Ten years ago this month, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance was formed to give racing a way to accredit its labyrinth of individual rehoming and retirement facilities, putting the gold seal on those worthy of the public's trust. A decade later, aftercare is front and center in the conversation as racing approaches its championship day, the Breeders' Cup, with several organizations holding their principal annual fundraisers around the event. I sat down to talk with the TAA's executive director, Stacie Clark, about the industry's developing feelings towards aftercare since the organization was formed.
Sue Finley: How has the perception of aftercare changed over the 10 years in which you've been involved with the TAA?
Stacie Clark: When you take that greater picture of the evolution of aftercare and you look at what has been accomplished in 10 years, it has been extraordinary. Can we do better? Absolutely. But for 20 years it was very, very slow. A lot of good people started a lot of good things and had a lot of good intentions to get things done. But it wasn't like it grew as horse racing grew.
We have all evolved as far as training, selling, breeding, and things that probably didn't exist in the 1800s, like pinhooking. Aftercare is only 20 years old at the strongest part of it. And, I'd say the last 10 years, the TAA has provided a networking opportunity for all of our organizations across the continent and across the world. At the end of the day, could it be better? It could always be better, and it could always be stronger and more part of the cloth of the cycle of the horse. But we've definitely come a long way in 10 years. And, I think the people that started the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the people that started the aftercare movement 20, 30 years ago, should be proud of where we've gotten to.
SF: And, so when you say it's changed dramatically, what do you think is the most dramatic change or mental shift that people have had?
SC: I think awareness. I think awareness is key. I grew up at the racetrack, and I lived a very naive existence. I think a lot of people that have been in the industry long enough will reflect back to the time where you didn't think about where the horses went or what could happen. I don't know that we can say it's anything more than just awareness, social media, the growth of the reuse of the thoroughbred for other things. I think getting some medications out of racing has changed the horse you have to retrain.
SF: Do you have any sense of how many more horses are being retired, or how much more money is being raised? Does anyone keep track of that sort of thing?
SC: We only keep track of the horses that go through Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, and then sometimes we will compare notes with how many horses are registered for the Retired Racehorse Project or how many horses Kristin (Werner_ has in the Thoroughbred Incentive Program. Those are the only three inventory databases that we can compare. But, I don't know. There's crossover. I think we're doing better than we ever were, but I don't know what the numbers are, just like they don't know what the numbers are of horses going across the border for slaughter. It's too evasive. There are no controls. Do we know if the horses are being counted as thoroughbreds or they're just guessing that they're thoroughbreds? Until we have a stronger inventory in this industry from birth to death like they're trying to do in Australia, or we even have it from birth to racetrack exit. That would be a goal. The van driver knows where they're going.
But I think the biggest detriment is the industry not reflecting more on `what more I can do?' Now the industry has a lot going on, but I think it's important to recognize that the aftercare groups can only do what they can do for what they have to do it with. And a lot of the problems that we have are at the lower level of racing, which reflects the image of racing to our public.
“I think 80 percent of the horses are okay. But 20 percent of them are desperately not okay.”
SF: Â The problem often is that so many of those horses end up with the person who is least likely to be able to take care of them economically.
SC: Right. All of the people I know care about animals. I'm with them all the time. But what happens is that horse doesn't always stay around that familiar scenario where he's going to be taken care of. Sometimes people just can't afford to take care of their horses, and that's a real thing. And, then somebody's going to let a horse get on a van, because they can get $200 for the horse. I think 80 percent of the horses are okay. But 20 percent of them are desperately not okay.
SF: You have spent your life doing this. Do you feel good about it now? Can you ever feel good about it? Is there going to be a time when you say we've solved this problem?
SC: For me, aftercare is very real, and the horse is very real. And I know the people in the industry care. I don't know how to make it the sexiest part of the industry. We love what we love about the sport, but asking someone how they feel about aftercare? It's almost like people are offended. There's an offense taken by asking the question. But if we're talking about aftercare, then we should be more open-minded.
But you don't want to have to deal with aftercare, and we have a good program that can help with that. Because then, there is no noise. You don't hear a lot of noise about problems in aftercare right now. No one knows if we have any issues. No one knows that I have to call up some of our organizations and go, “Can you pull that post down, because that does not speak well of the industry? And, I don't care how mad you are. It's in your contract.” You can't say that publicly without hurting the whole pyramid. Right?
SF: I guess my last question is, `where do go from here?'
SC: Look, I think being part of big events like the Breeders' Cup and Pegasus and the Preakness, those are huge things for aftercare awareness. On that day, that really shows the public that aftercare matters, and that the TAA being that umbrella can highlight and network all of these groups. Going forward, I think we have to continue to work together as an industry. Somebody said to me one time, “You guys are doing great work.” And, I said, “Wait a second. I'm just the Uber driver. This is your initiative.” The industry has to own it or it will not work.
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