Poker for Ponies Makes a Difference for a “Whole Year”

Two years ago when the first Poker for Ponies tournament was held, the organizational window was short.

Very short.

“Our first year John [Stewart] had the idea, I kid you not, he sprung it on me about three weeks or maybe just two weeks before the Kentucky Derby. That was also our first Derby as Resolute Racing. We even had a horse in it that year [Just a Touch],” said Chelsey Stewart, organizer of a Derby week poker tournament with a noble aim.

All the proceeds go to Thoroughbred aftercare charities.

The mad scramble saw the event hastily assembled at the Louisville Thoroughbred Society, decked out in memorabilia to resemble Olive's, the Stewart-owned speakeasy in downtown Lexington.

“We were crammed,” Stewart remembers, of that inaugural event. “But everyone had a good time. I can't tell you the amount of letters we got from charities and everybody else afterwards, thanking us. It makes a difference for their whole year.”

“It was a good idea,” she added. “And we were like, 'okay, this is something we can build off of.'”

And build off it they've done.

The first year, Poker for Ponies generated about $200,000 for 20 aftercare charities from about 40 players. Last year's sophomore effort raised over half a million dollars for 50 charities.

This year's event is limited to 10 charities (50 charities was too large a number for the small team to contend with), but Stewart is expecting the amount raised to be bigger again.

“That's our hope. We just try to keep the momentum going,” said Stewart. “I feel like we've officially claimed our spot as an official Churchill Downs Derby Week participant. We're happy to be a part of that.”

This year's event is set for Thursday Apr. 30 at the Omni Hotel, in Louisville.

The general buy-in starts at $1,000. A full-house sponsor (for five player seats) comes in at $5,000. A straight-flush sponsorship level (for seven seats) lands at $10,000. And a royal-flush sponsor (10 player seats) is $20,000.

Each player is randomly assigned one of the 10 accredited equine aftercare charities to represent during the tournament, and the winner's allotted beneficiary receives the top prize donation. Each of the charities walks away with a minimum $5,000.

The winning player doesn't leave empty handed either–they'll receive trophy and a donated prize. Last year's was two bottles of bourbon.

“The whole event will be livestreamed with interviews of the charities to give the general public just more idea of what these aftercares do,” Stewart said.

One of the charities is the Kentucky-based Mareworthy, which provides a safety net for older, vulnerable mares.

“And then you have New Vocations who are taking our horses and retraining them for a second career,” said Stewart. “I mean, it's just an endless amount of charities that need help, and they do so much. The industry's nothing without the horse. So, it's just really special to all of us to be able to help them do that.”

The Stewart's own charity is Racing to Rescue, a rehabilitation and rehoming venture with a focus on plucking horses out of the kill and holding pens.

“Back when John and I bought Resolute Farm, our first horse to arrive to the farm would have been Turkey Tom, a Saddlebred that I bailed out of a kill lot on Thanksgiving Day of 2023,” said Stewart.

“Just to see the transformation that the horse has made is incredible. He looked like he was probably 50 years old when we got him, and he's aged backwards. I think that kind of opened John's eyes up to, 'people really are dropping these horses off unwanted,'” said Stewart.

That philosophy of responsibility, she added, extends to their racing program.

“Every horse that we've ever sold or if something is claimed off of us, we reach out to the new connections and make sure they have our contact information, just to let them know, 'hey, if racing does not work out with this horse and you want retire it, you can come to us and we will rehab the horse and start over from scratch without charging,'” said Stewart.

As the Derby and the Poker for Ponies tournament approaches, Stewart encourages farms and other industry stakeholders to get involved and donate to the event.

“We really want to encourage other farms to get involved by buying in and becoming one of our sponsors for Poker for Ponies,” said Stewart. “Nothing is coming to us–it's going directly to these aftercares. It definitely makes a difference.”

The selected charities for this year are: Second Stride, The Bridge Sanctuary, Thoroughbred Charities of America, New Vocations, Second Chance Thoroughbreds, Old Friends, Therapeutic horses of Saratoga, Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare, Mareworthy, Bright Future Farms, and Racing to Rescue (affiliated with Resolute Racing).