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Commentary: Racehorses keep giving after they retire

Posted: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 4:41 PM

by Teresa Genaro

On June 27, I visited Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement farm in Georgetown, Kentucky.

I try to visit every time I’m in Central Kentucky, to reacquaint with favorites like Commentator and Williamstown and to meet the newest residents.

This time, Old Friends President Michael Blowen took me to see 1991 Horse of the Year Black Tie Affair (Ire). The Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner had come to Old Friends in July 2009 after a breeding career in Kentucky, Japan, and West Virginia. Suffering from a variety of maladies, he was thin when I saw him last October.

Last week, he looked better. He had filled out, and though his old bones were obviously weary, he perked up at Blowen’s presence and the prospect of the carrots he must have known were coming.

Five days later, I read that Black Tie Affair had been euthanized; his laminitis had become too painful, and it was time for the 24-year-old’s suffering to end. After decades of work on the racetrack and in the breeding shed, Black Tie Affair got to spend the last year of his life being pampered and adored by his many fans and visitors.

About 300 miles away, another retired Thoroughbred lives in Southern Michigan. Lucky to Cope ran 64 times with four wins to his credit. I cashed a ticket on him on March 3, 2007, when he won an allowance race at Gulfstream Park at odds of 35.10-to-1, and I wrote about him in July ’08, when he won a claiming race at Delaware Park at 29-to-1 odds. It was the last win of his career.

Two months ago, I received a comment on that post from Jennifer Quail. A museum educator and veteran equestrian, she had put the name of her new horse into a search engine and landed on my story. She had been looking for a new horse last winter, and she expressly wanted a Thoroughbred to retrain as a riding horse.

“I wanted a ‘been there, done that’ horse, who was experienced and unfazable,” Quail said. “I knew that a retired Thoroughbred would be used to being around a lot of different people; I knew that he’d been groomed and ridden and trailered.

“Thoroughbreds know what it’s like to be trained to do a job. And at eight, Lucky [to Cope] is relatively young compared to the Warmbloods who aren’t even ridden until they’re four or five years old.”

Quail had read accounts from people who had adopted horses from the Finger Lakes Thoroughbred Adoption Program (FLTAP). She checked the trainer listings at FLTAP’s website, where Lucky to Cope’s last trainer, Jared Schoeneman, had listed him; $600 and a long van ride later, Lucky to Cope arrived in Michigan.

“He’s been perfect,” Quail said. “On a satisfaction scale of 1-to-10, I’m at a 12.”

Most racehorses are retired at relatively young ages, given that they can live to be 30 years old and have years, if not decades, of useful work and life ahead of them.

At the recent Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, which was underwritten by Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Jockey Club and hosted by Keeneland Association, Diana Pikulski of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation noted that horses that go on to second careers in eventing or showing often don’t blossom until they are ten or 11 years old, offering new owners years of riding, pleasure, and companionship.

Various models of Thoroughbred retirement exist; the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, CANTER (Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses), and Akindale Thoroughbred Rescue, among others, specialize in retraining and adopting sound horses into a variety of new careers. At Old Friends, the only job of retirees is to hang out in their paddocks and entertain the visitors who come to praise, pet, and feed them.

I’m glad that I got to see Black Tie Affair one more time, glad to know that he lived his last days happy and surrounded by people doting on him. And despite—or maybe because of—his more modest accomplishments, I like knowing that Lucky to Cope is in the hands of a new owner who will work patiently with him as he learns his new job.

We bemoan the short racing careers of today’s Thoroughbreds, lament the too-brief time that we get to see them. Yes, Black Tie Affair and Lucky to Cope are fortunate—but, happily, so are we, who get to share in their lives, long after they’ve left the track.

Teresa Genaro is an English teacher and freelance writer who is based in Brooklyn, New York, and covers the Saratoga Race Course meeting for The Saratogian. Her writing can be found online at Brooklyn Backstretch.