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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

GIVE

WOODBINE WEDNESDAY NIGHT


There are a trio of allowance races this evening at Woodbine as we head into the last 1/3 of the 2008 season.


RACE 1 figures to still beon the grass since the rain has let up since the weekend. SPRUNG is GRADED STAKES PLACED THIS YEAR and is in an allowance/optional claiming race on the turf at 1 mile for Woodford Racing.

She appears to be a lock...okay, at least the closest thing.

Ending the first PICK 3 is an allowance for 3 and up, non-winners of 1 other than maidne or claiming etc. at 9 furlongs.

More chalk likely here - the Stronach Stables entry of ABOVE SPIRIT and THUNDER WOLF will be tough to beat but there is little speed in the race so beware of the front runner, BRIGADIER RODNEY.

And race 7 is an Ontario sired allowance at a route distance for non-winners of 2 and that appears to be a 2 horse race between EOLOS (blinkers on) and SAY NO EVIL who is coming off a career best effort.



LONGRUN DAY AT THE RACES!


Yep, you out there who has never donated time or a few bucks to the horses you have owned or bet on....

Show your support for the stars of horse racing, the true heroes of the game - the thoroughbreds and come out to WOODBINE on Saturday for LONGRUN DAY AT THE RACES.

LONGRUN THOROUGHBRED RETIREMENT FOUNDATION is Ontario's first and only thoroughbred adoption and placement program, in its 8th year.

On Saturday, some famous faces from the track that now have 2nd careers after racing can be met and you can get photos too?

MR. EPPERSON, RED SEA and SHAWS CREEK, stakes winners, millionaires, what-have-you will be at the track for fans to meet.


(Photo, MR. EPPERSON in his last race at Fort Erie...a graded stakes winner, champion and millionaire, is now a stable pony)


Also, there is a T-SHIRT giveaway for a small donation to LONGRUN plus a silent auction featuring a HALTER of BETTER TALK NOW, the Breeders' Cup Turf winner from a few years back.

Check out the Woodbine Entertainment Group for more information on this big day on its website at www.woodbineentertainment.com.






CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL - Oct. 4

UPDATE

Nominations close tonight for the CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL so in a couple of days there should be a good idea of who may come to the 1 1/2 mile turf championship, a WIN AND YOU'RE IN race and one of several big events on Oct. 4 that will be seen on ESPN TV.

Many from the NORTHERN DANCER STAKES, like CHAMPS ELYSEES etc. will be back in the race, hopefully some Europeans and Breeders' Stakes winner MARLANG is also expected.




EXCERPT FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE


Trainer rides to the rescue
Lindemann is helping Suffolk horses avoid slaughterhouse

by Stan Grossfield


The Angel of Suffolk Downs is a gentle soul, always smiling, except when asked about the Killer.

Trainer Lorita Lindemann scowls when she describes the past practice of Suffolk Downs horses being loaded on trailers for the long journey to the slaughterhouse.

She says she never called the meat buyer - the man who sells horses by the pound at auction - by his name. She simply called him the Killer.

To his face.

"Now the Killer, you just look at him and know he's a bad guy," says Lindemann. "He's a grubby guy. He'd come through here and in a real cocky voice say, 'Whaddya got? Whaddya got for sale? I'll give you a hundred bucks.'

"You have to be stupid not to know where your horse is going. Your horse isn't going on that trailer so somebody can have a nice riding horse in their backyard somewhere. It's going to slaughter and to wind up in a fancy restaurant in Paris."

She says the Killer called her worse than what she called him. "He's probably called me every name in the book," she says. "I'm the first one to say something to him."

In two decades at the track, Lindemann by her own account has rescued 100 horses from being slaughtered. When the truck came, she would grab horses and hide them. As a liaison for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and the Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses (CANTER) New England, she would help rescue horses and find them homes. She'd fill out the paperwork the horse owners didn't want to bother with. A horse advocate first, trainer second, she would tell owners when their horses risked injury by running and needed to find greener pastures.

"She's pretty amazing," says Ellen O'Brien, executive director of CANTER New England. "Lorita is a godsend; we're lucky to have her. She's incredibly selfless. I can't tell you how many thousands of hours she's spent out of the goodness of her heart trying to assist these animals."

In 1989, 342,877 horses were slaughtered in the United States, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In 2007, US slaughterhouses were shut down, but tens of thousands of horses are still exported to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. One horse is slaughtered every five minutes, according to the Animal Welfare Institute.

Horse meat is considered a delicacy in France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and Japan.

Some champions are retired to stud and live their lives in Kentucky bluegrass. Others become tourist attractions. Most are not. Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year, died in a Japanese slaughterhouse in 2002.

But no one will be eating low-level Suffolk Downs horses anymore. The East Boston track recently became the first in the nation to ban any trainer that allows horses to be sold for slaughter. That's a lifetime ban, zero tolerance.Continued...

http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/horse_racing/articles/2008/09/17/trainer_rides_to_the_rescue/

Stan Grossfeld can be reached at grossfeld@globe.com
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

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