Churchill Downs Inc. officials say they have placed an owner on the no-entry list at Fair Grounds after her horse appeared in a Texas bail lot while still in the entries at the New Orleans track.
Little Red Kid was advertised on social media Jan. 30 by a kill pen, but at that time was still supposed to be headed to the ninth race on Feb. 3.
After receiving an inquiry from the Paulick Report about the horse, Fair Grounds management consulted with the stewards, who interviewed both trainer Jacoby Landry and owner Kim Jackson, in addition to Jackson's veterinarian. After some detective work, Louisiana state steward Charlie Ashy Jr., said he learned the horse, who was well off the board in claiming contests Jan. 10 and Jan. 23 at Fair Grounds, worked the week before Feb. 3. Ashy said Landry told the stewards the horse had come out of the work poorly, and a veterinary exam revealed that “the horse was full of mucus.”
Landry contacted the owner about retiring the horse, who had not hit the board since finishing second in a claiming race in July 2019 at Louisiana Downs. The owner took possession of the horse, which was not stabled at Fair Grounds. Somehow, Ashy said wires were crossed in Landry's barn and the horse was placed on the entry list anyway.
From there, Ashy said the stewards established the horse was taken to a livestock auction in Opelousas, La.
“She said she was going to sell the horse in the Thoroughbred sale at a stockyard,” Ashy said. “It's a cattle stockyard and they have a cattle auction every week or every two weeks, and then maybe once a month they'll sell Thoroughbreds as well that people want to get rid of. People might buy the horse and train it for other things.”
Ashy's investigation revealed that was where Thompson Horse Lot purchased the horse. On Jan. 28, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture announced sanctions against the operators of Thompson Horse Lot stemming from its owners buying and selling livestock without licenses. The lot subsequently moved its sale operation to Texas.
“The owner and trainer had nothing to do with the horse ending up there other than she put the horse in the sale, but she didn't do anything wrong doing that,” said Ashy. “Normally we wouldn't even look into this, but because Jason [Boulet, Fair Grounds racing director] asked us to, we did. Nobody did anything wrong from the racing side.”
Landry was issued a fine of $500 on Feb. 19 by the stewards for “entering a horse no longer under his care.”
The decision to place the owner on the no-entry list came from Fair Grounds/CDI management.
“As you know, CDI and all of our tracks take slaughter of race horses very seriously,” said Dr. William Farmer, equine medical director for Churchill Downs Inc. “Fair Grounds remains vigilant to making sure those horse that race at our facility have productive second careers. To follow through with Fair Grounds commitment to prevent race horses from going to slaughter, the owner of this horse was placed on a no-entry list to deny future entries in races at Fair Grounds.”
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