New Vocations | Horse Racing Free Tips

50-Plus Cup Contenders Pledge Support to New Vocations

Over 50 connections of horses running in Friday and Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup races have pledged a portion of their runners’ earnings to New Vocations, the largest racehorse adoption program in the country.

Now in its 11th year, the annual pledge has raised over $650,000, with 100 percent of funds raised supporting the program’s rehabilitation, retraining and rehoming efforts.

“We pledged for two reasons: We love the New Vocations model of repurposing these magnificent Thoroughbreds for a new life, and it’s the right thing to do,” said owner B. Wayne Hughes of Spendthrift Farm.

“The New Vocations program is the best,” said owner Barbara Banke of Stonestreet Stables. “They excel at assessing the individual horse and placing them in the most suitable new homes. Some of their success stories with our retired racehorses are truly inspiring.”

Pledge participants to date include Albaugh Family Stables, Bass Stables, Bethlehem Stables LLC, Bob Baffert, Breeze Easy LLC, China Horse Club Inc, CJ Thoroughbreds, Michael Dubb, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, eFive Racing, John and Diane Fradkin, Gatsas Stables, Tim Hamm, Harrell Ventures LLC, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Heider Family Stables, R.A. Hill Stables, Michael Hui, Klaravich Stables, Robert V. LaPenta, LNJ Foxwoods, Madaket Stables LLC, Richard Mandella, Michael McCarthy, Peter Miller, Monomoy Stables, H. Graham Motion, MyRacehorse Stable, Todd Pletcher, Repole Stable, River Oak Farm, Kirk and Judy Robison, Sackatoga Stable, Domenic Savides, SF Racing LLC, Siena Farm, Jack Sisterson, Spendthrift Farm, Starlight Racing, Stonestreet Stables, Damon Thayer, The Elkstone Group LLC, Three Diamonds Farm, Wertheimer et Frere and WinStar Farm.

“Breeders’ Cup is a very exciting time of year for our industry and a great opportunity for New Vocations to share its commitment to aftercare with a world-wide audience,” said Anna Ford, the New Vocations Thoroughbred Program Director. “We are thankful for the large number of owners and trainers who are pledging their support of New Vocations mission. Funds raised through the Pledge are vital as the number of horses needing our services this year continues to grow. The Pledge is a win-win situation for all involved, most importantly the horses we all love so much.”

In its 28 years, New Vocations has placed over 7,000 racehorses, and currently serves nearly 500 annually. With facilities in Kentucky, Ohio, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and New York, New Vocations serves over 40 racetracks, working directly with owners and trainers in need of equine aftercare options

New Vocations will continue to seek pledges from connections until Nov. 7. All pledge information can be found at www.newvocations.org/donate.

The post 50-Plus Cup Contenders Pledge Support to New Vocations appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Penelope Miller Voted Unanimous Champion Of 2020 Real Rider Cup

Penelope Miller is the winner of the 2020 Real Rider Cup.

Unanimously voted by the board for this year's title, Penelope has raised just under $14,000 since 2018 when she first competed on Team Racing Analysts. This year was a year like no other. Going virtual was definitely plan B, with COVID becoming a national pandemic early in the Spring.

Organizers quickly realized that having a live show was going to be impractical. Penelope was the first one to say “Yay! I'm in!” when we first announced the virtual plan. Her fundraising tactics are always unique – this year she announced she would dye her hair the racing colors of the first stable to donate $2,000. That was Little Red Feather, so an extra thank you to them.

Designed specifically to showcase Off The Track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs), the Real Rider Cup was first held in conjunction with Plantation Field International Horse Trials in 2017 and 2018. This crowd-pleasing celebrity charity event changed venues in 2019 and served as the kick-off for the Fair Hill Thoroughbred Show which followed on Sept. 21-22.

The 2019 Real Rider Cup participants included a number of racing industry personalities – jockeys, members of the media, “Racing Kids” who grew up in the sport, sidesaddle riders and representatives from world-class breeding farms. Teams competed against each other over a course of show jumping fences to determine the “real riders.” Each competitor pledged to raise at least $1,000, which directly supported our beneficiaries – the Retired Racehorse Project, New Vocations, and The Fair Hill Thoroughbred Show.

Penelope Miller grew up as a horse-crazy kid on her parents' farm in Ocala, Fla., and not much has changed since then. She is now the Senior Manager of Digital Media at America's Best Racing, and spends her weekends traveling to racetracks across the nation to photograph and write about some of the sports biggest events. Before that, she worked on farms from Kentucky to Australia, and worked for six years at Tampa Bay Downs as the Horsemen's Liaison. When she's not in an airplane or the office, Penelope can be found riding at Riverdale Stables in the Bronx or flying through the air at Trapeze School New York.

Penelope tied for second place in the 2018 Real Rider Cup aboard the outstanding retired racehorse and all-around very good boy Disco Elvis, owned and trained by Meghan Wicks Doran. In 2019 she was aboard the wonderful Fort, owned by Abi Skillman, riding for Team Racing Media.

“Horses have given me absolutely everything, and I am so grateful for the chance to give back through the Real Rider Cup,” Miller said. “If you've ever fallen in love with a pony, if you've cheered on your favorite Thoroughbred at the track, or if you just want to help out, please consider a donation here to benefit the incredibly worthy charities supported by the Real Rider Cup: New Vocations, the Retired Racehorse Project, and the Fair Hill Thoroughbred Show.”

Penelope's 2020 mount was Grade 1-winning steeplechaser All The Way Jose, very kindly provided by his owner, Dr. Erica Gaertner. You can watch their flawless show jumping round here:

The beautiful silver cup will be mailed to Penelope today. CONGRATULATIONS PENELOPE!!!

This year's Peoples Choice Award goes to Laura Moquett riding Ultraslan who had the most votes on the online poll. Well done Laura for rallying so much support!! Her prize will be an assortment of goods and swag from our benefactors The Retired Racehorse Project, New Vocations and The Fair Hill Thoroughbred Show.

The total votes for all the riders exceeded 48,000, and as of this writing, we have also raised over $48,000!!

Again, we can't say thank you enough to all of our Real Rider Cup 2020 participants and supporters. You are ALL winners in our eyes!!

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Sparked by Winning Vino Rosso Pledge, Bar Now Higher For New Vocations BC Pledge Drive

The bar is set high for the 11th annual New Vocations Breeders’ Cup pledge drive. Last year’s fundraiser for the nation’s largest retired racehorse rehabilitation and placement program netted $130,000 from owners and trainers of Breeders’ Cup entrants. The exclamation point on that record amount was provided by Vino Rosso (Curlin) winning the GI Classic, because the colt’s two ownership partners–St. Elias Stable and Repole Stable–plus trainer Todd Pletcher, all pledged their support.

Over the last decade New Vocations has raised $650,000 with its annual Breeders’ Cup funding drive, which asks the connections of entrants to voluntarily pledge from one-half of 1% to 10% of purse earnings over the two-day championships. This model is unique because it has zero overhead costs, so 100% of the money raised goes straight to aftercare efforts.

But the industry’s need for New Vocations’ non-profit services grows each year, and re-homing equine athletes got quite a bit more challenging in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A click right here will take you straight to the online pledging page.

St. Elias Stable is the racing operation of Vincent Viola, the founder and executive chairman of the electronic trading firm Virtu Financial and former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange. He graduated from West Point Academy and served in the U.S. Army Reserves. Viola also owns the NHL’s Florida Panthers.

“After meeting the principals at New Vocations, we just felt very, very comfortable that they put the horse before themselves, quite frankly,” Viola told TDN. “They’ll find the right second career for a horse [according to its] disposition. They go the extra mile, and we’ve been trying to support them consistently ever since. That pledge is one of the things you can do in our great sport where you know you are providing a substantial return on investment.”

Repole Stable is owned by Mike Repole, who parlayed a zeal for playing the ponies at Aqueduct as a teenager into becoming a high-profile Thoroughbred owner after selling his company Glaceau, maker of Vitaminwater and Smartwater, to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion in May 2007.

“Usually I’m not vocal about my charity giving. I like to give behind the scenes,” Repole said. “But I think being an owner, and probably one of the biggest-spending owners in the country, I want to make sure that people know that people like Vinnie Viola and people like Mike Repole are firm believers in making sure our horses get great homes post-racing. So I do think that owners need to take more responsibility.

“Sometimes it just surprises me how owners are willing to pay $500,000 for a horse but are not willing to make a $10,000 donation to an agency that makes sure their horses eventually get a proper home and the proper care that they truly deserve,” Repole continued. “I get disappointed when I hear that owners haven’t stepped up.”

Pletcher’s support for New Vocations as a trainer also goes far back.

“First and foremost, it’s paramount that we take care of horses not only during their racing careers, but, just as importantly, after their racing careers are over,” Pletcher said. “The Repoles and the Violas understand how important aftercare is. [With Vino Rosso] those are the situations you love to be in. When you get to win a race of the magnitude of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, you’re more than happy to make those contributions.”

Although the concept of aftercare has progressed markedly since the first New Vocations Breeders’ Cup pledge drive in 2009, Viola underscored there is still more that needs to be done to help Thoroughbreds on a longer-term arc.

“We have come a good way in a short amount of time with aftercare,” Viola said. “But we have to be much, much better than we are. For the sportsmen and women who participate, I consider it a fundamental responsibility to make sure those equine athletes live out a natural life. I won’t be satisfied until we’re monitoring and watching the natural lifespans of the entire foal crop every year.”

Repole is not only a New Vocations donor. He’s watched some of his own horses go through and benefit from the program, and he added that the payback in terms of good karma endures long after those Thoroughbreds left his stable.

“It’s great to get the updates and photos of where my horses have been,” Repole said. “It makes me feel really, really good to know that my horse that won at both Belmont and Gulfstream is now a jumping horse in Pennsylvania for some smiling 13-year-old girl.

“It feels like a win when you get a report like that,” Repole continued. “Maybe not like a Breeders’ Cup Classic win with Vino Rosso. But a definite, good win that makes you feel really happy–and it didn’t come with any anxiety or stress of a big race.”

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UK Ag Equine Students Give Back To Equine Community During Inaugural Equine Week of Service

University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment's Equine Programs put on its first Equine Week of Service Sept. 28-Oct. 3. Armed with sanitizer, masks and the desire to give back to the equine industry, students in a leadership program, the Wildcat Wranglers, created and implemented this week of service to give students a chance to get some hands-on experience they may be missing this semester.

“We put together the UK Equine Week of Service as a way to get out into the community, out of the classroom and off our computers during a time where we are not getting as much hands-on experience as we usually would,” said Mackenzie Johnson, a Wildcat Wrangler and UK senior studying equine science and management. “We wanted to give our students a chance to get involved in the equine industry and start making those vital connections with different industry professionals, all while doing a few good deeds along the way.”

Students, faculty, staff and alumni donated around 550 hours of volunteer time to seven local equine organizations in the Lexington area including Blue Grass Farms Charities, Central Kentucky Riding for Hope, Kentucky Equine Adoption Center, Kentucky Horse Park, New Vocations, Our Mims Retirement Haven and the Secretariat Center. Students comprised 86 percent of the volunteers.

Students in the Wildcat Wranglers coordinated volunteers and promoted the service event via social media.

Grace Camp, a UK equine science and management senior, said she feels the event was a good way to get involved off campus.

“I wanted to sign up for the UK Equine Week of Service to help give back to the amazing equine organizations here in Central Kentucky. Also, with my classes being mostly online, I thought this would be a great way to get out of my house and make a difference,” Camp said.

Anne Boggess, a UK undergraduate student who volunteered at the Kentucky Horse Park, said it was beneficial to connect the different communities through service work.

“I think the week of service is important, because it connects so many different communities in a time where everyone is trying to find a new normal. The week put good people together with a goal of doing good work for wonderful organizations,” Boggess said.

According to Kristen Wilson, academic coordinator in UK Ag Equine Programs and advisor of the Wildcat Wranglers, the inaugural event was successful and hopefully helped equine organizations in their day-to-day functions.

“One of the goals of our Wildcat Wrangler student leadership team is to build community among our equine students. The UK Equine Week of Service is such a great way for our students to serve our local equine community in an event lead by our Wildcat Wrangler team. It has been so much fun to work with them as the team's advisor and seeing their vision become a reality,” Wilson said.

James MacLeod, director of UK Ag Equine Programs, echoed her sentiments, adding that he hopes it will become an annual tradition.

“We can all be proud of everything the students have accomplished. The broad participation and enthusiasm are wonderful, with both the host organizations and the volunteers living the commitment to be the change you wish to see in the world,” MacLeod said.

This event was supported by local equine industry organizations. Additionally, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital provided hand sanitizer to the participating organizations and volunteers.

To see recaps from the week, visit UK Ag Equine Programs' Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages or learn more at equine.ca.uky.edu/.

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