Dr. Jeff Blea has returned to his position as the equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board after a controversial eight-month suspension enforced by the California Veterinary Medical Board (CVMB), but controversy remains between the CVMB and backstretch veterinary practitioners across the state. Among the primary concerns are the use of compounded medications, record keeping, and the veterinarian-client-patient relationship.
Scott Chaney, executive director of the CHRB, told the American Veterinary Medical Association: “It's basically a philosophical issue that has pointed out the limitations of the California veterinary practice act as it relates to practicing on large animals, particularly racehorses.”
According to the AVMA, some progress has been made toward resolving the controversy. The CVMB formed an Equine Practice Subcommittee in July which has been reviewing letters of concern from the CVMA and CHRB, the pending accusations against racetrack practitioners, and the AAEP Clinical Guidelines for Veterinarians Practicing in a Pari-Mutuel Environment.
Per the AVMA, the subcommittee will meet with University of California-Davis and the American Association of Veterinary State Boards as well as researching the impacts of HISA on the California veterinary practice act and record-keeping requirements by other veterinary state boards.
“We're trying to bridge all gaps,” Scott Chaney, executive director of the CHRB, told the AVMA. “Neither board agrees it's a good regulatory look when practicing vets are confused on what is required and necessary.
“We're both state departments, and we'll work with the veterinary board to bridge the disconnect. At the end of day, we have the same goal, which is animal welfare.”
To live in Tornado Alley is to be prepared to move quickly to safety and, after the tornado passes by, to reassemble what can be saved. No community knows that better than Seminole, Okla., which was hit but not one but two tornadoes within a few days in May 2022. The town and outlying areas were devastated by successive EF 1 tornadoes on May 2 and May 4, 2022.
May 2022: EF Won
After the second tornado, a 2-year-old Thoroughbred colt was found with life-threatening injuries as the lacerations on the colt's legs went to the bone. At the clinic where he was taken for treatment, the vets shook their heads as they cleaned and stitched his wounds, knowing he would need many months of careful tending if he were to recover.
As the colt fought for his life, Lynn Sullivan's organization, Thoroughbred Athletes Inc., was called upon to help provide care, and she didn't hesitate to become the colt's biggest advocate.
Sullivan also had an opportunity to talk with the colt's elderly owner just a few hours before the owner's death, which was unrelated to the tornado. Sullivan offered reassurance that the colt would always be safe in the Thoroughbred Athlete's Inc. care. Sullivan was also allowed to name the colt.
“He stared down a tornado and won,” she said. “He'd earned his name: EF Won.”
EF Won after extensive rehabilitation. Photo courtesy Thoroughbred Athletes
July 2022: Closing American
Like the tornados that batter Oklahoma, the horse slaughter pipeline is a constant threat. At the end of June, Sullivan's group identified a Thoroughbred named Closing American who was caught in the vortex.
According to Equibase, the bay gelding had done well in three of his eight races during his first year on the track, earning a first, a second, and a third. He never hit the board again over the next two and a half years of racing.
On June 25, his trainer, Martin. M. Meza, entered him in a claiming race at Evangeline Downs, thinking someone might pay $5,000 for him. No one did. Closing American was six years old, gelded, and dead last in the race.
A few weeks later, the horse that no one had wanted at Evangeline Downs turned up in a kill pen at an auction in Bastrop, La. A kill buyer had set Closing American's purchase price at $1,850. If the kill buyer didn't get his price, well, there's always another auction on another day. Eventually, Closing American would be worth something to someone even if they ended up being a buyer for a foreign meat market where he might bring between $400 and $600.
Closing American in November 2022. Photo courtesy Thoroughbred Athletes
The Kill Pen Economy
Those who follow Thoroughbred rescue/rehoming on social media may have seen pleas for help to raise money to bail a horse. This is how it works: Kill buyers attend auctions looking for good deals on horses nobody wants. They hold these horses in pens until they have enough to make up a load on a livestock truck bound for the meat markets in Canada or Mexico. This is called a kill pen, and the horses in that pen are at the mouth of the slaughter pipeline.
Anyone who wants to rescue a horse from the kill pen is welcome to try. In fact, a kill buyer often deliberately acquires a horse that will catch the eye of horse rescue groups. The price the kill buyer wants is called “bail” which is often raised on social media networks by rescues who feel they have two choices: pay the fee or lose the horse.
As reported in the Paulick Report, The Kill Pen Economy: Why the Pipeline is So Hard to Shut Off, this practice has become a new and profitable income stream for kill buyers who can sell threatened horses out of their pens to private buyers and rescue organizations for much higher prices than what the meat market will pay. Worse, good-intentioned people are scammed when the horse is never actually rescued by anyone but travels from auction to auction, being resold until the horse eventually disappears for good.
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As the word about Closing American's situation spread on social media. Sullivan's Thoroughbred Athlete's Inc. organization offered a place to the gelding if the purchase price could be raised. Donations toward his purchase went directly to Thoroughbred Athletes, Inc, a rescue group supported by the EQUUS Foundation, two nationally-recognized Thoroughbred organizations, and two Oklahoma racing organizations. Thanks to some good-hearted people, the ride Closing American took from the Bastrop, La., auction was not to another auction or a foreign meat market. He was on his way to the Oklahoma ranch that is the home of Thoroughbred Athletes Inc. in a horse trailer brought to Bastrop by the organization's volunteers. No extra transport costs or quarantine fees would be paid to the kill buyer.
When Closing American had finished his quarantine under Lynn's supervision, she introduced him to a previously rescued gelding — Nomorequestions. They were the same age, had the same sire, earned the same amount of money, and raced for the same amount of time but were in different barns.
“Somehow, they knew each other,” Sullivan said. “They are definitely bonded.”
She shakes her head.
“Their sire is well known, especially in the sport horse world. These two might have had an easy transition to a second career.”
In fact, Closing American was already attracting interest from prospective adopters.
September 2022: Claudette's Glitter
At the summer's end, Sullivan began planning a vacation to Florida. Her volunteers were more than prepared to give her a much-needed break to visit family, grab some beach time, and maybe see some old racing friends. As Sullivan boarded her flight, weather forecasters were talking up a storm that eventually became Hurricane Ian. This Category 4 storm slammed into the west coast of Florida and then roared off for another landfall in South Carolina.
While helping her family prepare for Hurricane Ian, Lynn received word of a 3-year- old Thoroughbred filly caught in the slaughter pipeline.
Claudette's Glitter in the auction pen. Photo courtesy Thoroughbred Athletes
Gentry Farms had bred Claudette's Glitter. Her mane was tidy. The holes in her hooves were clearly visible from recently being shod. She'd been prepared for better things than a pen at Jones Livestock Auction in Jones, Okla. She was thin, frightened, and bruised. Claudette's Glitter had clearly been the loser in confrontations with other horses.
Again, Sullivan and her group didn't hesitate. This time they were ahead of the kill buyers.
“We got her,” she said, adding that they were able to buy the filly from the auction floor for a much lower price than they would have had to pay the kill buyer.
Lynn tried not to let her heart break, but she couldn't help this time.
“She's just a baby,” she said. “A sweet, gentle baby.”
The newspaper USA Today reported in 2019 that the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) estimated that 7,500 Thoroughbreds a year are sent through the slaughter pipeline to either Mexico or Canada. In 2021, The Paulick Report estimated that each meat horse was worth between $400 and $600. Being away from the border does not save a horse sent to auction. The New Holland, Pennsylvania auction is as notorious as Bastrop or Jones.
The racing industry has long recognized kill buying as a serious issue. It encourages racehorse owners and trainers to responsibly retire their horses to accredited organizations such as Thoroughbred Athletes Inc. These fortunate Thoroughbreds are screened for any medical problems and then gently introduced to a new discipline and a potential new owner without having to go through the physical and emotional trauma of an auction environment. All rescued and retired racehorses adopted through Lynn's organization always go to their adoptive owners with a no-sale clause. If the new owner finds they cannot keep the horse, it must come back to Thoroughbred Athletes Inc.
“We always take them back.” Sullivan states.
At her ranch, Sullivan takes a breath, enjoying the sight of a much healthier Closing American happily hanging out with his new friend. Claudette's Glitter is also recovering both physically and mentally. At the end of tornado season, the future of EF Won, the colt that beat a tornado, is much brighter.
Lynn is hopeful that gentle rains will come in the fall and winter will be mild.
“We had a week to prepare for Hurricane Ian,” she said wistfully. “Sometimes there are only seconds before a tornado hits.”
She is being asked to accept more horses than she had expected in 2022, but, for the moment, there are no storms on her horizon.
To learn more about EF Won, Closing American, Claudette's Glitter, and the work of the organization that saved them and many other horses, visit @Thoroughbred Athletes, Inc. or visit their website: www.thoroughbred-athletes.com.
Elizabeth Janoski writes about the work of Thoroughbred aftercare organizations as a way to pay forward the soft landing of her OTTB mare into aftercare. Her most recent book is Emergence: Wayfinding through Art in cooperation with artist Chris Lathrop. When not hanging about a horse barn, she teaches English at Southern New Hampshire University. She may be reached on Facebook @ Elizabeth's Shipmeadow.
The United States Equestrian Federation Board of Directors recently approved the adoption of a Policy for the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competition, which will go into effect Dec. 1, 2022. Fantasy games and betting on equestrian sport are growing in popularity, and this Policy mitigates risks that could compromise the integrity and essence of sport.
Below is a short summary of the policy, including when and to whom it applies.
What is prohibited?
Under the policy, all competition manipulation is strictly prohibited. Violations of this policy include, but are not limited to:
Betting money (or items of monetary value) on a competition by Participants of that Competition;
Improper use of insider information by Participants, whether the Participant uses the information themselves or discloses it to an outside person/entity;
Giving and/or receiving a benefit in exchange for inside information, whether or not the inside information is actually exchanged;
Participant(s) acting with the intention to lose a Competition or part of it, or perform less than optimally (ex: “throwing a match”);
A Participant engaging in Match Fixing or Manipulating a Competition or encouraging any other Participant to match fix or otherwise manipulate a competition; and
Failure to cooperate with USEF investigation into possible violations of this policy.
Who is required to comply?
Any person belonging to one of the following categories is required to comply with the Policy:
Athletes participating in a Competition;
Athlete support personnel working with or treating Athlete(s) or horses participating in or preparing for Competition (and all other persons working with the Athlete(s) and/or horses);
Owners, shareholders, or interested parties in a horse in a competition;
Officials – includes licensed officials, any licensee, manager, or secretary of a Competition, any other Competition staff or those with an ownership interest in the Competition;
Those serving as volunteers or paid staff of the Federation or a Recognized Affiliate Association.
What happens when a violation occurs?
A violation or an attempted violation by a Participant may be investigated by USEF and subject to disciplinary proceedings pursuant to Federation Bylaws Part VII and General Rules Chapter 7.
There are few Thoroughbreds—living or dead—in the history of Thoroughbred racing that have managed to attain a mythic status as the one enjoyed by Secretariat.
Arguably the greatest racehorse of all time, the stallion known lovingly as “Big Red” turned in some of the most eye-popping, brain-searing, super-equine performances of any Thoroughbred in modern history. His very name is ubiquitous with the sport.
Today, Secretariat remains a source of fascination for fans who feel a connection to the horse and to the legacy he left behind. But 33 years after Secretariat's death, the direct line of connection to Big Red has frayed as the number of his living offspring has dwindled.
One of the only remaining descendants of Secretariat is Maritime Traveler, who lives as a pensioner at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla.
“He's always been an easy-going horse to be around for as long as I remember,” said George Isaacs, who has been the general manager of Bridlewood since 1996. “I started here in 1989 as the stallion manager. I know he arrived not long after I started.”
Retired to stud for the 1974 breeding season, Secretariat stood at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky until his death in 1989 at 19 from laminitis. In that time, he sired 663 foals including Maritime Traveler, who was born in 1990 from the last crop.
Produced from the Northern Dancer mare Oceana, Maritime Traveler was bred in Ontario at the famed Windfields Farm. A commercial breeding operation founded by E.P. Taylor in 1950, Windfields was the birthplace of many breed-shaping names in racing. Among the most notable were Nearctic, Nijinsky, and Vice Regent as well as Maritime Traveler's maternal grandsire, Northern Dancer, the first-ever Canadian Thoroughbred to win the Kentucky Derby.
Maritime Traveler at Bridlewood Farm.
Consigned to the 1991 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Maritime Traveler's breeding did much to recommend him. He was purchased by Bridlewood founder Arthur Appleton for a modest $55,000.
Despite the high hopes that ferry any new runner to the track, Maritime Traveler did not quite live up to the heights of his father. Racing exclusively at Woodbine, the chestnut made five attempts in maiden special weight company for trainer Emile Allain. His best effort came at two when he took fourth. The decision to suspend his racing career was made shortly after.
“As we all know, buying well-bred colts at the yearling sales is a gamble,” said Isaacs. “Very few make it as good racehorses and even fewer make it as potential stallions. I think any owner buying colts at the sales know that this is the metric they're playing against. But Mr. Appleton loved it as much as anybody. We've always said he would have spent his last dollar buying horses because he loved them so much.”
Instead of selling as so many do, Appleton brought Maritime Traveler home to Ocala, where he was enlisted as a teaser for the ever-expanding breeding program. It was there that the horse's stamina and obliging disposition would serve him well in years to come.
“Thank goodness for breeders and owners like Mr. Appleton who always took great care of the horses and made sure they always had a home,” said Isaacs. “My memory of Maritime Traveler was that once I returned as general manager, he was a horse that I got to know well. I always playfully say that there is probably no lower job on the horse farm than being the teaser, but that being said, he did his job well.
“He was a very, as they say, 'push button' kind of teaser. You wouldn't see this on too many farms, but he's always been the kind of horse where you could just click a shank on the ring underneath the halter and he would do his job. You could tease him without a chain over his nose—he is that easy to handle and that much of a gentleman. Most teasers are not like that at all.
Maritime Traveler with longtime Bridlewood Farm stallion manager Saul Rosas, who has been with the farm since 1980.
“He was in the broodmare area many years until another teaser that was in the breeding shed—who was by In Reality and had also been purchased as a yearling prospect that didn't make it on the track— got so old he couldn't do his job. He eventually passed away, but that meant Maritime Traveler became the teaser in the shed, so he pulled double duty. He did a great job, but he finally lost his zest four or five years ago. At that point he had more than earned his due. We tuned him out to the stallion paddock, and he's been living the life of Riley since.
“We just never could really believe that we were using a son of Secretariat as a teaser, but we have always been happy to have him, and he's always been more than willing to do his job.”
Soon to be 33 years young, Maritime Traveler spends his days in the stallion paddock complex at Bridlewood enjoying his well-earned retirement. His nearest neighbor is another Bridlewood homebred and retired stallion Stormy Atlantic, who returned home from Hill 'n' Dale Farms in Kentucky in 2021, where he had stood for the majority of his breeding career.
Isaacs said Maritime Traveler and Stormy Atlantic are the remaining two horses on the property from the original Appleton-owned version of Bridlewood Farm, and seeing them in opposing paddocks always stirs up pleasant memories from the past.
“When John Sikura at Hill 'n' Dale called me up last year he said, 'George, I'm going to retire Stormy, would you be interested in having him come back home?' We said, 'Absolutely. Put him on the van.'
“Maritime Traveler is in one of our front paddocks that backs up to 100 acres of forest. He's really in horse nirvana. Stormy Atlantic is in the paddock right there next so him. It's always been our philosophy that if you're one of our own, we're going to take care of you for life. Both of those horses live at home where they belong.”
Secretariat in the winner's circle of the 1973 Kentucky Derby
For a son of Secretariat, Maritime Traveler's story is not entirely unique. Despite his obvious prowess on the track, Secretariat made his mark in the breeding shed largely through his daughters. Considered among the most influential sire of line-founding stallions, Secretariat mares have produced some of the most critically important sires in modern memory such as A.P. Indy, Storm Cat, and Gone West.
Maritime Traveler is one of three known remaining horses by Secretariat still living. Among the others is Trusted Company, who resides at Bright Futures Farm in Pennsylvania. Bred by Stone Ridge in New York out of Star Snoop (by Stage Door Johnny), the chestnut mare was born in 1989.
Rounding out the trio is 34-year-old Border Run, who is a gelding out of the Crimson Satan mare Crimson Saint. Bred in Kentucky by Olin Gentry, he is a full brother to Terlingua, the dam of Storm Cat. Purchased for $650,000 as a yearling in 1988, the hard-knocking runner raced 41 times for Robert Dempsey before retiring.
