Off Track Thoroughbreds

License to Cary was one of many very nice horses to sell at the Suffolk Showcase Sept. 7. There are 100 others who need homes.

Struggling East Boston racetrack Suffolk Downs, which announced Tuesday it would shutter its doors forever after losing its bid for a business-sustaining casino license, has offered to assist horse charity CANTER New England members with “whatever they need” to help 100 Thoroughbreds find new homes.

This includes opening up the backside Sept. 27 so that CANTER may hold an Open House for prospective horse buyers, helping to make it “as easy as possible” for people to leave with a horse, says CANTER board member Dawn Carey Kirlin. (More information on the Open House is expected to be released later today).

Meantime, both Kirlin and Rigolini, expressed deep regret that Suffolk Downs lost its bid for a casino license, and will close after more than 70 years. Both acknowledged the years of successful work re-homing Thoroughbreds would not have been possible without the track’s support of CANTER. “They were the first track in the country to have a no-slaughter policy,” Kirlin says, noting that the track was a pioneer in making that decision.

And that commitment did not end  in the face of the dire news this week.

Suffolk Downs Vice President of Racing Sam Elliott pledged to Kim Rigolini of CANTER New England Tuesday night that finding homes or good situations for the horses would be a priority for the track, Rigolini says.

“Sam Elliott is on board to do whatever it is we need to do to make sure the horses end up in the right place,” Rigolini says. And, fellow CANTER board member Dawn Carey Kirlin echoed her statement.

Says Kirlin, “This is not a panic situation. The horses are not all of a sudden going to get dumped somewhere. These trainers are good trainers.”

Though there is no need to panic, the permanent closure of the historic sports venue does add intensity to the efforts to find new homes and foster barns, says Rigolini.

David Smith demonstrates how cool, calm and collected Uncle Eli is. The T-bred sold at Suffolk Showcase.

The full board of CANTER New England held a conference call last night to discuss options, and brainstorm. The date for the second Open House was established on Sept. 27 and other incentives to horse buyers, and plans were also made, Kirlin says.

“Our goal right now is to find a home for every single one of these horses on the backside,” Rigolini says. “And I have to add that in all the years I’ve been doing this, the listings I’ve taken are the best we’ve ever taken. We have some really good, quality Thoroughbreds for sale who just didn’t want to be racehorses.”

Dover Saddlery quickly stepped up and is putting together gift kits for people who purchase a horse from Suffolk Downs, she says, adding that support of this nature is greatly appreciated.

Sales stemming from the Sept. 7 Suffolk Showcase, which offered 58 ex-racehorses, have been good, Kirlin says. Horses who found new homes right away include License to Cary, Yankee Swap, Bugsy Lotsy, Think Tank, Everyotherdayhero, Johnny Fields, Uncle Eli and Last Lord. Rigolini adds that some 60 horses have sold, but that 100 others are offered on the CANTER New England Trainer Listing Site.

Bugsy Lotsy makes a grand entrance at the Suffolk Showcase before selling to a good home.

“That number could change by the week. Because of the decision to close, local trainers may want to cut strings” from a horse they would normally layup in the wintertime in preparation for spring racing, she says.

Lorita Lindeman, a longtime trainer and Thoroughbred advocate, adds that Michael Blowen of Old Friends Kentucky has already worked out an agreement with one trainer to make room for horses needing retirement, and is “doing as much as he can” to help.

Lindeman began working at Suffolk Downs after high school. Though she has worked in recent years at Belmont Park, she says Suffolk is home to many horsemen who have brought up their families in Massachusetts, and tended their horse farms here.

“Some of them own homes and don’t have the option to pick up and move,” she says.

So now horsemen will concentrate on helping their horses move on to a better situation. Says Kirlin,”We have a solid plan in place to continue to work to help these trainers transition their horses as quickly and effectively as possible.”

Please check these links to find an available horse: CANTER New England Trainer Listings and CANTER New England Facebook. ♦

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Rattle Awhile had to be tranquilized to get on the van taking her from New Holland. But, she followed Jane Allen Blayman onto this van without medication.

“Gramps, don’t tell anyone,” said Jane Allen Blayman to Bert Allen on a late December day in 2009. “But, I’m on my way to Hagerstown to get this horse. People are worried.”

As she raced to rescue a weanling, sight unseen, the fourth-generation horseman and her grandfather “rattled awhile” —an expression he used to describe their lengthy phone conversations—about a horse who would subsequently be saved and named in tribute to the dear old man and the good horsemanship he espoused.

The weanling grew to neither big nor gorgeous by racehorse standards, Blayman says. But she was special.

She was the last racehorse she discussed with her grandfather before he died. Blayman named the filly Rattle Awhile after the family colloquialism, in tribute to him.

Rattle Awhile
Sire: Freefourinternet
Dam: Miss Amazona
Foal date: May 6, 2009“I had her for 30 days before my grandfather died. So when I decided to register her and name her” I chose the name in remembrance of him, she says. And when she was ready for training, she prevailed upon her father, a race-trainer in his own right, to get her prepped and ready for the track.

Rattle Awhile ran at Pimlico and Colonial Downs from 2012 to 2013 until Blayman made the difficult decision to sell her.

“At the time, I was pregnant, and someone wanted to buy her. So I sold her with the right of first refusal, but regretted the decision after that,” she says.

She kept tabs on the filly after placing her in her virtual stable, and privately rejoiced when the filly turned in a first-place finish in January this year. After five more races with somewhat lackluster results, Rattle Awhile dropped off Blayman’s radar, and the horseman immediately tried to get answers.

Jane Allen Blayman and Rattle Awhile are reunited after the Thoroughbred mare was purchased from a meat buyer.

“I learned in July that the horse had been sold,” she says. “I was in the process of trying to find out which riding facility had my horse” when two months later, she learned the worst.

The unremarkable looking racehorse turned up in posts on the OTTB Connect Facebook page over the Labor Day weekend: she was at New Holland and needed to be bailed out.

“I was pissed, I couldn’t believe she wound up at New Holland,” she says.

Picking up the phone, she contacted Nancy Carson Hynes who had paid $600 to buy the Thoroughbred from the meat buyer and quickly made arrangements to get her back. Agreeing to refund the entire purchase price to Hynes, she set out on Sept. 4 to East Lancaster Maryland to pick up her old friend.

“The whole time I was driving out there, I was reminiscing about the conversation I had with my grandfather,” she says. And when she arrived to collect the bay Thoroughbred, all bathed, and waiting, the pair didn’t miss a beat as she led the animal to the van, and drove her back home. “What Rattle Awhile went through is something that never should have happened,” she says. “She’s a viable, young horse who’s in good shape. This is a business where you’re not supposed to form sentimental attachments, so I guess I’ve broken that rule with her.”

—Blayman notes that the work to rescue Rattle Awhile would not have been possible without the help of Daun Imeratore, Nancy Diaz, Kelly Conner, Diana Levy and Lowcountry Lens and Nancy Carson Hynes. ♥

Please consider visiting the blog’s new store, Off-Track Products. Proceeds will help sustain this blog in the future, and go to charity.