Racing news from Suffolk Downs

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*Suffolk** Downs begins zero-tolerance slaughter policy***by Steve Myrick**Suffolk Downs has established a new policy holding trainers accountablewhen their horses are sold for slaughter.Sam Elliott, the track's vice president for racing, has informed theleadership of the New England Horseman's Benevolent and ProtectiveAssociation that any trainer found to have sold a horse for slaughterwill have his stalls revoked and be denied stalls at any time in thefuture.Elliott said the plan has the complete backing of Richard Fields, thereal estate and casino developer who purchased a controlling interest inSuffolk Downs last year."If a horse goes from here to the slaughterhouse, that's completelyunacceptable," Elliott said. "That trainer won't be here. I don't thinkthat's anybody we'd want to have around. Mr. Fields is a strong believerin retirement idea. He's a big backer of it. The two are incompatible."Elliott commended local horsemen and several local Thoroughbredretirement organizations for offering several options for retiringracehorses."I think it's become a non-issue," Elliott said. "The best way to makeit a real non-issue is to have this kind of sanction in place. That'sour policy. My hope is we never have to use it."Elliott intends to address horsemen at a general meeting within the nexttwo weeks."They would have our backing," said Al Balestra, president of the NewEngland HBPA. "It's not the proper thing to do, not with all the optionsthey have. There's no reason why that should happen nowadays. Thereshouldn't be any horses going to killers. It's a different era inracing, it just shouldn't happen."Michael Blowen, president of Old Friends Farm in Midway, Kentucky, andan outspoken advocate for Thoroughbred retirement issues, said the newSuffolk Downs policy is the best news he has heard in years."That's great. I've never heard of it before. You don't know how manyhorses this is going to help," Blowen said. "Just the threat of knowingthat if they ever found out that you sold a horse for slaughter youcould lose your stalls may prevent a lot of this from gong on in thefirst place. The other tracks will start looking at that."Blowen noted that it may be difficult to prove a direct link between atrainer and a horse that winds up in a slaughter pen."It is hard, it's a nasty circuitous trail, and of course anybody thatdoes it doesn't want to get caught," he said.Blowen, who worked as a hot walker at Suffolk Downs in the late 1990s,said he remembers gut-wrenching scenes in the track's stable area ofhorses being loaded onto trucks bound for slaughterhouses."I still think it's an issue," he said. "It's a problem with everytrack. Since the fairs have been closed in Massachusetts, it's not asbig a problem. It's not that hard to do a better job. All we have to dois find people that are willing to play by the rules."Diana Baker, a former Thoroughbred Retirement Fund board member who hasbeen involved with several high profile cases, said the new policy is apositive step but that she believes there are still some horses goingfrom the track to slaughterhouses."I hope it's not just lip service," Baker said. "It would be a breath offresh air to have someone in racing actually protect the horses."She agreed that it may be difficult to make a direct connection betweena trainer and a horse sold for slaughter."That's a tough call, it will be interesting to see how it plays out,"she said. "It's an open secret how these horses get from point 'A'to point 'B.' The trainers always say they don't know. When you'repulling horses that were trained or owned by the same people over andover again, it doesn't add up, it doesn't make sense."//Steve Myrick is a Massachusetts-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent//