purchase and sale with little regard for their welfare. It’s also a risk to the owner, who might not want to lose the horse but needs to take the risk in the hope of a payday. “Don’t fall in love with a horse,” Charles Hadry, assistant
trainer to Jeff Runco at Charles Town racetrack, told me as we stood outside Runco’s barn on the backstretch one morning last January. “You’ll go broke. And if you do fall in love, make sure it’s one that wins so you know they’ll be around for a while.” Runco has been Charles Town’s trainer of the year for four
years straight, and last year alone, he won 150 races, for a total of $2.8 million in earnings. He trains about 90 horses. Two of them would run in claiming races later that night: 4-year-old chestnut fillies Beboppin Betty and Big Diamond. At the start of her race, Beboppin Betty led right out of
the gate, despite her unenviable post position of eighth out of a field of eight, and stayed in the lead for all 4½ furlongs. She crossed the finish line and was whisked to the winner’s circle. No one had claimed her. Big Diamond was also in the last post position — 10th out
Above: Horses wait to be auctioned at the New Holland livestock auction in Lancaster County, Pa., this year.
Left: Lord Calverton, a thoroughbred, is run through the bidding ring at the New Holland livestock auction.
of 10. “It’s a tough position to win from,” Runco said, adding wryly, “but she looks for excuses to lose. … This could be a career-deciding race for her.” I sat next to Runco to watch the race. The sun had set a couple hours earlier, and a light snow was starting to fall. We watched as the horses broke from the gate. Big Diamond managed to stay with the pack for a while, but by the backstretch, it was clear she wasn’t even in the hunt. She finished dead last. Runco shook his head and went down to meet her as she came off the track, where he would learn if she had been claimed. She hadn’t been. I asked what was next for her. “I’m not sure,” he said. Earlier in the day, Runco’s wife and business partner,
Susan, said that most of their horses’ racing careers last three to four years if they’re successful. After the animals are retired, the Runcos find homes for them through rescue groups, or sell them to become show horses or broodmares. Yet as I watched Big Diamond’s groom lead her back to her stall, I knew that even if the Runcos are careful about where their horses go after they leave their farm, that doesn’t always mean a happy end. I thought of a horse named Merlin I had sold a few years earlier. I had kept in touch with his new owner for a while, but then we both moved and lost contact. Who’s to say Merlin’s new owner didn’t fall on hard times and sell him? He was a difficult horse to ride. Someone might have bought him, felt as though he was too much to handle, and offloaded him at a livestock auction.
horse in the field for an amount determined by the track before the race. Once a claimed horse breaks from the gate, it belongs to the trainer who bought it. Claiming races can offer trainers the chance to buy a potentially talented horse at a bargain. But critics argue that too often, the races drop poorly performing horses into a never-ending cycle of
TWO kINDS Of AuCTIONS SEll HORSES. SpORT horse auctions typically draw high-rolling buyers whose bids can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the keeneland, ky., auction in April for 2-year-old thorough- breds in training, the average sale price was $169,000. live- stock auctions, however, sell horses to buyers who purchase them for work, pleasure or slaughter. Such auctions are known as places to pick up horses inexpensively, often for less than $1,000. Because livestock auctions don’t track the
MAY 30, 2010 | THe WasHiNgToN PosT MagaziNe
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