Weekend Song wins in the end
When Heather Lemire told her husband the horse she fancied was descended from Secretariat and Seattle Slew, he got worried. “He kept asking, ‘How much is this horse going to cost?’ And I had to explain she was a $500 adoption case—he just couldn’t understand why she didn’t cost more.” But Lemire understood that a glamorous lineage didn’t translate into a great future for descendants of super stars: high-octane ancestry doesn’t pay the bills at any racetrack. And when the Suffolk Down racing season ended last year, Weekend Song had only managed two wins in 18 starts. The lackluster record […]
Share this:
CANTER ratifies herd-health initiative
A national ex-racehorse charity has begun its own herd-health evaluation in the wake of a New York Times story that reported some retired racehorses were starving in the care of another well-known organization. Shortly after the Times reported in a May 17 article that 34 horses under the care of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) were emaciated or in poor condition, volunteers at the Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses (CANTER) ratified an initiative to improve transparency, and reassure the public that horses in CANTER’s care are doing well. “After the Times article came out, we started getting phone calls […]
Share this:
Rood & Riddle Q&A: Thoroughbred feet
In this second installment of our special Horse-Health Q&A series with world-renowned veterinary practice Rood & Riddle, podiatry expert Dr. Raul Bras answers a few questions about Thoroughbred feet. Dr. Bras discusses the all-too-familiar laminitis ailment to which Thoroughbreds are particularly susceptible, as well as the possible connection between systemic illness and development of hoof ailments, as well as and how to gauge a horse’s chances to founder. A 2005 graduate of Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Bras has been a leading veterinarian at Rood & Riddle since joining the Podiatry Center as a fulltime associate in 2007. […]
