Steve Johnson | Horse Racing Free Tips

A Kentucky boarding operations owner is the subject of a criminal complaint in Bourbon County, Ky., alleging 13 counts of animal cruelty in the second degree after horses in his care were found starving. Xavier McGrapth has not yet been arrested on the charges, which arose out of a neglect investigation by county and state officials that began in late March.

Animal cruelty in the second degree is a Class A misdemeanor in Kentucky.

Around two dozen horses were discovered at a property McGrapth was leasing; half of those horses were determined by a veterinarian to be neglected.

McGrapth advertised his services on Facebook under business names McGrapth Breaking and Training and Whispering Creek Thoroughbreds, offering breaking and training for young horses and broodmare board. McGrapth ran those operations out of a property owned by longtime Central Kentucky horseman Steve Johnson.

The Bourbon County Sheriff's Department released the following statement to media about the case earlier this week:

“On the afternoon of March 19, 2021, the Bourbon County Sheriff's Office received a complaint of equine welfare at a farm on Brentsville Road here in Bourbon County. Deputies responded to the scene and immediately started an investigation into the welfare of the equine[s] present. The Bourbon County Sheriff's Office has received support from The Kentucky Department of Agriculture, who assisted us with locating and contacting owners and started the process of relocating horses to a safe environment for care and treatment. They are also assisting with the investigation and have sent an investigator to work closely with us throughout this case.

“As of now all the horses have been identified and the process of relocating them to various locations is coming to an end. The Bourbon County Sheriff's Office has identified a suspect in the case and a criminal complaint has been issued. This investigation is still ongoing, and all authorities involved are actively working together to bring this to a close.”

Johnson said that he had rented the barn and surrounding paddocks to McGrapth last year after vetting McGrapth's references, and had no issues until November when McGrapth fell behind on his rental payments. At least one of McGrapth's clients, many of whom are based out-of-state, was satisfied with his care of broodmares for the 2020 foaling season and sent him horses again this year.

On March 19, locally-based client Alyssa Evans visited McGrapth's operation to check on her pregnant mare and discovered two dead horses in a field near the barn. Additional checks revealed other horses in poor body condition. Evans removed her mare from the property and contacted law enforcement and Johnson. Johnson said the barn McGrapth leased was at the back of his property and the horses visible in the front of the parcel looked a little light but were not in bad shape. Johnson urged McGrapth to provide them more feed and said he hadn't seen the horses that were being kept in the back of the barn until around the time Evans contacted him.

“It was his business, and I will tell you I did not go back and monitor his operation, primarily because it was his operation and I didn't consider that to be my responsibility,” said Johnson. “I tried to help him out. I gave him hay.

“It took me three days to get the barns cleaned properly. Why people will do this, I really don't know.”

Johnson said he hasn't been able to reach McGrapth or seen him on the property in six weeks, during which time he fed the abandoned horses until officials could verify ownership and supervise their removal. He also said McGrapth told him he had client horses at other facilities but does not know how many or where they may be.

McGrapth's clients, many of whom say they had no written contract with him, were attracted to him in part because of his competitive board rate. Now, several of them are questioning whether their horses will recover from the neglect they suffered in his care.

One pregnant mare, sold by McGrapth for a client, lost significant weight in the two weeks she was in McGrapth's care. By the time her purchaser picked her up at another facility, veterinarians determined her overall health was “extremely poor” and questioned whether she would be able to survive foaling or nurse a foal if she did survive.

Amanda Scarsella said she sent McGrapth six horses – five young horses in training and one mare by Uncle Mo named Fresh Face, whose fate is still unclear. All five are recovering from various levels of starvation, significant skin disease, and lice infestations. Three of them are expected to improve enough to make it to the track; the other two – both colts from the only crop of Effinex – will have a much longer road to recovery and Scarsella said while she's hopeful for their futures, their careers may be over before they'd begun.

“I've been trying to stay up to date through the other owners, the sheriff and those who helped rescue them. With that being said it's been draining in every way,” said Scarsella, who is based in New York. “Ultimately I feel responsible because they are like my kids. I try to compartmentalize the Kentucky ordeal to deal with it as I can when needed so I can concentrate on running my farm here and foaling mares at night. I'm mostly a one woman show so it's quite a challenge but I'm managing.”

The post Kentucky Boarding Operation Owner Wanted On 13 Counts Of Animal Cruelty Related To Neglect Case appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Bourbon County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation that involves dead and malnourished horses found March 19 at a Thoroughbred farm in Paris, Kentucky. According to the police report, that property was owned by Steve Johnson, who had leased it to Xavier McGrapth. According to his Facebook page, McGrapth is the owner of McGrapth Breaking and Training. The TDN was unsuccessful in its efforts to reach him.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Sheriff's office said that the investigation was ongoing and that a suspect had been identified and a criminal complaint had been issued. McGrapth was not named in the statement.

“On the Afternoon of March 19, 2021, the Bourbon County Sheriff's Office received a complaint of Equine Welfare at a farm on Brentsville Road here in Bourbon County,” said the press release from the Bourbon County Sheriff's Office. “Deputies responded to the scene and immediately started an investigation into the welfare of the equine present. The Bourbon County Sheriff's Office has received support from The Ky Department of Agriculture who assisted us with locating and contacting owners and started the process of relocating horses to a safe environment for care and treatment. They are also assisting with the investigation and have sent an investigator to work closely with us throughout this case. As of now all the horses have been identified and the process of relocating them to various locations is coming to an end. The Bourbon County Sheriff's Office has identified a suspect in the case and a criminal complaint has been issued. This investigation is still ongoing, and all authorities involved are actively working together to bring this to a close.”

According to a police report obtained by the TDN, the sheriff's office received a tip from horse owner Alyssa Evans, who had given McGrapth a mare to care for, that there were two dead horses in a paddock on the property. Upon investigating, they discovered the two dead horses and found additional horses that were malnourished. Veterinarian Dr. Zach Logan was brought in to evaluate 23 horses and he advised that 11 were malnourished or severely malnourished and that two dead horses likely starved to death. The two dead horses have yet to be identified.

“There's no doubt in my mind that he was starving them,” Evans said of McGrapth. “Never when I went out there did I see him feeding anybody.”

According to the police report, “(Evans) advised that she went into the barn to locate her horse and located another horse in the stall that hers was supposed to be (in). The horse in that stall was very malnourished and also had sores on its head and body. Deputies also were shown the two dead horses, one of which appeared to (be) recent and one that appeared to have been dead longer.”

The report says that police called in a veterinarian, Dr. Zach Logan, to assess the horses. “He looked at the 23 horses that were at the location, he advised that 11 were malnourished or severely malnourished, and the two that had died were likely to have been starved to death.”

Diana Winkelspecht, who had received a call from one of McGrapth's owners asking her to retrieve his horse, was among the first to arrive. She said she would eventually take in a number of ailing horses that had been on the property.

“We couldn't walk away from the situation,” she said. “After seeing this I had to see that something was done and that someone was held accountable for it. It looked like these horses had been abandoned. It didn't look like anybody had been on the part of the farm Xavier was leasing for a while. Weeks if not longer. There were two dead horses in the paddock and there were horses that were skin and bones. That's weeks and weeks of abuse.”

Amanda Scarsella said that she had turned over five horses to McGrapth. One, a 5-year-old broodmare named Fresh Face (Uncle Mo) has not been located and Scarsella said that she believed she may be one of the two dead horses.

The police report said that Johnson had offered to personally see that the horses would be taken care of, and he told TDN that he was unaware that there were any problems with the McGrapth horses.

“This was his operation,” he said. “I didn't feel it was necessary for me to go back and look over his shoulder at what he was doing. I would drive by the front of the part that he was leasing and I saw the horses in the paddock, I saw him out exercising, galloping the horses or whatever. I could see the shape of those horses and they were acceptable. There weren't any warning signs that I saw.”

Johnson said he looked into McGrapth's background before leasing him the stalls and received “glowing reports” on him. McGrapth had worked at Pin Oak Stud as a groom.

“I checked him out and his references were very strong,” Johnson said.

Bourbon County police said they plan to file a summons.

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