Dashing Through the Show

Retired racehorses showcased their talents around the show ring, spreading good cheer to racing fans and show horse fans alike at the 3rd Annual Trainer vs. Jockey Calcutta. And riding those ex-racehorses were top trainers and jockeys from the Southern California Racing circuit, who came to support the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), a 501 (c)(3) non-profit that is funding aftercare organizations to retrain, rehabilitate, and rehome former racehorses.

CARMA sponsored the event, which pitted top-flight trainers, including John Sadler, Matthew Chew, Leonard Powell, Emily Mode and others against jockeys comprising Edwin Maldonado, James Graham, Alonso Quinonez, and the regular exercise rider of American Pharoah, Georgie Alvarez, to name a few. The Calcutta this past weekend was part of the Thoroughbred Classic Horse Show, an event that gives retired racehorses the opportunity to display their versatile abilities in all kinds of disciplines, including barrel racing, pole bending and show jumping. (For a Youtube video of the event, click here.)

Trainers defeated the jockeys in the Calcutta held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, California. Candace Coder-Chew, CARMA Vice President and director of print and graphics at Santa Anita Park, said bringing together trainers and jockeys from the professional racing world to participate in a horse fence jumping show-an undertaking most of them have never done before-is a way to raise awareness for CARMA and to generate support for thoroughbred aftercare programs among the racing industry.

“And it's a good way to give back,” Chew said.

The main goal of CARMA is to foster integrity in racing when it comes to taking care of its thoroughbred athletes, finding new careers for them when they leave the track, and pairing them with the right people and organizations that will help give the horses the quality of life they deserve entering the next phase of their careers.

Chew has spent her entire life finding homes for ex-racehorses. She said she has always dedicated her time to finding homes for the horses in her trainer husband Matthew Chew's barn, and finds great joy in providing these thoroughbreds with the right human companion.

That joy spurs from her own experiences, as Chew recalls one particular retired racehorse that became her special friend for years.

“When Matt and I got married, he gave me a horse off the track and this horse was my dream horse,” Chew said. Chew had the horse for 28 years. His name was Follow Kennedy and Chew gave him a new life of combined training in the show ring.

“He was the most amazing animal I've ever had in my life,” Chew said. “So I'm hoping that [CARMA] finds these horses a home with people that can say down the road, 'this was the most amazing horse I've ever had.'”

Madeline Auerbach, one of CARMA's founders and Vice President of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, also knows a little something about bonding with her horses. When it came time to retire her stakes-winning Lennyfrommalibu, for example, Auerbach searched for the perfect thoroughbred retirement organization to take in her gelding, as she wanted to give him the best retirement possible. After all, he had given her his everything on the track. However, upon further research at the time, Auerbach said she quickly discovered that there weren't many places out there willing to take in former racehorses like hers, and that the picture didn't look so bright for thoroughbreds leaving the racetrack.

“Sometimes [thoroughbreds] will come off the track in dire straits and often the owners don't want anything to do with them after they are finished running,” Auerbach said. “But they're supposed to take care of their horses; even after their racing careers are over.”

Auerbach, on the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) at the time, worked with her fellow board members and with what she called a particularly sympathetic California Horse Racing Board, to start crafting a program aimed at taking care of these equine athletes.

Officially incorporated as a non-profit at the end of 2007, CARMA has helped thousands of racehorses find new homes and enter new careers. Auerbach estimates that this year CARMA has given out about $500,000 to aftercare programs. One of the requirements to receive funds from CARMA is that organizations must house horses that have run in California, as the source of the funds is generated by a small percent of owners' purse money in California. Thus, out-of-state aftercare programs like Old Friends Farm, famous for taking in California-raced horses like Game on Dude and Silver Charm, are eligible to receive funding from CARMA.

And in recent years, CARMA has helped aftercare programs beyond giving grants. In 2013, CARMA started its own placement program, an onsite service at the racetracks to help owners and trainers find homes for their horses coming off the track with severe injuries.

“The most expensive part of the rehabilitation process for these horses is the first 2-3 months,” said Lucinda Mandella, CARMA's executive director. “You're diagnosing the horse and asking vets and therapists to come out to pinpoint what is wrong with the horse; getting that information for our partnered aftercare programs really helps us place horses appropriately.

For example, if after diagnostic work CARMA deems a horse should be permanently retired, they can then take the next steps to place that horse in the necessary adoption facility, like the United Pegasus Foundation, which specializes in taking care of permanently retired horses.

And if the horse is healthy, it's about finding them a new career-like show jumping.

Amy Hess, wife of California trainer Bob Hess and a seasoned hunter/jumper performer in her own right, provided a lot of the horses for the 3rd Annual Trainer vs. Jockey Calcutta.

“Most of the show horse owners I know have racehorses too, so they do a really good job of providing second careers for them,” Hess said.

The Thoroughbred once dominated the show ring many hurdles ago, but they are making a comeback in the ring, thanks to programs like CARMA and its parent company, Thoroughbred Classic Horse Show. In recent years, the European-bred warmbloods, bigger-boned versions of the thoroughbred, have been almost exclusively the breed used in horse shows.

But due to the influx of thoroughbred horses exiting the racing industry, the goal for Candace Chew and others from CARMA is to reinstitute the thoroughbred in the show ring.

“We have too many of them to find homes for, so we want people to look at [the thoroughbred] as the show horse to have,” Chew said. “We need to find them a job after they are finished racing.”