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A Graded Stakes Winner Walks Into A Bail Pen, But How Did He Get There?

A ripple went through social media in mid-March when graded stakes winner The Deputy showed up in a bail pen in Texas.

The post, from a Facebook page called North Texas Feedlot & Auction Horses, showed the 24-year-old stallion still sporting a spray paint hip number from an unknown auction, as well as his Jockey Club papers. Overnight, the post went viral alongside pleas for Thoroughbred rescues and private connections to “bail” the horse out, since North Texas Feedlot and others like it claim horses that are not bailed will be sent for slaughter in Mexico. Then, just as quickly as he'd appeared, the horse was listed as “not available,” and then the post vanished, leaving advocates wondering where he went.

Those who'd followed the saga were pleased to read the news last week that The Deputy had been purchased by his former connections and safely retired. Still, many of them also wanted to know – how did he get there in the first place?

(Read our previous reporting on the bail pen economy here.)

A horse's journey from a racing or breeding home to a bail pen operation is often murky. Horses can change hands frequently between local and regional horse auctions and livestock sales, and may also be sold or traded by horse dealers. By the time they show up in a bail pen or in need of rescue, it's often unclear how they got there. In the case of The Deputy, however, we know what his journey looked like – and it's a classic example of the bail pen economy.

On the racetrack, the Irish-bred son of Petarida (GB) raced in England during his juvenile season before being exported to the United States by Team Valor International and Gary Barber. Jenine Sahadi trained the colt to victories in the 2000 Grade 2 Santa Catalina and G1 Santa Anita Derby, making her the first female trainer to saddle a Santa Anita Derby winner. He was the second wagering choice in that year's Kentucky Derby but finished a disappointing fourteenth.

The Deputy came out of the race with a bowed tendon and was retired to stud at Margaux Farm in Kentucky. The Central Kentucky market is a tough one for stallions, and it's not uncommon for a horse to make the switch to a state with less competition if his offspring aren't well-received at the sales.

The Deputy stood four seasons in Kentucky and never sired a North American graded black type earner. He was sold to stand at Hubel Farms in Michigan ahead of the 2006 breeding season, and he became a reliable stakes sire among state-bred competition, but the downward trajectory of the state's racing and breeding program led to his sale before the 2014 season.

The last facility that advertised the stallion for service to Thoroughbred mares was Rockin' River Ranch in Winterset, Iowa.

When called in the wake of the social media furor earlier this month, Rockin' River owner Wade Feuring told the Paulick Report the stallion hadn't been at his place in five or six years. There had been dwindling interest in the horse among Iowa breeders despite his having sired Tin Badge, the state's champion 2-year-old male of 2017 and The Deputy's highest-earning runner to date. When Feuring got an offer from a Quarter Horse breeder to buy him, he thought it was a perfect fit.

“I'm of the opinion that if they can have a career doing something else, that's the best route to go, which is why we were happy when this gal bought him, because she was going to stand him, breed mares, and give him a life comparable to what he had here; as she must have for the last five or so years,” said Feuring.

Feuring said he learned the horse was in a bail pen because the Facebook page for Rockin' River blew up.

“I woke up this morning, and our Rockin River Ranch has a Facebook page, and the first thing I saw was I had 18 messages, and that's how I first found out,” he said the day after the post was made. “I was shocked to hear all this, because that name hadn't even been mentioned around here in five or six years. I called our Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners director and secretary, and told them what had happened, and how long it had been since he'd been here, and I was just shocked to hear, just like everybody else. I just thought people should know he didn't go to the kill pen from here.”

Eventually, the social media mob shifted their attention from Feuring, though not after shaming him for (they'd assumed) having a hand in the horse's fate.

Feuring had sold the horse to Jean Davenport of Afton, Iowa, who had purchased The Deputy to cross with Quarter Horses to raise barrel horses. Davenport didn't advertise the stallion because she mostly bred him to her own mares.

“My husband died just about a year ago and I've just been kind of cutting back on my horses,” she said. “I don't have enough time to do chores. I fed him, and taken care of him. I hadn't used him as a stud for over two years. I don't have time to do that, either. I just asked myself the other day, I didn't breed any mares to him last year, I might as well sell him to somebody that'll use him. He's a heck of a producer, he's in really good shape, he doesn't need to go to a kill pen.”

Davenport tapped livestock dealer Mike Gilbert to consign the stallion at the Storm Horse Auction, a mixed-breed horse and tack sale on the grounds of the Humeston Livestock Exchange near the Iowa-Missouri border.

The Deputy hammered for $425.

After the transaction, Gilbert reached out to the winning bidder, Mike Gipson.

“I'd never seen him there before,” said Gilbert. “The sale's not very far from my place, and I'd never seen the gentleman before.

“I asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to a retirement deal. That's about it, really … When they told me he was in a kill pen, I didn't believe it. I don't know a lot about the slaughter market, but they tell me they can't ship stallions. You can't put them on the trucks. I thought they were buying him to do something with him.”

Not only was Gilbert surprised, he said he was furious.

“If [the buyer had] been in my face, I'd have punched him in the mouth, to be honest with you,” he said.

The Deputy's name recognition in the Thoroughbred world meant the post from the North Texas lot spread like wildfire. One of the people who saw it was Whitney Ransom of Conway, Ark., a former exercise rider who watches bail pen pages and occasionally purchases horses to live in retirement on her property.

“I've always had a passion for Thoroughbreds,” she said. “As I got older and saw the other side of the business, it changed my opinion on the racehorse world a lot. I started becoming aware of the fate of a lot of racehorses. You have responsible owners and you have not-responsible owners. I realized it was a cruel world.

“I'll bail one a year or two a year and bring them to my house, or I'll donate to different rescue organizations to try to get them out of these kill pens.”

Ransom was told The Deputy would cost her $1,500, so she said she paid up and made arrangements to have the horse transported and quarantined. The horse's status changed to “not available” on the Facebook page. The next morning, Ransom got a call – the deal was off.

“He said he couldn't sell me the horse and he was going to have to refund my money,” said Ransom. “He wouldn't tell me where the horse was. All he would say is he sent it back where he got it from. I don't know exactly what happened, and I've been pretty upset over the whole deal.

“My first concern is that the horse is safe, but my second concern is that if they'll do this to me for more money, they'll do it to someone else.”

Meanwhile, Team Valor International's Barry Irwin had also been in touch with Gipson as his inbox filled up with messages about the graded stakes winner. Initially, Irwin was told the horse had already sold and was headed to a good home. After another day or so went by, Irwin kept getting calls telling him the horse wasn't actually bailed after all.

“I called the guy back and said, 'Look, can you just tell me the truth about what the hell's going on here? Is the horse gone?'” said Irwin. “He said, 'Nah I got the horse.' I said, 'Did you sell him?' and he said, 'I can get $1,500.' And I said, 'If I give you $3,000, can I have him?'”

Gipson did not respond to a call requesting comment for this story.

Knowing that horses often come out of the livestock auction or bail pen pipeline with profound medical problems, Irwin waited to make any public announcement that he had bailed The Deputy until he knew what he was dealing with. After a thorough veterinary exam at Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance-accredited Remember Me Rescue, Team Valor, Sahadi, and former co-owner Gary Barber felt comfortable releasing information about the horse's status.

Irwin says he's frequently contacted about horses in a bad position. It's not unusual for racing connections to be roped into a rescue effort on a horse that hasn't legally been theirs for many years. Irwin said he usually handles the situation quietly, but the increasing fervor on social media around ex-racehorses in kill pens isn't making that task easier.

“I'm sure most of these people who I refer to as the 'rescue matrons' are good people. Their hearts are in the right place, but what they do when they start jumping up and down and that creates pressure, which makes it harder for the people like me who want to go in and do the right thing,” said Irwin. “Nobody wants to get ripped off. I've paid as much as $12,500 to rescue a horse. I paid $8,000 once. That's ridiculous, and it's only because people go nuts.”

The incident has left nearly everyone involved frustrated about the lure of the bail pen economy. Increasingly, Thoroughbreds with well-known names or large groups of Thoroughbreds shed in a private dispersal have garnered enormous attention on social media – and enormous profits for bail pen owners. Gipson made $2,575 from The Deputy alone. Gilbert and others who attend livestock auctions say horse prices are at an all-time high right now, perhaps through a combination of greater online access in the wake of COVID-19 and increased interest from people who want to divert a horse out of the slaughter pipeline – or from rescue groups or bail pens who need horses to generate cash.

“Any more, the joke is at a lot of horse sales, there's no more kill pens anymore, everything's a 'rescue,'” said Gilbert. “There was some lady there bragging that she'd gathered $15,000 to rescue horses. I watched people with riding horses put them in the loose, and they brought more than they would have brought riding.”

The post A Graded Stakes Winner Walks Into A Bail Pen, But How Did He Get There? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Kill Pen Economy: Why Is The Slaughter Pipeline So Hard To Shut Off?

Those who pay attention to such things may have noticed a familiar bay mare with a distinctive star whose picture appeared on social media in December with a post imploring readers to rescue her from a grim fate. The mare was identified as Apt To Smile, a Louisiana-bred daughter of Parading who had completed an undistinguished racing career in May 2017, and she was offered for sale by a well-known kill pen in Bastrop, La. The terms for her rescue were the same as they are for many other horses that pass through the lot and others like it each week: Pay us our price, or she's making a long, painful trip to a Mexican slaughterhouse.

This wasn't her first time being offered for sale with a metaphorical gun to her head.

In March 2018 she showed up in the hands of Jacob Thompson, then the operator of Thompson Horse Lot in Pitkin, La. The mare was part of a group of horses bailed by Dina Alborano of ICareIHelp around Easter of that year. Alborano called upon her vast social media army and later said she raised Thompson's ransom of $875 per horse plus another $350 in assessed travel and quarantine and transport charges for Apt To Smile and ten others – a total of $13,475 that materialized within hours from sympathetic onlookers around the country. The group of horses was transported to Alborano's associate Hal Parker for “quarantine” for 30 days before being offered for adoption.

Apt To Smile, according to Alborano, left Parker's care fairly quickly, with her adoption announced on social media in May 2018. (Other horses of course, were not lucky enough to ever leave.) Where she's been from mid-2018 to December 2020 is unrecorded, but it's not uncommon for the same horse to spend time rattling around on the circuit of auctions, horse traders, and kill buyers, changing hands frequently.

In December 2020, Apt To Smile was advertised with a ransom price of $1,050. Pen representatives confirmed to the Paulick Report that the mare was purchased privately before her advertised ship date to Mexico, but declined to identify the buyer.

Assuming the Bastrop lot and the Thompson lot were indeed paid the stated prices for her, that means $1,925 has been paid to two kill pen owners in an attempt to secure one horse's future. Another $350 raised for her feed and board was given either to a man who later pleaded guilty to charges of animal cruelty or vanished after it went to a woman who was eventually the target of an investigation by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General for mishandling funds given to an unregistered charity. The mare, who is now seven years old, has spent three of those years shuffling from one situation to another, sought out more than once by people who knew she was worth money – but only if she were in danger.

And, she's not alone. A rescue watchdog recently provided this publication with a list of 198 off-track Thoroughbreds said to have passed through the Thompson Horse Lot and advertised for bail or purchase on the lot's social media between 2018 and 2020. Since the relocation of the Thompson operations to Texas, the lot located in Bastrop has reportedly begun advertising more OTTBs. The list also included 20 OTTBs advertised through the Bastrop pen since Oct. 16, 2020.

It must have seemed to some like the end of an unfortunate era when the Louisiana Department of Agriculture sanctioned operators of a well-known social media bail pen in late January, followed by an announcement by the operators of Thompson Horse Lot that it had moved to Texas. The reality is, this segment of the equine economy probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

How the slaughter pipeline has become big business

While the flow of horses from racetracks to kill pens was once a happenstance of owners, trainers, and breeders using the pipeline as a way to get an unwanted horse out of the barn, it's now subject to its own economic drivers. The Thompson and Bastrop lots are not the only ones that have caught on to an alternate cash flow source in the form of bail horses. Pen operators sometimes require a single purchaser for each horse and other times will allow the horse to be “bailed” with a price on the horse's head that can be crowdsourced, and then they release the horse to whoever will take it.

People purchase the horses, well above meat price, sight unseen, and are encouraged to use the pen's preferred contractors to vet the horse, attend to the horse's feet, transport the horse to them, and to put the horse in quarantine care – recommended by most animal health experts, since horses at livestock auctions are often mixed and herded together in groups and could be exposed to transmissible disease.

Of course, those paying into the system are taking a lot on faith – they're trusting that the pen is being honest about how much money has or hasn't been raised for a bailed horse; they're trusting that the horse they receive will be the one they saw in videos; they're trusting that even if the horse they saw advertised online is the one that arrives in a trailer, that the horse will be in the same physical condition it was when they sent money for it; and they're trusting pen operators who say these horses were bought for the purpose of slaughter and not as high price, high risk resale projects.

Many people and legitimate non-profits raise bail or buy horses from kill lots through gritted teeth, saying they hate the system but feel for the individual animals trapped in it on this particular week. The trouble is, the recurring willingness to raise funds any way possible has given bail lots financial incentive to buy at auction or seek horses privately not based on which horses will most efficiently fill their trucks to fill a contract with a slaughterhouse, but which can be sold at a higher profit margin to a sympathetic public.

In recent years, Thoroughbreds have begun commanding higher bail prices, no doubt because an ex-racehorse in a kill pen seems to generate a particular type of disgust from social media followers, leading to more likes, shares, and ultimately, more money. In fact, bail pen operators have begun specifically seeking them out for this reason.

This post appeared in April 2019 on the social media page of La Petrona Equine Kill Pen & Auction Horses, a group which was run by the operators of the Thompson Horse Lot

Unfortunately, there is limited information available on the hammer prices for horses at small, local livestock auctions, and often identifications on horses either at auction or at bail can be lacking, so it's nearly impossible to know – did this pen indeed buy this horse with the option of selling it for meat (paying below average meat price of $400 to $600), or did the pen buy the horse at a high enough price that it can only make money if it sells for a $1,000 to $2,000 ransom? If it's the latter, are purchasers rescuing a horse or creating an economic demand?

Where is the racing industry in all this?

For nearly everyone watching the flow of Thoroughbreds into this system, the question is what the Louisiana racing industry is doing about it.

There are two authorities that would seem reasonably able to address the issues: racetrack ownership and the state racing commission. Both have legal snags making it difficult for them to take drastic action to punish people for sending Thoroughbreds into the slaughter pipeline.

The state racing commission has jurisdiction over people who hold racing licenses and is tasked with making and enforcing state regulation regarding horse racing. Someone who's not licensed (i.e., breeders) cannot have action taken against their license.

The commission, after considerable input from attorneys, is hard-pressed to make a state racing regulation against sending a horse to slaughter when there's no federal law against doing so. Slaughtering a horse commercially for meat, or selling/transporting a horse to be slaughtered are not illegal activities in this country. The reason commercial horse slaughter is not a reality in the United States these days is that funding for federal inspection of equine slaughterhouses was written out of the Agriculture Appropriations bill in 2005. That funding language has been carried forward ever since. Animal rights advocacy groups have made moves to formally ban the practice and to prevent the transport of horses for the purposes of slaughter, but have not yet been successful.

As long as the activity itself isn't illegal, the commission hesitates to write a regulation against it. If it did write a regulation against it, the commission would have to enforce that regulation. To enforce it, they'd have to show definitively that someone knowingly sent a horse to the slaughter pipeline. Because horses often pass through livestock auctions and/or horse traders, sometimes in a matter of hours or days, on their way to a bail pen, licensees can frequently claim quite reasonably they didn't know where the horse was going to end up. The commission would be tasked with proving what was or wasn't in someone's mind, which is not an easy thing to do legally.

The ghost of civil cases past

Louisiana in particular has another legal challenge. In other states, courts have ruled that racetracks have certain rights as private actors to exclude people from their grounds. In Louisiana though, an incident in 1980 set a somewhat more complicated legal precedent.

Herbert Roberts, who was a trainer for a Texas racing operation, was one of several horsemen who became critical of track management at Louisiana Downs in Bossier Parish, La., where he often saddled horses for Paradise Farms. Roberts and the others were disturbed that the track was permitting horses to run with a certain type of shoe, and after he had signed a petition about the issue, he was informed he would not be permitted to stable horses or to race there in the 1981 season. The track later recanted, but not before Paradise had laid Roberts off because he couldn't saddle horses for them. Roberts asked the racing commission for assistance but was told the responsibility lay with the track.

Roberts sued for damages and injunctive relief, claiming his rights to free speech had been violated by a system that paired the state and the racetrack in a symbiotic way. The track claimed it was a private entity and could make decisions however it chose regarding stabling in particular. A district court sided with the racetrack, but Roberts appealed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that, in fact, the question of access to stalls and to the entry box was a matter over which the tracks and the commissions both had input, since the racing secretary and the stewards at various times behave as private actors and as state regulatory enforcers. The appeals court reversed the lower court's ruling.

“We do not today hold that the state and Louisiana Downs are in such a relationship that all acts of the track constitute state action, nor that all acts of the racing secretary constitute state action,” the opinion read. “We do not hold that the actions of any individual in a position which a regulated business is required by law to maintain constitute state action. We hold only that in the complex of facts and regulations present at this stage of the proof in this case, there is a sufficient nexus between the conduct complained of and the state to attribute the conduct to the state.”

The lack of clarity from this case seems to have resulted in a standard response from Louisiana racetracks: with sufficient language they can (and do) include an anti-slaughter clause in their stall applications and can revoke a trainer's stalls if they find it has been violated. They believe however, that they cannot ban a trainer or owner from the entry box if the person's license is clear and that it's up to the commission to take action.

What's being done — and what isn't

“The sale of racehorses to slaughter is a distasteful and inhumane act, and we are vehemently opposed to this practice,” said David Strow, vice president of corporate communications for Boyd Gaming Corporation, which owns Louisiana racetracks Delta Downs and Evangeline Downs. “If we find that an owner or trainer has knowingly sold a horse to slaughter, we will punish them to the greatest extent permitted under state law: the permanent revocation of stall privileges at our track.

“Through our partnership with the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization (NTWO), we are also providing significant financial support toward putting an end to this practice. Thanks in part to our support, the NTWO has been able to rescue hundreds of retired horses to date. We are proud of our partnership with the NTWO, and will continue doing what we can to help every retired racehorse find the loving home it deserves.”

For a while, NTWO president Victoria Keith said the organization was flooded by calls from trainers. Now, for some reason, the phone hasn't been ringing as much, despite the economic uncertainty of the global pandemic.

“We'd gotten up to 90 plus horses at one time and we just started having to say no to taking horses until we got some cleared out,” said Keith. “Right as we got back to a manageable number, here comes COVID-19.

“Bottom line is we were just taking a horse here or there. The wave that people were expecting didn't really happen.”

As of late January, the organization had 13 off-track Thoroughbreds in its system between facilities in Kentucky and Louisiana.

Boyd Gaming did not inquire further about the list of 200 horses alleged to have passed through Louisiana bail pens since 2018 (or the connections of those horses) but urged this reporter to send that information to the commission for further action. Of course, some of the horses on that list had been off the track for years, pulled off a breeding farm or out of a riding stable or backyard before they showed up in the lot.

It's not always clear how direct the line is from racing industry to bail pen. One thing continues to be true: whatever route they took to get there, there will be pen owners ready to sell them — however many times they pass through the gates.

The post The Kill Pen Economy: Why Is The Slaughter Pipeline So Hard To Shut Off? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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New York Poised To Pass Legislation To Make Transfer Of Thoroughbreds For Slaughter Illegal

A bill that would seek to interrupt the slaughter pipeline for Thoroughbreds in New York has passed the state's senate and gained bipartisan support, according to a report by the Thoroughbred Daily News. Senate Bill 1442, which is sponsored by Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. (D-15th District), would prohibit the slaughter of racehorses and breeding stock, and would make it illegal for a person or other entity to “import, export, sell, offer to sell or barter, transfer, purchase, possess, transport, deliver, or receive a race horse or race horse breeding stock with the intent of slaughtering or having another person, corporation, association or entity slaughter such race horse or race horse breeding stock.”

The bill also prohibits similar actions in cases where the person knew or “should have known” that the horse was intended to go to slaughter. It additionally requires breeding programs to designate money to go to aftercare.

The bill would give the New York State Gaming Commission the power to take action against the licenses of anyone found to be in violation, and could also stop breeders from receiving breeders' awards in the state.

There is currently no other law in any other state that makes it illegal for someone to sell or transfer a racehorse for slaughter. Horse slaughter itself is not illegal in the United States, but has not taken place commercially for more than a decade because there is no funding allocated for federal inspections of horse slaughter plants. It remains legal for horses to be exported to Canada or Mexico for the ultimate purpose of slaughter. Anti-slaughter policies are in place at some racetracks, but their enforcement is considered a private property matter and racing commissions do not participate.

Addabbo said the state's owners and breeders came to him with the idea for the bill, and he anticipates no problems with the bill passing the New York State Assembly.

Stronach Group And PETA Urge Ban On Sale Of Thoroughbreds To South Korea, Citing Slaughter Concerns

The Stronach Group has joined together with animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a call to ban the sale of Thoroughbreds to South Korea without better assurances for aftercare. PETA released a video investigation of horse slaughter in South Korea in spring 2019, claiming the practice is a common way of dealing with unwanted horses and that Korean slaughterhouses violated the country's Animal Protection Act.

A subsequent investigation by the Korean government resulted in fines for the Jeju Livestock Cooperative Association and two of its employees for killing horses in front of others, which is judged to be an unnecessary stressor. Workers shown hitting horses in the head were not fined, according to PETA.

The Stronach Group's Belinda Stronach joined with PETA to issue the call for a sales ban after learning stallion Private Vow was slaughtered in Korea sometime this year. Private Vow had been sold to stud in South Korea in 2015 after seven years at Red River Farms in Louisiana.

The Blood-Horse contacted Red River's Jay Adcock, who said he had no idea the 17-year-old stallion had died until he saw the statement from PETA on Wednesday. Private Vow had been sold from the farm that purchased him from Adcock to a private breeder before his death.

The Stronach Group urged that sales companies, breeders, and owners should prohibit the sale of Thoroughbreds to South Korean “without the meaningful and binding assurances that these noble animals will be protected after their racing and breeding careers.”