Four retired racehorses from Suffolk Downs moved into their new
home on Tuesday, stepping into sawdust-covered stalls built for
them by prison inmates at a 90-acre farm not far from the rocky
coastline where the Pilgrims first stepped ashore.
The horses will live at the Plymouth County Sheriff's Farm,
where the prisoners converted part of an unused dairy barn into a
stable for thoroughbreds that otherwise might be destined for
slaughter. Sheriff's officers aboard Clydesdales and Shires -- part
of Boston's Mounted Unit before it was disbanded this summer for
budgetary reasons -- led the racehorses to their stalls.
"These are great athletes," said Suffolk Downs majority owner
Richard Fields, who through his family foundation has committed
$135,000 to build and operate the stable. "The horses are the real
stars of our great sport and they deserve to be taken care of
appropriately when they are retired from racing."
Along with saving the horses, the program gives inmates a
chance to learn how to care for the animals and gives them a chance
to be licensed as a groomsman, hot-walker or other job on the
racetrack's backstretch. Inmates who care for the animals also get
out of the prison for the whole day, and qualify for good-behavior
time for their work.
"The land still exists in the spirit in which it was set
aside many years ago," Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. said, noting
that the farm is no longer big enough to supply food for a prison
that has grown to 1,650 beds. "It gives a new lease on life not
only for the thoroughbreds but also a new lease on life for the
inmates. In caring for the thoroughbreds, hopefully they will learn
to care for themselves in the community."
The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation has found homes for
3,000 retired racehorses over the past 26 years, finding them
adoptive homes or farms where they can live out their retirement.
About 600 have gone to prisons in nine states, according to
executive directory Diana Pikulski.
Among them are Future Fantasy, which earned $236,860 in his
five-year racing career and won nine of his 11 victories at Suffolk
Downs before retiring to Plymouth on Tuesday. Red Miah, an 10-time
winner on the track, frolicked outside in a pen, while Energy
Center and Charlie Business nuzzled inside the stable in stalls
made of freshly cut pine.
Fields has been a leader in thoroughbred racing's
no-slaughter movement since he bought into Suffolk Downs in 2007.
If a horse that ended its career at the East Boston oval winds up
slaughtered, the trainer and owner will lose their stalls at the
track permanently.
But Fields knew that taking a stand wasn't the end of the
problem.
"Once you put in a no-slaughter policy, you have to find a
home and another life for the horses," he said. "I can't think of a
better use for them than to be here as part of this therapeutic
program."
