Second Stride, which rehabs, retrains and rehomes retired Thoroughbred racehorses, will open its 2024 fundraising efforts with twin raffles for third-floor boxes for six people, one box each for Kentucky Derby and Oaks Day donated by Churchill Downs. In the spirit of May 3-4 being the 150th runnings of America's favorite race and its filly counterpart, only 150 tickets will be sold at $150 apiece for the Derby and for $125 apiece for the Oaks. Buy raffle tickets for the all-inclusive boxes (including food and alcoholic beverage) here.
The drawings will be Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. ET and streamed via Facebook Live.
Second Stride, which was founded in 2005, rehomed 169 horses in 2023 and directly assisted a total of 197, up from the 124 adoptions in 2022, when the facilities expanded to include Chorleywood Farm in Prospect, according to a release from the organization. The former racehorses, as well as broodmares and unable-to-race bloodstock, came from 49 tracks, training centers and farms and went to new homes in 26 states and Canada this past year. The average stay at Second Stride for horses being rehabbed and/or retrained before adoption was 57 days, covering more than 2,500 training sessions.
“We spent 2022 working on expansion so we could take care of and find second careers and forever homes for more retired racehorses,” said Second Stride founder and executive director Kim Smith. “Aftercare for horses coming off the track is a race without a finish line. So now we look to build on 2023, which across the board was our most successful in terms of horses served, rehabbed and adopted as well as financial growth including fundraising and grants and volunteer hours. And just to put the 197 horses we assisted last year in perspective, that number is slightly more than the 1% of North America's 2023 foal crop.
“We can't thank Churchill Downs enough for donating a prime box to these historic runnings of the Derby and Oaks. Every dollar raised will go toward the horses. This will get our fundraising off to a great start and hopefully make more people aware of Second Stride, how the horse donation process works and how our staff and volunteers prepare each donated horse individually for a second career, whether that be eventing, in the show ring, trail riding or as a wonderful, loving companion.”
The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA) once again enters as a sponsor of the Retired Racehorse Project's Thoroughbred Makeover. In conjunction with sponsoring the makeover, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance High Point Award will continue to be offered to the highest-placed Thoroughbred adopted from or is owned by a TAA-accredited organization.
The showcase of recently retrained off-track Thoroughbreds will take place at the Kentucky Horse Park Oct. 12-15. Of the 377 horses entered across 10 divisions, 57 contestants are eligible to win the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance High Point Award, including a $1,000 cash prize split between the rider and the TAA-accredited organization from which the horse was adopted.
The TAA and RRP have intersecting missions to facilitate horses retiring from racing in finding suitable second careers upon the conclusion of their racing careers. Currently, the TAA has 82 accredited organizations across North America, of those, 19 TAA-accredited organization have ties to horses competing in the Thoroughbred Makeover.
“The success of the Retired Racehorse Project is another hallmark in the progression of Thoroughbred aftercare, and the TAA is proud to once again be a contributing sponsor to the Thoroughbred Makeover,” said TAA Operations Consultant, Stacie Clark Rogers. “The makeover is a first step towards a fulfilling second or third career for many Thoroughbreds and highlights what we already know to be true–Thoroughbreds are a versatile and intelligent breed capable of much success on and off the track.”
In this new TDN column, Christie DeBernardis will tell the stories of popular and/or accomplished former racehorses who are now enjoying second careers as show horses, track ponies, etc.
The first two foals out of the mighty Zenyatta, Cozmic One (Bernardini) and Ziconic (Tapit), never reached the winner's circle during their brief careers on the racetrack, but they are both thriving in their second careers as jumpers and ambassadors for off-track Thoroughbreds.
The elder brother, Cozmic One's second career has been well documented in these pages (Cozmic One: Shining New Light on OTTBs and Checking in on Cozmic One) in the past, but we checked in with Hidden Brook Farm's Sergio de Sousa and his daughter Isabela for the latest update.
When Cozmic One first came to the de Sousas, he was Isabela's charge. An accomplished equestrian, Isabela was consistently in the blue ribbons with her OTTBs at the annual Thoroughbred Makeover, which was her first goal with “Coz” back in 2018.
When Isabela started traveling to pursue her career as a professional equestrian, Sergio took over the reins on Cozmic One. The two have been competing in jumper shows, focusing on the Take2 program, which partners with United States Equestrian Federation-rated horse shows that offer C-rated Thoroughbred hunter and jumper divisions, which are restricted to Thoroughbreds registered with The Jockey Club. They will also be competing in the Real Rider Cup for the second time this year in their new Kentucky-based event July 9.
“Isabela is around this summer, so if she wants to jump him she can, but he is basically my fun horse now,” Sergio said. “I just want to continue having fun with him and doing things like the Real Rider Cup. We did the .85 [meter jumpers] last week at the [Kentucky] Horse Park. I hope to qualify for the Take2 finals with him at the Horse Park in September.”
Cozmic One is now 10, which is considered old for a racehorse, but is the prime age for show horses.
“He has really matured,” Sergio said. “He is a much stronger horse now and I have improved my riding. We are just having fun and enjoying each other.”
“Coz is doing great and him and my dad are developing a lovely partnership,” Isabela added. “They both are learning from one another and are enjoying themselves while doing it.”
Ziconic & Sarah Pollock | Told By Film
While Cozmic One is enjoying the lush Kentucky bluegrass, his year-younger half-brother Ziconic remained on the West Coast when he left trainer John Shirreffs's barn three years ago. He was placed under the care of Linda Moss and her husband George Bedar, who already had a former Shirreffs trainee campaigned by Zenyatta's owners, Jerome and Ann Holbrook Moss, in her barn in Milyone (Maria's Mon).
Linda Moss became friends with Ann Holbrook Moss and Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs back in 2011 when she honored Zenyatta at a local conference for women in business.
“I am a board advisor to the Professional Business Women of California and we have a conference every year,” Moss explained. “The theme for our conference in 2011 was connect, explore, inspire and I was responsible for producing the inspire section. I wanted a special woman to represent the inspired section and I chose Zenyatta to do that.”
The next thing Moss did was head to Hollywood Park to meet the queen herself.
“Shortly after the conference, I went down to the track and met Zenyatta,” said Moss, who had owned Arabs in the past, but always loved Thoroughbreds. “My older Thoroughbred Milyone was there, about three stalls down from Zenyatta. He just kept calling out to me as I was walking down the barn aisle. When I went up to his stall, he just put his head in my neck. John said, 'He has never done that with anyone before.' I jokingly said, 'Well if he ever needs a home, he has one.' A year and a half later, Dottie called me and said, 'Do you still want Milyone?'”
Of course, Moss said yes. Then, in June of 2019, she received another call from Ingordo-Shirreffs.
“When Ziconic was ready to be retired, Dottie called me and said John and I feel he should go to you,” Moss said. “We talked about it and that is how we got him exactly three years ago.”
According to Moss, Ziconic is well aware of his royal heritage and enjoys the attention that comes along with it.
“Ziconic is the type of horse who knows who he is and likes to be treated special,” she said. “He is extremely proud. He is probably the smartest horse I have ever been around. He is also very playful and loves an audience.”
Moss said Ziconic has taken to off-track life very well. He started his retraining as a jumper with trainer Sarah Pollock and the pair even won their first show together back in 2020. Unfortunately, Ziconic's show schedule was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and an EHV outbreak in the state of California.
“He is really enjoying his off-track life,” Moss said. “We give him a lot of diversity. He is kind of the king of the farm he is at right now, Eclipse Equine Sports Therapy Center in the Santa Ynez Valley. He was originally at a sporthorse farm, training with an amazing trainer, Sarah Pollock. She did an amazing job transitioning him.”
She continued, “He really loves to jump and be in the arena, getting all the cheers and being photographed. It has been a very inconsistent show career for him because of COVID and the EHV outbreak. We gave him the winter off. He is back in a jumping program now with the goal of showing in the fall jumping circuit. We will probably start him back at the .80 or .85 [meter], but he was jumping a meter previously.”
Under the care of Moss and the de Sousas, both of Zenyatta's boys have found their callings. They have taken the athletic ability and winning attitude they inherited from their superstar dam to new venues, shining a brighter spotlight on off-track Thoroughbreds everywhere in the process.
The Thoroughbred Education and Research Foundation (TERF) has awarded the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) $5,000 to be used for educational purposes.
RRP's mission is to facilitate placement of Thoroughbred ex-racehorses in second careers by increasing demand for them in the equestrian marketplace and educating equestrians to provide the training that secures their future. The driving force behind everything RRP does is educating the public, especially equestrians and equine enthusiasts, about the potential and versatility of off-track Thoroughbreds as riding and competition horses. RRP does this through their popular Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium.
In 2018, TERF awarded RRP with a $20,000 grant that supported their expanded four-day model of the Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, increased RRP presence at equine events throughout the U.S., and helped create the popular “Ask a Trainer Anything” feature, in which a panel of experts responded to training questions. In 2019, TERF offered the RRP a grant of $5,000 to be put toward the Makeover.
