Posts Tagged ‘rerun’

By Ray Paulick

Long before most Americans knew that ex-racehorses could end up on someone’s dinner plate in Europe, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation was doing what it could to provide an alternative to the slaughterhouse or a life of neglect and abuse. Founded in 1982, the TRF is the oldest, largest and best known operation dedicated to helping Thoroughbreds no longer able to race or serve as breeding animals.

The founder of TRF was Monique S. Koehler, who had a unique vision to have these horses serve as part of a vocational training program at the Walkill Correctional Facility in New York. In short, the TRF would provide the horses and Walkill would supply land and inmates who would be taught how to care for the horses as part of their own rehabilitation. The program has been a success, for both horses and the humans who have cared for them. Many former inmates have been quick to credit the TRF program for their own personal turnaround, as the therapeutic value of working with horses has been well documented. Click here to see a video about the TRF produced by HRTV.

This unique prison program has been replicated in five states that have TRF farms at correctional institutions and since the spring of 2004 the organization has operated a rehabilitation and retraining facility – the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center – at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington. The Secretariat Center is now open for public visitors from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with interactive demonstrations on Saturday mornings from 10-11 a.m. Horses from the Secretariat Center have been adopted out for second careers to horse owners around the country.

Like all welfare organizations, the TRF depends on donations to fulfill a mission that hopes to eventually rescue all ex-racehorses from slaughter, neglect or abuse. Breeders who produce the horses were recently given an option by the Jockey Club to contribute to the TRF through a checkoff program at the time a Thoroughbred is registered. Click here for details. But there are many ways to make a gift, sponsor a horse or adopt a horse.

Beginning today and running through Dec. 20, the TRF has launched an online fundraising auction of items ranging from racing memorabilia to exclusive vacation getaways. To see the list of auction items and begin bidding, click here.

Throughout the past week of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Paulick Report has focused on a variety of equine charities or individuals in the Thoroughbred industry who have dedicated a part of their lives to helping others less fortunate. These are only a small number of the many extremely worthy organizations and people who are making a difference to make this a better industry.

Here are links to the organizations featured in the past week: Belmont Child Care Association/Anna House; the Exceller Fund; ReRun; the Salvation Army fund-raising page started by my former colleague Ron Mitchell; Thoroughbred Charities of America; Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation; and Tranquility Farm.

There are others, too numerous to mention, and I would invite readers to list their favorite equine charities in the comment section below. I sincerely hope each of you will consider a gift, no matter how large or small, to an organization that is making a difference in our lives and in our industry.

By Ray Paulick

Haven’t you always wanted to own an original work of art? ReRun, a horse adoption organization created in 1996, is currently offering you the opportunity to go online and buy original art work by such famous equine “artists” as leading sire A.P. Indy, champion filly Rags to Riches, the undefeated Zenyatta and many others.

These aren’t self-portraits or Impressionist interpretations of haystacks but colorful expressions by some of your favorite horses (A.P. Indy’s work is pictured here). The annual collection is called “Moneigh” artwork, which came by combining the name of the  famous artist, Monet, along with the neighing sound a horse makes. The horses create the art works (with help from volunteers) using their muzzle, tail and hooves.

The best part is proceeds from the Moneigh auction of the more than 30 works of art and related merchandise will help ReRun serve as a non-profit agency to take retired Thoroughbreds, rehabilitate and retrain them, then find people interested in adopting them for a second career.

A 501(c)3 organization, ReRun was founded in Kentucky in 1996 and now has additional locations in New Jersey and New York. ReRun’s volunteer directors understand that not every ex-racehorse can adapt to a second career, but each one that is saved from neglect or slaughter is considered a success. To read a New York Times profile on ReRun from earlier this year, click here. The organization was also featured in June on the NBC Nightly News. Click here to view the video.

The Moneigh art auction began Nov. 23 and will close this Sunday, Nov. 30. Click here to visit the Moneigh auction on eBay.

To learn more about ReRun, read their most recent newsletter, ReViews, by clicking here.

The Paulick Report will spotlight a different charity each day of Thanksgiving week, when we traditionally take time to reflect and give thanks to the blessings we have and to help those less fortunate. This is a difficult time for many Americans, and charitable organizations are feeling the effects of the global economic crisis. We hope you’ll spend a few minutes to learn about some of the charities that make us a better industry, and consider giving to these or to others that we won’t have the opportunity to publicize. Remember that no gift is too small.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world. 

By Ray Paulick

One of the Thoroughbred industry’s biggest challenges may also present one of its greatest opportunities. The challenge, brought to the fore this year by a series of widely publicized events but always lingering just off center stage, is the issue of animal welfare. How the industry deals with this subject may be one of its last, best opportunities to derail our slow but steady march toward irrelevance in the eyes of the general public.

The death of Eight Belles in this year’s Kentucky Derby, from all indications, was a freak accident, one of those incidents that could not have been prevented by anyone. But her demise, along with revelations about the routine administration of anabolic steroids to many of the sport’s best performers, shined a spotlight on racing that revealed to the general public some of its darkest truths.

Foremost among those is the question of what becomes of a Thoroughbred when it is no longer useful as a racing or breeding animal. Some owners and breeders take great measures to insure either a productive second life for their horses or dispose of them through humane euthanasia. Too many horses slip through the cracks, however, and end up on meat wagons headed to slaughter houses in Canada or Mexico, or are simply abandoned.

The perception of our sport is shaped by media reports of the cruelty of slaughter or abandonment of Thoroughbreds, and it does not present an image attractive to many Americans, especially a younger generation that is more in tune with animal welfare issues.

That is the challenge.

The opportunity lies in the numerous programs and untold number of volunteers who work to find second homes for Thoroughbreds as riding, pleasure or performance horses, or as therapeutic animals used in programs for the mentally, spiritually or physically challenged, and in prisons where they have helped rehabilitate hardened criminals.

It’s time for the racing and breeding industry to fully embrace programs like the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, CANTER, Rerun, Tranquility Farm, Thoroughbred Charities of America and others, instead of pretending the issue of unwanted ex-racehorses does not exist.

Last week I heard a presentation on how our sport can energize its “brand” from marketing expert David Aaker at the Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo, Japan. Aaker, an advisor to Japanese advertising giant Dentsu and professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, talked about how some other businesses have energized their brands by hitching their wagons to something outside of their core business that it is interesting, relevant and compelling to their customer base.

Avon, one of the oldest cosmetic brands for women, was cited as one very good example. There was little the company could do to energize itself by making better lipstick, Aaker said, so it found an issue with great relevance and interest to its female customers: breast cancer. Avon put enormous resources into a breast cancer awareness campaign, created a foundation to support breast cancer research, and promoted an annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer throughout the world. Breast cancer research and other social issues relevant to women were foremost among Avon CEO Andrea Jung’s program to rebuild and re-energize the Avon cosmetic brand. It has been a great success.

What social issue is of great importance to current and potential racing fans? I think that’s a no-brainer: it’s the humane treatment of the animals that give us so much pleasure and entertainment.

Look into the eyes of any fan when a horse dumps its rider in the post parade and takes off on a perilous solo run, or when a horse breaks down in a race or is carted off on an ambulance. It’s not just the champions our fans care about, either, it’s those low-level claimers they’ve followed in the first or last race on any day at any track.

Racing is fortunate to have people who are animal lovers and do what they can to protect them. Just today, Madeleine Paulson Pickens is reported to have come up with a plan to rescue from death the tens of thousands of wild mustangs who have roamed the American West and are so much a part of our culture. The late Paul Mellon bequeathed a most generous gift to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation that will benefit former racehorses for years to come. John Hettinger dedicated the last years of his life to ending slaughter and protecting our horses.

But it’s time for racing, as an institution, to understand that what’s good for our horses is good for our sport, to face this challenge and embrace it as an opportunity. The Jockey Club realized this with its recent announcement that it will give to horse retirement causes and offer breeders an easy way to donate funds to this cause whenever they register a foal. Suffolk Downs officials established a zero-tolerance policy against trainers sending horses to slaughter and a few other tracks have followed their lead.

But the clock is ticking. Voters in Massachusetts banned dog racing in that state Nov. 4 because of concerns over animal welfare. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to see similar measures taken against the racing of horses. Think about that for a minute.

We have some very bright people in this industry, people who can understand what marketing expert Aaker was talking about with Avon and apply the same principle to help both the horses and the business of Thoroughbred racing. We can energize the Thoroughbred racing "brand" by taking on one of our biggest challenges and viewing it as an opportunity to sell our sport to a new generation.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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