At this time in the meet, things get a bit drowsy. The honeymoon of the start of the meet effectively ends with the running of the Whitney Invitational. It’s hot, oh, so hot.
No disrespect intended for the fillies running in the Alabama Stakes, but it’s caught in between the Whitney and the Travers, and the weeks that bridge the two are kind of like the middle movie of a trilogy when you don’t necessarily know how the entire production ends.
Naturally, the mind wanders.
And so it was this past week that the older horses took to the track with McKinzie solidifying his stance atop the older division. The older division, of course, eventually ages out, and this brings me to where my mind wandered this week.
We pay so much attention to the birthing of foals, the selling of yearlings and two-year-olds, the big sale, their racing careers and if they’re lucky, their amazing chances to be one of the great stallions or broodmares of a generation.
Problem is, quite literally, very little attention is given to a horse’s retirement, its aftercare, the 20 years of vibrant life still in those bones. Sure, American Pharoah gets the proper sendoff, but what about a career claimer with 50 races under his girth?
It’s barely a thought. There’s no gold watch at the end of a career for thousands upon thousands of horses that pour their guts out. Sure, some give more than others, but they run as fast as they can for as long as they can so we can place a wager and lose a few bucks.
As it stands, thoroughbreds remind me — to no fault of their own because, you know, horses — of the type of person who fails to save for retirement. The day is coming. You don’t want to be a Walmart greeter out of necessity. And how many people don’t start thinking about saving because they need $100 today instead of what that $100 could compound to in 40 years?
So these horses don’t get to “save for retirement.” They get spit out the other end with no 401k, no company match, no Roth IRA, no dividends to draw from, no Social Security. Horses are basically millenials.
Now perhaps I’m ill informed and, if so, that’s on me, but I don’t see the breeders, tracks, or horsemen kicking into a fund to ensure these horses have a home once they’re done tacking up. In fact, looking at the sponsors page to Old Friends, only one sponsor is a track: Keeneland. The rest are a bevy of other people and organizations chipping in their tax deductible donations for the expensive care of these great animals.
This is the problem, so what’s the solution? Frankly, if you’re going to bring a foal into this world, you see it out of the world. I don’t care what the cost is. I don’t care if stud fees and the like have to increase. Retirement is part of the cost of breeding.
If a breeding operation will invest in foaling the next great Grade 1-winner or a flashy two-year-old that never makes it to the track, that breeder effectively takes care of the horse’s retirement. It saves up a college fund. It sets up its retirement account. That horse brought into this life won’t die in state-sponsored hospice. It guarantees the future is safe and sound for the horse that knew nothing but to give, give, give.
We’ve all heard the horror stories of how horses past their prime that are too expensive to care for, too much of a burden, end up in slaughterhouse auctions. As if that’s not bad enough, try picturing the year or two years or maybe three years the horse was put through the paces, the borderline torture to run against all logic, to then be rewarded by the blade.
No, there are options for these great athletes. Old Friends is perhaps the most famous. It cares for so many past champions and non-champions alike. There are other farms, no doubt, and they all rely so heavily on donations from generous people with deep and shallow pockets alike.
I know we look at the major breeding operations and think that they must mint money, that their pockets have no bottoms. And maybe to some extent that’s true. But with high success also comes high cost. We need leaders.
So what if they chose to lead? If 10% (or name any number) of every stud fee from a live foal creates a general fund where nonprofits can draw from based on need, horse population, vet bills, etc, then every single horse that sets foot on a shedrow, a training track, and maybe even makes it to the winner’s circle will have a home and care for the rest of their days. There’s other ways to shave a few dollars for this account.
Win or lose, that horse will have all the care it needs until they eat their last oat and tug at their last tuft of grass.
I can’t think of anything more noble for the leaders to do than to guarantee that every horse born into this world leaves a grizzled old champion.
Brendan O’Meara is a freelance writer and author of Six Weeks in Saratoga. He lives in Eugene, OR. (@BrendanOMeara)
