Tag: Horse Care

A Scandinavian study has shown that equine enthusiasts aren't satisfied with the quality and availability of online equine-related content. Though educated equestrians feel they can critically assess online information, they are unsure whether less-educated equine enthusiasts are able to do so. 

To better understand how equine enthusiasts assess, value and trust online content, Dr. Lovisa Broms and a research team from Malmö University in Sweden and the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Norway, developed a 44-question survey that received 1,459 responses. The survey was followed with 28 focus group interviews to investigate how riders determine what sources of online knowledge they feel are trustworthy.  

The survey showed that search engines were used most often to obtain information about horses, with social networking sites used for information gathering second and commercial websites third.

In total, 97.7 percent of respondents said they used social networking sites in general; 47.2 percent of respondents said they used them to find information about horses while 37.6 percent of respondents said they did not utilize social networking sites for information on horses. The rest of the respondents did not answer the question. 

Fifteen survey responses indicated they preferred to use “live sources,” like their trainer or trusted barn friend, to obtain information. Riders with less experience turned to social media for equine information more often than riders with more experience.

Focus group members stressed that equine enthusiasts must have enough horse experience to be able to critically assess information found online. Overall, equestrians feel that finding quality information online is important, but difficult to do. Equine enthusiasts who openly discuss that they go online to gather information about horses may be stigmatized, especially if they are not experienced. This is exacerbated by less-educated equestrians relying on social media groups to gather information, on which platforms they may be denounced. 

The study showed that accessibility, experience, and trust are key when determining from which platforms equestrians obtain information. The research team says this highlights the difference between equestrian culture and contemporary media users.

The scientists say that it might behoove equine institutions to populate the online sphere instead of asking enthusiasts to not use these sources; this might reduce the reliance on horse friends in boarding barns being used as qualified resources. 

The team concluded that online platforms have a role in the exchange of equine knowledge and that further studies are needed to determine how social relationships and power play out in an online sphere.  

Read the study here. 

Read more at HorseTalk. 

The post Equestrians Dissatisfied With Quality, Availability Of Online Equine Content appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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If you own a Thoroughbred in training, you most likely have heard of the many aftercare options available to you and your racing community.

With 82 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA)-accredited organizations across North America and many supporting triage programs at major racetracks, the transfer of a retiring Thoroughbred can be seamless.

One concern in this process is ensuring a retired horse will not be entered in a race under new connections. Often a retired horse will be transferred from the track to a trainer or an organization, but the foal certificate is left active. This misstep is a liability for the racing connections, but more importantly, it can be a threat to the horse's safety. There are protocols in place to prevent this from happening.

All TAA-accredited organizations have an adoption contract, which states the horse is being sold as “Not for racing.” However, the process that officially ensures the horse's Jockey Club certificate will be made inactive for racing must be filed through The Jockey Club's Registry Office.

The Jockey Club registrar Rick Bailey explained the “Sold as Retired From Racing” process, which notifies North American racetracks of the retired status for Thoroughbreds.

“If an owner wishes to mark their certificates as 'Retired From Racing,' there's a process to do that for Thoroughbreds that are registered with The Jockey Club,” Bailey said. “It involves returning the completed form, which includes the notarized signature of both parties, photographs so that we can verify the identity of the horse, and The Jockey Club Certificate of Foal Registration to our office so that it can be recorded and stamped accordingly.”

All of the necessary information and the “Sold as Retired From Racing” form are readily available online.

“Some tracks are more aware of the retired process than others—certainly the aftercare organizations are much more aware and a good number of the 'Retired From Racing' horses that we receive are from aftercare facilities,” Bailey said.

A seasoned veteran of the “Sold as Retired From Racing” process, TAA-accredited Second Stride executive director Kim Smith shares her perspective as an aftercare facility taking in recently retired Thoroughbreds who still need their TJC papers to be stamped as inactive.

“Second Stride transitioned 143 Thoroughbred sport horses to new homes last year for many types of post-racing uses and jobs,” Smith said. “We received foal certificates from the donating connections either digitally or in hard copy for approximately 40 percent of the horses.”

TAA-accredited organizations such as Second Stride sometimes face a challenge in tracking down the Certificate of Foal Registration.

“Often the papers are at a racetrack already closed for the meet. They're left behind or transferred to the next track,” Smith said. “We often hear they were left in a van driver's glove box.

“So far this year we have had four out of 20 horses arrive with foal papers and a notarized form ready for executing to The Jockey Club 'Sold as Retired From Racing' database,” Smith said. “This year we started sending The Jockey Club 'Sold as Retired From Racing' form link to all our donors; we ask it be executed upon entry.”

With the introduction of digital certificates, beginning with the 2018 foal crop, thankfully this issue is on the decline as Thoroughbreds with paper certificates age out of racing.

Aside from the “Sold as Retired From Racing” form, TAA-accredited organizations take additional precautions to provide a safety net for horses adopted from their organization.

“We provide strict 'No Race' language in our adoption contracts,” Smith said. “Second Stride places our horses in the Equibase Virtual Stable Mail to be notified if a horse has published works or races. We then can proactively try and find out what is going on for any alerts. Usually it is a name similar to that of another horse currently working. This past Thanksgiving morning we had 2018 Kentucky Derby (Presented by Woodford Reserve [G1]) runner My Boy Jack show up with a published work. He was transitioned through our program and his adopter actually allows us to use him as an ambassador horse on tours, so we knew right where he was. We were able to reassure the prior connections that he was well and grazing on the farm.”

Many TAA-accredited organizations also are careful to safeguard their adopted horses from going to slaughter by having clear language in their adoption contracts. Furthermore, the adopter agrees to include the same “No race or slaughter” language in any future sale contracts.

“The adopted horse is placed with a lifetime 'Not for race or slaughter use' clause,” Smith said. “The adopter agrees that neither they, nor any future person or owner, shall race or slaughter the adopted horse, sell the adopted horse for race or slaughter use, or cause the horse to become available for purchase at an auction that could place the horse at risk of slaughter or race use.”

While it is trickier to reclaim an OTTB at-risk of slaughter, Kim Smith's team has a solid plan in place if an adopted horse shows up on the track.

“The 'bat' phone starts ringing,” she said. “We would immediately notify the stewards of the related tracks, the track ownership, the track vets, and The Jockey Club. We can readily provide our paperwork and vet work to establish the situation and request the horse be put on the steward's/track's 'No race' list. We can also request that our attorney submit a 'cease and desist' letter to the person(s) in question, as well as to the other related parties. Our contract language also has provisions for return of the horse to Second Stride, and legal work can be started for that as well.”

While TAA-accredited organizations do their best to provide a safety net for our industry's athletes with or without the “Sold as Retired From Racing” form, the nonprofits end up spending considerable time, money, and resources that could otherwise go toward caring for more horses.

“We find horsemen and owners are making a mental shift on handling aftercare needs and are understanding the need to formalize a procedure flow for their horses' post-racing needs,” Smith said. “Using a TAA-accredited program is a great first step for horsemen, as most of these programs are set up to help them through the system and keep the horse's best interest at heart. They organize optimal contracts, complete the safety paperwork, follow up with the horse in its new home, and give feedback to the prior connections.

“It takes a complicated web of multiple contacts to keep a transitioned horse as safe as it can be. For most race stables it would be very difficult to keep up with all of those post-race needs adequately. We hope we are a valuable tool they choose to use.”

In the 10 years since the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance was established, more than 13,700 retired Thoroughbreds have been affected by TAA-accredited organizations. In that same time frame, 4,653 Thoroughbreds have been recorded as retired from racing. Ultimately, the best way to ensure your retired Thoroughbred never makes another start is to complete the “Sold as Retired From Racing” process.

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Resources
Sold as Retired From Racing

Frequently Asked Questions

Retired From Racing List

The post Ensuring Horses Stay Retired From Racing appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Hillside Equestrian Meadows' Laki, a winner of six career stakes topped by the 2020 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) who became a fan favorite throughout the Mid-Atlantic over six seasons of racing, has been retired.

Bred in Maryland by Tom Michaels and Lorna Baker, the 9-year-old gelded son of Cuba out of the Swear By Dixie mare Truthful Dutch had not raced since last September when he finished eighth in defense of his De Francis victory.

Laki had not had a timed work since mid-December at Laurel and was entered but scratched from the Dave's Friend for 3-year-olds and up sprinting 6 ½ furlongs Dec. 26. Instead, he was sent to owner Paul 'Buck' Kalinowski's farm for his annual winter vacation.

“There was some thought to bringing him back,” trainer Damon Dilodovico said, “and we just decided that he had done enough. It was time to retire him.”

Dilodovico said Laki remains at Kalinowski's Wolcott, Conn. farm – founded in 1991 and offering boarding, riding lessons, horse leasing and pony rides – where he is being prepared for life after racing.

“He's been training him to do other disciplines, and he said he's taken to it very well,” Dilodovico said. “I'm not surprised by that. He was always a pretty smart athlete.

“The owner is a top horseman. He does riding schools and camps for less fortunate kids during the summer,” he added. “They have a little arena on their farm and he's been working with Laki, as he'd say, just getting him ready for his next adventure.”

Laki retires with 11 wins, eight seconds, six thirds and $833,162 in purse earnings from 38 lifetime starts. He won at least one stakes race five consecutive years from 2017-21, a streak he extended with his triumph in the Frank Y. Whiteley last April at Laurel. It would be Laki's final victory.

An accomplished sprinter who won at distances from 5 ½ to seven furlongs, Laki captured three straight dirt sprint division titles during the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series in 2018, 2019 and 2021. The Series was shelved in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“He meant everything to us,” said Dilodovico, whose wife Christine served as Laki's groom. “I've been in the game for 30 years and we raced Immortal Eyes, but to have a Maryland-bred perform like that and develop a following, it was really something special for me and my family.”

Florida-bred Immortal Eyes was a 19-time winner including 13 stakes and nearly $1.2 million in purse earnings who captured the 2013 De Francis when it was ungraded. Laki's victory is the lone graded success for both horse and trainer, coming on the undercard of the 145th Preakness Stakes (G1) at historic Pimlico Race Course. That year, the pandemic caused a reshuffling of the Triple Crown races and the Preakness wound up as the finale in early October, nearly five months past its traditional mid-May date.

Laki had to check when things got tight leaving the backstretch, then swung wide on the turn under regular rider Horacio Karamanos and came with a steady run through the stretch to edge Claudio Gonzalez-trained Eastern Bay by a nose in a three-way photo finish. It was another nose back to Nitrous in third.

“I never watched a race with Christine. She would always wander off and that was good for me, because I was anxious enough anyway. Watching that with my oldest son, the place was empty but there was screaming and hollering,” Dilodovico said. “Claudio's horse had a good following. Just from the jockey's quarters, they were all out on the porch and feeling all these people rooting for these two horses, it made it very special. Then to prevail, I'll never forget the grin on Horacio's face when he came back.”

Laki's career actually began on the grass, debuting in a 5 ½-furlong claiming sprint over Laurel's world-class turf course Nov. 5, 2016. He ran last of 10 at odds of 41-1 and was promptly moved to the dirt, where he rattled off four straight wins including his first stakes victory in the 2017 Not For Love.

“We had finally gotten to where we were ready to run him, and let me tell you, as a colt he was not interested in racing. It wasn't until we gelded him that we really started to see a lot of his focus,” Dilodovico said. “I had him to where I thought he was fit to run, and we could not get a dirt race to go.

“Talking to Buck, we said let's try this turf race. He made up a good bit of ground but it definitely wasn't his favorite surface at the time,” he added. “I always thought I would have tried it again later on, just because he had such a giant kick, but once he was going so well on the main it would have been silly to switch it around.”

Other stakes wins for Laki came in the 2018 Polynesian and Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial, 2019 Whiteley and 2020 Oceanport Centennial at Monmouth Park, the only one that came outside of Maryland. The Whiteley, where he defeated fellow multiple stakes winner Lewisfield by 3 ½ lengths in 1:08.47 for six furlongs, is particularly meaningful for Dilodovico.

“I remember watching it in the paddock with my oldest and youngest son and I just remember seeing that performance and I'm telling you, I started to ball,” he said. “At the time, I was shocked.”

Laki also placed in 10 other stakes, including a second in the 2018 De Francis (G3) and thirds in the 2019 and 2021 General George (G3).

“He really supported us the last few years. You have favorites in the barn, but when you have favorites that are just special athletes, it's wonderful,” Dilodovico said. “He's going out sound, and that's huge.”

The post Mid-Atlantic Fan Favorite Laki Retired, Training For Next ‘Adventure’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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