GOOD NEWS FRIDAY sponsored by Liberation Farm: TOUR DE TRF
By Ray Paulick
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a couple of guys trying to help out a horse industry charity hit the road and visit a bunch of racetracks to raise money and awareness for a good cause. No, I’m not talking about a new version of Breeders’ or Bust, where Brad Cummings and I took a 2,000-mile zigzag path from Kentucky to California, stopping at nine tracks, including Breeders’ Cup host site Santa Anita Park, to raise money for Breeders’ Cup Charities, benefiting the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Some folks thought we were crazy, but we had a comfortable car, satellite radio, internet access, and a toll free number for the nearest Super 8 motel.
By comparison, Mark Cramer and Alan Kennedy are really roughing it. The two sixty-something American expats living in Paris are doing a 600-mile, 11-racetrack visit fundraising drive, but their mode of transportation only has two wheels. That’s right, they are bicycling around France in hopes of getting horseplayers and racing fans in Europe and the United States to support the U.S.-based Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the oldest and biggest charitable organization dedicated to providing homes for Thoroughbreds not suited for the racetrack. Their fundraising drive will coincide with the famous Tour de France bicycle race that begins on July 3.
Cramer, who has written numerous books on handicapping and travel, recently published a horse racing novel called “Tropical Downs.” He is passionate about Thoroughbred racing and just as passionate about the need for his fellow horseplayers to stand up in support of retired racehorses.
“When our computers or batteries wear out, we’re not allowed to trash them,” Cramer wrote on the Riding for Their Lives web site chronicling the duo’s training runs and actual bicycle tour. (Click here to access their site.) “When our Thoroughbreds are still able to get around, we shouldn’t be allowed to slaughter them. I’m 65. When I’m out there bicycling a thousand kilometers to raise funds, I carry within me the soul of a retired thoroughbred who still loves to gallop in a pasture.
“The racing industry is aware that the slaughter of Thoroughbreds is wrong,” he continued. “All they have to do is get together and come up with a simple formula that even a software novice can set up.
“I can’t explain the mysterious paralysis that prevents racing industry leaders from e-mailing each other, having a conference call, and establishing a procedure. What they would lose in revenue would pale in comparison with what they would gain in public relations.
“In the meantime, we horseplayers cannot sit by when many of the horses that entertain us will eventually meet a fate that none of us would accept if we were present to watch it happen. So let’s prove that we players, rugged individualists who are essentially betting against each other, can get together and act in unison on this one issue. Please consider my modest proposal.”
Kennedy and Cramer have a set a goal of $50,000, a modest amount when you consider American horseplayers will bet $1 billion in a typical month. They’ve already begun some training runs in the Paris area, and, based on what he’s already written, Cramer’s diary promises to make each stage of their tour an interesting and educational read.
For example, who knew that author Ernest Hemingway frequented the jump track Auteuil nearly a century ago? I sure didn’t. I also didn’t know very much about the Saint-Cloud racetrack, west of Paris, other than its name doesn’t rhyme with “loud” (I was chastised years ago, that it is pronounced sahn-CLUE). I learned from Cramer that Saint-Cloud is near the Mt. Valerien U.S. military cemetery, a final resting place for American heroes from the first and second World Wars. The track has a nine-hole golf course in the infield, and large shade trees at the finish line. Sounds heavenly.
What a tremendous thing these two men are doing for the U.S. racing industry, and especially for the horses who give their all for our benefit. The least we can do is go online and support their efforts. Visit their web page here to learn more about Cramer and Kennedy’s racing tour de France. Then please consider a donation to support their efforts. You can do that by clicking here.
Copyright © 2010, Ray Paulick
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Tags: Alan Kennedy, Brad Cummings, Mark Cramer, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, Thoroughbred Retirement Foudation, Tour de France
May 28th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Super 8? On your salary? Lol…….
May 28th, 2010 at 8:39 am
What a GREAT story!! Good news is RIGHT!!
May 28th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Read recently that Paul Mellon bequeathed $5 million to the TRF upon his death. I sponsor a TRF horse for $100/month. Horses live a long, long time past their days on the track…if they even make it to the track. No looks at these horses, even here in Lexington. Have you seen the TRF horses in Lexington Ray? It takes more than money — it takes CARE. Day in, day out, horse care. The money’s only good if it gets past the boards and the execs, and unfortunately as is the case with so many non-profits, the money doesn’t often go where it needs to go. Sorry to be a bummer, but I see it first hand on a regular basis.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:21 am
AWESOME !!! … thanks to the riders for going to the front on this one and for the great quote below. Very interesting commentary on the web-site. Let’s all start pedaling on this one !
“I can’t explain the mysterious paralysis that prevents racing industry leaders from e-mailing each other, having a conference call, and establishing a procedure. What they would lose in revenue would pale in comparison with what they would gain in public relations. In the meantime, we horseplayers cannot sit by when many of the horses that entertain us will eventually meet a fate that none of us would accept if we were present to watch it happen. So let’s prove that we players, rugged individualists who are essentially betting against each other, can get together and act in unison on this one issue.”
May 28th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Thank you.
I wish every person who benefits from the sport including gamblers and television fans would support the TRF and similar such groups.
More so, I wish SOMEBODY would do SOMETHING to hold connections responsible for horses’ fates. TOO MANY PEOPLE STILL DON’T WANT TO SEE. It’s not just the scumbag trainers who turn a blind eye to the extent of the problem. I hear about it every day, then I see slow, crazy and lame horses mysteriously get “sold” when we have a hard time finding good homes for sane, sound and useful ex-racehorses who’d make fine trail horses or jumpers or whatever a person asks them to do. Me, I will not sell or give away a lame horse. Will. Not. Do. I’ll shoot one before I’ll risk it going to Mexico. Anybody reads this and thinks I’m exaggerating, come on down to Texas or Louisiana. You can wander the end of the meet and see for yourself how NOT hard it is to get a cheap load of horses plenty fat enough to make money at the border. It’s sickening. My hat is off to the Paulick Dudes and writers such as Joe Drape and Alex Brown for publicizing this ugly subject. Can’t get enough publicity far as I’m concerned.
Maybe one of you guys could do an article on how many OTTBs hit the track every and how many of these come back the following year versus how many end up at TRF or Old Friends and other sanctuaries? Dollars to donuts, the demand for OTTB riding horses won’t account for the difference. For a while, I was really pissed off when I learned about a certain trainer operating a rescue and soliciting Internet donations for the upkeep of his own retired (lame) horses, but I’m over it – now I’m just glad those horses aren’t in the USDA holding pen. Seriously. More power to the guy says me now.
May 28th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
TRF: Under what conditions did Paul Mellon left 5 million to your org. years ago? Is some of the principal being used regularly to save ex-race horses from abuse and slaughter and to support them? Only interests are being used? Thanks.
June 1st, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Great posts! I really like it.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
“They eat horses, don’t they?”