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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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea A new concept initially proposed by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals seeks to raise funds for Thoroughbred aftercare through donations made via on-track wagering terminals. The idea was announced Aug. 12 at The Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "This new technology interface has the potential to provide...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea A solution to help off-track Thoroughbreds find forever homes is having them undergo training in another discipline, preferably with an experienced professional. While the kind of training depends on many factors, including a horse's soundness and willingness, having a solid second career foundation on an OTTB can help make them more marketable to people shopping for pleasure...
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The latest addition to Xin Xu Lin's resume came just a few years ago, when the Brazilian champion arrived at the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2013 and met his new owner, Kasia Jaskowska, who adopted him as a jumper prospect. But before he made it to his current home in Columbia, Md., he did a bit more traveling around the globe....
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Racing NSW, the regulating body for Thoroughbred racing in New South Wales Australia, announced July 22 that it has purchased a 2,600-acre property in Capertee for the purpose of rehabilitation, retraining, and rehoming off-track Thoroughbreds. However, the organization aims for the property to be more than just an aftercare facility, and hopes it will become a larger tourism...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The words used when Thoroughbred aftercare is discussed may not paint an accurate picture of what actually happens when a horse leaves the track. While arguing semantics about off-track Thoroughbreds may seem unimportant, one group views changing the conversation as a major piece of the larger equine welfare puzzle. "Currently people just talk about 'horse rescue.' When you...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Two major questions arise when horses first retire from racing: where will they go, and who will fund the next chapter of their lives? For individuals not cut out for the breeding shed, welcomed home to a private farm, or placed into a program to be purchased for a second career, the future can be dicey, especially since these horses are no longer earning a paycheck. While...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea "Thoroughbreds are too high-strung." "Thoroughbreds have horrible habits from being in so many places." "Thoroughbreds are too big and can't make tight turns." Those quotes are just a sample that riders of off-track Thoroughbreds have heard while revealing their mounts' former lives. But those who know the truth about riding OTTBs are trying to change that perception of the...
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With more than 54,000 members, OTTB Connect is one of the largest horse-related groups on Facebook. From something that started as a place to buy and sell off-track Thoroughbreds, the group's creator and current administrator has seen it transform into a large community where off-track Thoroughbred lovers share stories, educate one another, and even organize efforts to get horses out of bad situations....
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The Pennsylvania chapter of the Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses (CANTER) recently awarded $500 scholarships to three off-track Thoroughbred owners in the Mid-Atlantic region to further promote their riding and training education. The awarded funds for the Becky Julian Scholarship are to be used for training purposes, including riding lessons, clinics...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea If you're an owner or trainer in Maryland with a racehorse that needs to retire and you have no connections in aftercare or other equine disciplines, where do you turn? A new organization is aiming to be the answer. The Maryland Horsemen's Association, the Maryland Jockey Club, Maryland Thoroughbred Breeders Association, local jockeys, and other racetrackers saw a need to help...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea An initiative launched by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation gives donors an opportunity to help provide for the care of a former racehorse while getting the feel of horse ownership without the added responsibilities. If a donor chooses to become a sponsor, which starts at $250, the TRF will send regular updates on the horse and may allow visits as well, depending on the...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea The Little Red Feather partnership has been at the forefront of innovation for Thoroughbred ownership groups. From launching in 2002, the group now has more than 300 active partners, has successfully crowdsourced a winner through their LRF Thoroughbred Fund , and now is stepping into aftercare. Through a new 501(c)(3) organization called Little Red Feather Cares launched in...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Just as most of us horse-crazy people have done, Jeff Tow-Arnett found himself enamored with an off-track Thoroughbred named "Noah" after seeing an online listing. "I read Noah's biography and I said, 'That's the horse I want. I don't need to read (about any others), that's the one that I want,'" Tow-Arnett said of Nowhere to Hide , an also-ran in the 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Geno's Bambino is being fine-tuned by his owner Kate Anderson for the upcoming Arapahoe Park meet. But the 6-year-old Decarchy gelding is doing more than just breezing like a typical racehorse in training. Anderson and the Golden Creek Equine staff have been training "Geno" in classical dressage and even experimenting with some trail work when he's not at the track. "I took...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea An hour after Always Dreaming crossed the finish line first in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), the colt's trainer made an announcement about his Derby prize, a new Ram truck. "I will definitely take the truck because it has significant sentimental meaning to me," Todd Pletcher said. "But I'd like to donate the value of the truck to Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea On the first Saturday in May in 2006, crossing the finish line 8 1/2 lengths back from the ill-fated Barbaro , a grey runner ran across the wire of the 132nd Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) at Churchill Downs . In Pennsylvania, Gail Thayer was watching the race, not knowing that one day the horse she saw run third would one day be in her barn. Around three years...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Bridging the gap between racing and riding has always been a key component to successfully moving retired Thoroughbreds off the track and into new homes. Since not all racing owners and trainers have the ability and time to track down potential new owners for their former charges, and not every area is serviced by an aftercare organization, where can they turn? The Retired...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Dreams of conquering a four-star course or cruising around a show ring aboard a stylish, square-kneed hunter, ending the day with a plethora of blue ribbons, are familiar for many equestrians. Of course, the ribbons and glory came from spotting the perfect diamond in the rough—a strikingly beautiful Thoroughbred who just didn't want to run and was retired sound and ready to...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea While ending up in the winner's circle is ultimate goal for Thoroughbred owners, one partnership tries just as hard to find homes for former charges once their racing days are over. Ten Strike Racing—which is run by Marshall Gramm and Clay Sanders, plus 25 other partners—campaigns graded stakes placed Allied Air Raid and already counts more than 80 wins since officially combining...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea For the first time, Thoroughbred aftercare will have a deserved spotlight in a part of the larger international racing conversation. Coinciding with the Pan American conference in Washington D.C., the newly established International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses (IFAR) May 17-18 hopes to highlight many topics including the promotion of Thoroughbreds in second careers...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea When Thoroughbreds reigned supreme in the hunter-jumper ranks, the road from racetrack to show ring for horses was mostly through connections made with people who knew their way around the backside. As the dynamics of aftercare and sport horse purchasing changed in the age of the internet—and with the rise of many aftercare organizations participating in retraining—the path...
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By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea Soon after multiple graded stakes winner Kid Cruz was pulled up in a claiming race at Aqueduct Racetrack March 19, his breeder, Machmer Hall's Carrie Brodgen tweeted : "Just got the call, Kid Cruz is coming home! He has a tendon, but will be fine. Gelding, vacation and 2nd career next!" Kid Cruz winning the Dwyer Stakes. Photo: Coglianese Photos/Chelsea Durand Brodgen, who...
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Since launching tours in 2015, Horse Country has given the public an opportunity to see inside Kentucky's top breeding farms where Thoroughbreds are foaled and raised—but now they are adding another location to show what happens to Thoroughbreds once their racing careers are finished. Starting March 18 through the "Meet The Neighbors" tour, the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center (MMSC) will be opening...
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