California Horse Retirement Gets a Boost from Frank Stronach

Stakes winners Geronimo and Storming Away at Tranquility Farm

Frank Stronach, a multiple Eclipse Award winning owner and breeder and industry leader in the retraining and rehabilitation of Thoroughbred racehorses, has announced the formation of the Santa Anita Park After-Care Program. The new program will match retired racehorses with loving owners who will make a lifelong commitment to their health, safety and well-being.

Stronach is Chairman and CEO of MI Developments Inc., the parent company of Santa Anita Park, Golden Gate Fields, Gulfstream Park, and the Maryland Jockey Club. Santa Anita will support the After-Care Program by matching the money currently taken from purses for that purpose (one third of one percent) at Santa Anita. The monies will be distributed to retirement programs throughout California by the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA).

“This is very generous of Frank,” said California trainer and CARMA CFO Howard Zucker. “He has given us the opportunity to discuss other ways of helping to retire racehorses with dignity. We will try to see that each unwanted horse that leaves the racetrack in California does so with an endowment.”

Stronach was recently selected to receive the inaugural Earle I. Mack Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Champion Award for his dedication to improving the welfare and safety of Thoroughbred horses during and after their racing careers. He set an industry precedent seven years ago by developing Adena Retirement, the racing industry’s first in-house retirement program, located in Florida. Under the direction of a full-time staff of professional trainers, riders, grooms and veterinarians, Adena Retirement carefully evaluates and retrains horses owned by the Stronach family and Adena Springs before matching them with owners who will provide suitable lifelong adoptive homes. Many of the horses retrained at Adena Retirement have flourished in new disciplines, including hunter, jumper, dressage and pleasure.

According to Zucker, CARMA board member Ron Charles was instrumental in getting Stronach and CARMA together.

“Once Frank realized there was already an organization in place in California to make use of the money,” Zucker explained, “He arranged for the people from his rehab facility to meet with the CARMA staff and chair, and they have worked out a mechanism where this will happen. It is pretty exciting.”

“This is not a solution to the problem, but we feel it is another step in the right direction,” said Stronach. “While we believe it is the responsibility of every owner to find safe, after-race programs for all Thoroughbreds, we also believe in taking the initiative to develop retirement, rehabilitation and retraining programs for these equine athletes who give so much to all of us.”

CARMA, a charitable 501 (c)(3) organization was created in 2008 to raise money for retired California racehorses. All facilities must undergo a rigorous application and inspection process before being approved for funding. Last year, CARMA distributed more than $300,000 to 15 non-profit equine retirement and rehabilitation facilities.

“CARMA encourages retraining and rehabilitation over simply retirement,” Zucker said. “It is so much better a model – if a horse is capable of being ridden or perhaps becoming a show horse.

“There seems to be a trend now wherein some large farms are stepping up to the plate and offering retirement options for the horses they have bred,” Zucker concluded. “If that trend continues – given some health in the industry and general economy – it will alleviate some of the problems of these non-profit retirement facilities. If more owners would have Mr. Stronach’s sense of responsibility it would be a kinder, gentler world for the horses.”

Retired racehorse Tontine Too, winner of more than $250,000 and now known as Tino, is a permanent resident and mascot at Leigh Gray's Thoroughbred Rehab Center at Winners Circle Ranch in Bradbury, Calif.

Working Together to Save Horses

On a recent Saturday night, Ron Charles, Santa Anita Park president and MEC chief operating officer, got an urgent e-mail plea for help from Diana Baker, a volunteer in Thoroughbred rescue efforts and former member of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's national board of directors. Baker said that a friend of hers, Caroline Betts of Southern California Thoroughbred Rescue was, at that moment, at the Euclid Stockyards horse auction, where a former racehorse, Sunday Match, was about to be sold to a buyer from a slaughterhouse. The horse, which had raced at Santa Anita and had recorded workouts as recently as two months ago at Fairplex Park, was going for $250 to $300.

According to Baker’s e-mail, the sale could take place any moment. Charles called Betts and told her to buy the horse and said he would take care of the purchase price, as well as the cost of the first couple of months of its care.

In addition to a chance to rescue this race horse from being slaughtered, Charles saw the incident as an opportunity to further unite the organizations already taking a stand to prevent the inhumane treatment of racehorses – the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA) on whose board Charles serves as a director, the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT), and the MEC racetracks, including Santa Anita. Last month, MEC announced a company-wide policy promoting the humane treatment of racehorses and instituting a zero-tolerance anti-slaughter policy. Under the policy, any trainer or owner stabling at an MEC facility who directly or indirectly participates in the transport of a horse from a MEC facility to either a slaughterhouse or an auction house engaged in selling horses for slaughter will be prohibited from having stalls at any MEC facility.

Since Saturday night, Charles has had meetings with CTT executive director, Ed Halpern, and CARMA chairperson, Madeline Auerbach.

“We want to send a message that we have implemented an anti-slaughter policy, and we intend to do everything in our power to enforce it,” said Charles. “Ed Halpern stepped right up and resolved to find out exactly how the horse got there. With his assistance, we will talk to the trainer involved and put him on notice that if any horse he was training ends up at a slaughter lot, he will never race at an MEC track again.”

“CARMA has taken the lead in the care of California’s retired racehorses, and has done it with an organization, a plan, a strategy,” Charles continued. “MEC will work with CARMA to try to prevent racehorses from suffering such a tragic end.”

According to Auerbach, CARMA is in the process of developing programs so that emergency funds will be available for unique situations like this.

“The horse Ron saved will be eligible for CARMA funding,” said Auerbach, “and when one of the farms finds a slot they can take this horse.”

“People at the highest level in racing in California are donating their time to the cause of humane treatment of our equine athletes,” said Charles. “We are becoming a leader in the protection of retired race horses.”