Off Track Thoroughbreds

Valerie Ashker and Peter Friedman crossed into Virginia yesterday. They will conclude their months long ride across the USA in Middleburg on Saturday.

As the days dwindle down and the finish line of a 3,300-mile ride to prove the valor of the off-track Thoroughbred draws near, Valerie Ashker’s eyes fill with tears.

“Every time I think about this ride, I really start crying,” says Ashker, who expects to complete her journey on horseback, from California to Virginia, this Saturday.

Along with riding partner and friend Peter Friedman, the pair has climbed mountains and sustained falls and broken bones on a trip that started on clear day in May. “Looking back on the entirety of this, I’d say it’s been the ride of a lifetime.”

Primitivo
Sire: Monashee Mountain
Dam: Siberian Shamrock, by Siberian Summer
Foal date: May 6, 2009
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Solar Express
Sire: Bold Badgett
Dam: Proper Look, by Properantes
Foal date: May 18, 1999And like any hard-earned victory, the going was tough. (Please follow their progress on Facebook page: 2nd Makes Thru Starting Gates).

Ashker, 60, sustained fractures to the ribs and clavicle in separate falls, and was also forced to take time out to investigate a suspicious spot on her lungs, that turned out to be scar tissue from a prior injury, and not cancer.

But no matter what came her way, Ashker and Friedman pulled on their riding britches, saddled their OTTBs Primitivo, 7, and Solar Express, 17, and road eastward.

“When I finish this ride, it will have changed my whole life,” says Ashker yesterday. With about three days left, she approaches the official end in Middleburg, Penn., at the Middleburg Training Track for Thoroughbreds. “I’ve made so many friends along the way. People who don’t know us have invited us into their homes for dinner. And, they’ve let us graze our horses and make camp on their land. We’ve all been pulled together, and immersed in the OTTB cause.”

Throughout the ride, supporters have welcomed Ashker and Friednman into their homes. Ashker is surrounded by new friends, and Solar, left, and Primitivo.

Ashker and her daughter Laine have made their careers on the backs of off-track Thoroughbreds. Laine Ashker has ridden Rolex several times, most recently on her impressive bay gelding Anthony Patch. And her successes along with all that these animals have given to the Ashker family, was the inspiration Valerie Ashker needed to fulfill a lifelong dream to ride a Thoroughbred across the United States.

In an earlier interview, she said she used to dream of taking to the open road on horseback. When the dream became a reality on May 9, she soon discovered the ride was “not for the faint of heart.”

Primitivo was spooky at first. But the OTTB quickly learned to adapt to sounds of the road.

Tackling the hardest terrain first, Ashker and Friedman rode into the mountains, and at high altitude for the first month of the trip. At times Ashker questioned her decision, at other moments she made tearful phone calls to family members. But no matter how low her spirits dipped, the call of the finish line beckoned.

And her OTTBs never failed her. They even surprised her.

“Both of these horses have been incredible. Primitivo is an amazing little horse. He has matured greatly on this ride. He started off being sort of spooky, but he quickly became acclimated to everything the ride threw at him. He got used to the noise of really big trucks, the garbage trucks, dogs running out to the roadside to bark, and sailboats being trailered on the highway,” she says. “Along the way he became more confident in his own skin.”

Solar Express, who was her Eventing horse for many years, has been equally unstoppable as he carried Friedman across the country. “This horse never stops. He had his eye on the next mountain, and the next 20 miles, the whole time,” she says. “I used to complain about his forward gait, and being on-the-muscle too much. Now I see that he belongs in the realm of endurance horses. He led the way the entire time, his ears pricked. I’m watching Solar right now, standing by the trailer, and he looks freaking magnificent!”

When the incredible geldings arrive in Middleburg, they will be feted in a press event supported by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. And Ashker, her daughter and family will be there to hug and congratulate the pair after the journey of a lifetime. “This has been, bar none, the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “And I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Canterbury Park’s 2011 Horse of the Year, Tubby Time, stands in a Pennsylvania kill pen before his rescue May 7, 2015.

In the end it didn’t matter how many titles Tubby Time earned, or how many fans were charmed by his endearing flourish to finish his turf races, win or lose, with his tail flared out like a champ.

But after the cheers had faded and the trophies grown dusty, the racehorse immortalized as the 2011 Canterbury Park Horse of the Year had lost the fine trappings of an earlier life to wind up discarded like trash into the slaughter pipeline.

(This story was originally published on June 1, 2015).

Looking bewildered and unrecognizable from the horse he’d once been, the multiple stakes winner from Minnesota, named for popular basketball coach Tubby Smith, and once so adored by all who knew him—owner, fans and racetrack officials— was discovered in early May in a Pennsylvania kill lot.

Steps away from taking the final ride to the slaughterhouse alongside other frightened horses, it wasn’t his wins, or his fans that mattered. It was a random phone call made by the meat buyer himself, who contacted a Thoroughbred charity volunteer with the words, “I’ve got some Thoroughbreds.”

The news spread fast on social media channels, hitting his former owner Dorene Larsen like a body blow, as her beloved chestnut, now 875 pounds, was rescued by charity Beyond the Roses.

Tubby Time
Sire: Devil His Due
Dam: Gentle Princess, by Tejano
Foal date: April 23, 2006
Earnings: $263,515 in 35 starts;
Multiple stakes winnerAs Tubby was put into quarantine and monitored for disease, Larsen grappled with the aftermath. “If this can happen to us, this can happen to anyone,” she says.

“My sister used to say to me that in life we have to face our worst fears. What happened to Tubby was my greatest fear realized.”

Larsen fought tears, recalling the good days when she and her husband Jim reared Tubby from birth. “We took such great care of him. We loved him. And the only reason we let him go was because we were told he was going to a 14-year-old girl who would ride him in the hunter/jumpers. I never would have let him go for something like barrels, because it’s so taxing. But, when I heard that the manager of the farm where we sent him to layup after his last race had found a hunter/jumper family for him, I thought, ‘Oh my God, Tubby would love doing something like that!’ ”

Though it’s still unclear how Tubby wound up emaciated and battered in the kill lot—Jeff Larsen has been making calls to try to get a answers— his old family and racetrack are rallying to his aid.

Tubby Time reveled in his time on the turf, according to his former owner who says he often flared his tail.

Canterbury Park Vice President of Racing Eric Halstrom was among the first to reach out and offer financial support for Tubby’s recovery.

“We found out through a fan of Tubby’s what had happened, and after we confirmed that it was Tubby, we knew that the time was right to do what’s right: We paid for 60 days of care, Halstrom says.Canterbury Park Vice President of Racing Eric Halstrom was among the first to reach out and offer financial support for Tubby’s recovery.

“This was a really good horse. He wasn’t necessarily bred for turf, but he just took to it, and in his prime, he was unbeatable. The horse has so many endearing qualities and the fact that he ended up this way … shows that things can go astray through no fault of the people who owned him.”

As Tubby regains his health at Beyond the Roses, Larsen is working closely with founder Gail Hirt to create a soft landing for him. She is weighing the possibility of taking him to her sister’s farm, to retire alongside Tubby’s brother Taconite. But, Hirt has also been in touch with a well-regarded equine attorney, who has also made inquiries about adopting him.

Tubby strolled in a quarantine paddock at Beyond the Roses before traveling later last year to his retirement home.

Hirt says Tubby is in no shape to travel quite yet, given his emaciation. However, so far he has remained in relative good health, neither spiking a fever nor showing other serious symptoms.

When she rescued Tubby on May 7 with other Thoroughbreds, Hirt had no idea just how special he was.Hirt says Tubby is in no shape to travel quite yet, given his emaciation. However, so far he has remained in relative good health, neither spiking a fever nor showing other serious symptoms.

“When I found out who he was after researching his tattoo, I just about fell over,” Hirt says. “All of horses are special, but Tubby became a very big deal when his owners and the racetrack starting contacting us to help and tell us about him.”

And there were so many stories, says Larsen, who notes that the spirited chestnut had some real racing glory days.

“Tubby truly had his happiest days on the track. For some reason, he just loved to run,” Larsen says. “It didn’t matter where he finished in a race, he could be mid-pack, and he’d flair his tail out like he’d won the race.”

And in the end, Tubby did win; and one day will flare his tail with pride.