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Beyond the Wire Earns MJC Award of Merit

Beyond the Wire, a Maryland-based Thoroughbred aftercare program, will be honored with the Maryland Jockey Club's Special Award of Merit during the Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico Thursday.

The Special Award of Merit is presented to those who have made a positive impact on the racing industry. Past winners include Hall of Fame horsemen D. Wayne Lukas, Jerry Bailey, Ramon Dominguez and King Leatherbury; late Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim McKay, founder of the Maryland Million; and MJC track photographer Jim McCue.

“We are honored and really appreciate the recognition, as the program has been a big effort on the part of the Maryland racing industry,” Beyond the Wire's program administrator Jessica Hammond said. “Hopefully, the award will also provide an additional spotlight on the importance of aftercare.”

Launched in 2017, Beyond the Wire reached a milestone in mid-March when 5-year-old gelding Bundi Bundi trained by Pedro Nasario became the 500th horse to move through the program. Hammond said they have since added another 20 horses.

“It's a busy, busy program,” Hammond said. “The good news is that it shows that trainers are prioritizing a good aftercare program for their horses. People are even foregoing getting money for their horses so that they know that they are going to have a safe and secure retirement. Instead of risking having a horse end up in a bad spot, trainers are saying let me just retire them through Beyond the Wire.”

Beyond the Wire is an industry-wide initiative between the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, Maryland Jockey Club, 1/ST Racing, Northview Stallion Station, Maryland Horse Breeders Association and Maryland jockeys. The organization is a first exit from racing program designed to facilitate safe and enriching placements for retiring Maryland-based racehorses.

Annual pledges and donations, and owners' contributions of $11 per start, enables Beyond the Wire to place retired Thoroughbreds exclusively with Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance-accredited farms. Horses that go through the program receive retraining and rehabilitation as needed.

Partner farms are MidAtlantic Horse Rescue, Foxie G Foundation, New Vocations, Akindale Thoroughbred Rescue, After the Races, Equine Rescue of Aiken and Life Horse.

Beyond the Wire will have an information table set up during the Sunrise at Old Hilltop tours which run from 6-9 a.m. Tuesday through Friday. For more information on the program, visit: www.beyondthewire.org.

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Northview Stallion Station Joins As Partner With Aftercare Organization Beyond The Wire

Northview Stallion Station, located in Chesapeake City, Md., has partnered with Beyond The Wire to provide financial assistance for “sanctuary” horses—retired Thoroughbred racehorses that cannot move on to second careers. It is a major step forward for Maryland's Thoroughbred aftercare program.

Beyond the Wire is an industry-wide initiative between the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, the Maryland Jockey Club, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and Maryland jockeys designed to facilitate safe and enriching placements for retired Maryland-based racehorses.

Northview, which stands nine stallions including Great Notion, the current leading stallion in Maryland, was launched in 1989 by the late Richard Golden, Dr. Tom Bowman, and the late Allaire DuPont. For the past few years, Golden's son, Michael, has overseen operations at the farm. David Wade, general manager of Northview, said Michael Golden has had a passion for retired racehorses and was looking for mechanism to generate financial support for them.

“Sanctuary horses need funding,” Wade said. “Some of them spend the rest of their lives at a farm because they're not adoptable. Northview wants to help fund that effort, and we'd like to challenge other stallion farms to do the same.”

Wade said Northview will donate 5 percent of the stud fees it collects from contracts. It can do so from stallions wholly owned by Northview or from the shares it owns in other stallions that stand at the farm.

“This program is such a critical part of the progressive efforts of the Maryland racing industry to support all of our retiring horses, whether they can have a second career as a riding horse or not,” said Laurie Calhoun, who operates the Union Bridge, Md.-based Foxie G Foundation, a Thoroughbred Aftercare Association-accredited facility that works closely with the Beyond The Wire program. “It concentrates heavily on horses with past racing injuries that need extensive rehabilitation. Given enough time and careful management, the majority of these horses can live a comfortable life in our sanctuary program if they are not adopted out as companions or used in ground-based, equine-assisted therapy programs.

“Since 2018, Foxie G has had five horses in an equine assisted therapy program at the Baltimore Agricultural Center, serving veterans and first responders. We will also begin a new equine-assisted therapy partnership in 2022, where up to 10 of our sanctuary horses will be used. Horses are natural healers and they can give back so much to our community. Northview's generous, lead gift in support of these horses will literally be life-changing for horses that have not had many options in the past thanks to the caring efforts of Michael Golden and David Wade.”

Beverly Strauss of MidAtlantic Horse Rescue, another TAA-accredited farm that partners with Beyond The Wire, agreed with Calhoun.

“Maryland racing does a good job filtering horses off the track and into TAA-accredited facilities, but the number of horses needing sanctuary care that are not rideable is significant,” Strauss said. “It puts a strain on each (partner) organization. These horses need ongoing support from the racing and breeding industry—we owe this much to them.”

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Tim Keefe Reunites with an Old Friend

When Tim Keefe saw a familiar name in the entries at Timonium last Monday, the trainer decided it was time to pay it forward with a horse who had been very good to him half a decade ago. Keefe claimed Monkey's Medal (Medallist) for $5,000 even as the 10-year-old gelding was winning for the 13th time in his 103rd career start on the holiday card at the Maryland State Fairgrounds.

“We all have different ideas on training horses and when a horse has reached its limit and has nothing left to do,” Keefe said of his decision to claim the veteran runner. “I saw he was a 10-year-old and had made 103 starts and I decided, 'Let's give this horse a different career.' I am huge into finding second careers for my horses once they've finished their usefulness here at the racetrack. They all have a second life somewhere. This horse was good to me and he was good to his breeder, Tom Teal, so I made the decision I was going to claim him.”

Monkey's Medal made the first 22 starts of his career for Teal and Keefe, winning five starts before being claimed for $32,000 from a third-place finish at Laurel in April 2016. His subsequent efforts included a third-place finish in the 2016 Roanake S. at Parx. He hit the board in 46 of his 103 starts before retiring with earnings of $437,897.

“He was very businesslike,” Keefe recalled of his days with Monkey's Medal. “He was an awesome horse to be around. He had loads of personality. Obviously, he was one of the soundest horses I ever had. He always went out there and did what you asked him to do. He always went out there and ran as hard as he could and tried as hard as he could. He was always a trier.”

Monkey's Medal has been running like clockwork since 2014, but Keefe said the gelding is in fine shape.

“The horse looked well when I picked him up,” Keefe said. “His legs looked good. He was relatively sound and looks good. He was not some horse in terrible shape, but he's a 10-year-old with nothing left to prove. He was always a special horse and it just seemed like the time was right for him.”

Monkey's Medal has plenty of people to look out for his future.

“I'm not sure yet what we'll do with him,” Keefe said. “I'm going to let him down a little bit and see. I have some commitments from two different owners who have absolutely zero connection with the horse who will help me place him–Cynthia McGinnis and Kimberly Campbell–and his breeder Tom Teal. His old exercise rider Peter Brown-Whale used to be the only one who would ride Monkey and he was always one of Pete's favorite horses. Pete is still galloping for me and he was thrilled when I got him back. He's expressed an interest in him if he can figure out a way how to manage having a horse on the farm. And if not, I'll talk to Laurie Calhoun out at the Foxie G Foundation and see if she can help me place him.”

Keefe concluded, “I think we owe it to our horses to do the right thing by them and I wanted to make sure he would have a shot at a second career doing something off the racetrack.”

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