo Camarero. One 501c3 charity, Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare, is trying...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Racing and three-day eventing are separate sports requiring different skills and training methods, but the one thing that's needed to succeed in both is serious athleticism. One newly created event is trying to bring the eventing world and the racing world closer together, and celebrate the one breed with endless athletic talent: the Thoroughbred. Earlier this year, the Plantation...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea More than 250 off-track Thoroughbreds descended on the Kentucky Horse Park's Rolex Stadium in Lexington Sept. 8-10 as part of the first-ever New Vocations Charity Thoroughbred Show/Thoroughbred Incentive Program Championships. With 253 competitors from 22 states, the show was up 138 entries from last year's two-day New Vocations show. "It was amazing. (Entrants) came from everywhere...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Georgia Keogh was pleasantly surprised in 2015 when her father James Keogh, who owns Grovendale, casually mentioned he had a horse arriving for her one day. When the gray gelding got off the trailer, Keogh was immediately enamored with the son of Giacomo , who caught her father's eye two years earlier at Parx Racing . "It was kind of by chance," Keogh said of how she ended...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The Retired Racehorse Project released data this month on its 509 off-track Thoroughbred entrants for the upcoming Thoroughbred Makeover presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America Oct. 5-8 at the Kentucky Horse Park. RRP's Steuart Pittman said the 500 horses are representative of the larger population of U.S. Thoroughbreds who are retired from racing but are not being used...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea When Rachel Masen took a trip to Kentucky for the Retired Racehorse Project's Thoroughbred Makeover event last October, she didn't know she'd be leaving with a request from a Kentucky breeder to help locate a horse back out west. A lifelong racing fan, Masen wanted to visit historic Calumet Farm on her trip. While taking a tour of the Lexington operation, she spoke with Calumet...
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