Off Track Thoroughbreds

Ken’s Kitten, who has a natural flair for dressage, demonstrated his prowess at last year’s Retired Racehorse Project at Pimlico.

(Press Release)—Thoroughbred Charities of America (TCA) and Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) have teamed up to create the TCA Thoroughbred Marketplace on October 4 and 5 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

The event is built into the RRP’s second annual Thoroughbred Makeover, a national gathering of the farms, organizations and individuals who transition racehorses into second careers. The weekend includes educational seminars, demonstrations and the America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred Contest.

Steuart Pittman

“The bridges to second careers for these horses include nonprofit placement organizations, professional trainers, amateur trainers, and direct sales from racing owners and breeders,” says RRP founder Steuart Pittman. “This Marketplace invites participation from all of these and will attract a large pool of horse shoppers. If it succeeds we have created a model worth replicating.”

Each horse will be listed in an online and printed catalogue with video links and photographs. Upon arrival at Pimlico, they will be observed by a veterinarian whose notes will be posted online for potential buyers and adopters to consider. Blemishes, body condition score, and lameness will be noted. Educational materials will also be available to educate buyers and adopters about the relevance of various injuries and blemishes.

Dan Rosenberg

“We are proud to support the efforts of the Retired Racehorse Project and assist in the rehoming of former racehorses via the TCA Thoroughbred Marketplace,” said TCA president Dan Rosenberg.

Rosenberg continued, “Effective marketing of these horses must include some transparency about their condition. The more information we provide up front, the more shoppers and adopters we will attract. We believe that it is a good thing to reward racing owners financially for retiring their horses sound. The market value of a sound Thoroughbred ex-racehorse has declined, but by increasing demand and raising that value we offer owners an alternative to running at the lowest claiming prices.”

Each horse will appear on Saturday in the main arena on the track to demonstrate either its skills or potential. None will be auctioned, and neither the TCA, the RRP, nor Maryland Jockey Club will be a party to any transactions that take place privately during or after the event.

Please click the Marketplace Logo to hyperlink for more information.

“Retired Racehorse Project is humbled by the support of Thoroughbred Charities of America for this event,” said Steuart Pittman. “The TCA board is like a Who’s Who of horse racing and its enthusiastic support for this event tells us that we are on the right track. We also owe a major thanks to Maryland Jockey Club for donating the use of the facility and providing major staff and marketing support.”

“I attended this event last year and reported back to our board that this was possibly the most effective work being done to facilitate placement of Thoroughbreds in second careers,” Rosenberg said. “We are very excited about this year’s Makeover.”

Interested sellers or buyers can find information about participation in the TCA Thoroughbred Marketplace and the Thoroughbred Makeover at RetiredRacehorseProject.org. ♦

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Megan Kerford searched for Lost Tribute for four years, losing track of him after his last race at Thisteldown. Photo courtesy Morgan Chapman

Goosebumps of pride and peals of laughter celebrated the moment as cameras flashed, and the winning photo was taken. And then all was blighted by the presentation of an ugly red claiming tag, which sucked the breath from Megan Kerford, and dissolved her to tears.

“I went from feeling like we’d won the Kentucky Derby to feeling like I was going to barf,” Kerford says. “Even just thinking back on it now makes me feel horrible. I remember that day like it was yesterday, and how I went into the bathroom at Woodbine (Race Track) and I lied down on the floor and cried.”

And as suddenly as the temperamental chestnut had entered her life, he was gone. Just like that. And from July 2009 until the year 2013, Kerford tried to buy the horse back, followed his every move on a virtual stable, and prayed that he would be OK.

Kerford and Last Tribute blew into Woodbine the previous year. She was recovering from a badly broken hip sustained galloping horses the year before, and he was nursing a sore attitude, snapping at just about everybody.

Last Tribute
Barn name: Alfie
Sire: Tribunal
Dam: M.S. Secret
Foal date: April 12, 2006
Earnings: $76,000, in 38 starts“I think our story is that same old story you hear about people adopting pets because they need to feel loved and wanted, they need to take care of somebody,” she says. “I’d been an exercise rider and living independently for 10 years. But after my accident, I was taken in by my mother.”

When the chestnut gelding arrived at the shedrow, he was intimidating on the ground, and walked his legs off pacing his confined stall. Nobody else bonded with him, so Kerford offered to play groom.

Ever so slowly, Last Tribute stopped stall walking and pinning his ears, and gratefully accepted her ministrations. “It took about three months before I could (work on) his legs, but over time he calmed down and gained some weight,” she says.

The pair became so tight that when Kerford was cleared to return to riding, he was the first horse she galloped. “He was phenomenal!”

It was no small feat for her to get back in the irons. The year before, in 2008, Kerford sustained a serious injury exercising horses. She was catapulted off a Quarter Horse so fast and so hard that her femur was driven up into her torso. Fortunately it missed her organs, and caused only minor internal bleeding. But her hip sustained a serious break.

In fact, Kerford had a brief brush with him when her trainer tried to claim him back for her, just before he embarked on a four-year campaign of claiming races.

Last Tribute ended a long campaign in the arms of an exercise rider who couldn’t forget him.

By the time she got back in the saddle as Final Tribute’s exercise rider, she had developed such a deep bond with the horse that from the time he got claimed away after that tearful moment in the winner’s circle in July 2009, and for years after, she pined for and tracked the animal’s whereabouts.

“I was cleaning his stall and getting it ready for him to come back. It was August 2009 and I was listening to the race on the radio before I walked out to meet him after he came off the track,” she says. “On my way, I got a call on my cell telling me we’d been out shook.”

After that, Kerford carried his memory with her for four years. During that time, she entered and graduated from veterinarian school. Her life was full. She groomed great horses, including Canadian Sprinter Hollywood Hits. But she never forgot that one horse. She watched him drop in class on her virtual stable, and she talked about him to all who would listen.

Then last November; the horse mysteriously disappeared from her virtual stable.

And reappeared in a Woodbine shedrow where Kerford’s boyfriend Mike Mehak would surprise her.

“Hey, Megan, I need some help with a horse!” Mehak yelled. And as she rounded the corner and saw the thin, worn horse, she threw her arms around the animal’s neck, and sobbed tears of joy and promised to take care of him. This story was originally published in June.