(This post was made possible by the invaluable work of our vice president and chief cruelty investigator, Joy Aten.)
Bred by Homer Noble & Gayno Stable, Puxa Saco (below) began her “career” back in 2002, at the tender age of two. By all measures, she was a “successful” racehorse: 10 of her 24 races were stakes races, including two Grade 1s. She “won” 6 of those 24, and in all “earned” a not-untidy sum of $400,000. Her final race came in 2005, finishing 6th and just out of the money in a $300,000 Grade 3 at Keeneland, one of America’s most illustrious tracks. Her owner, from beginning to end, was Richard Rowan. Her trainer over her final 21 races was Jenine Sahadi.
After that last race, Puxa Saco was sold to Northwest Farms at the Keeneland Association 2005 November Breeding Stock Sale for $875,000, and consigned by Hinkle Farms. In 2015, she was sold again at that same Keeneland sale, this time to Alastar Thoroughbred for $75,000. And then once more, at the ’17 Sale to Tom Young – at this point, the now-17-year-old fetched a mere $5,000. During this period of her servitude, she birthed at least nine foals for use by the racing industry.
On June 30 of this year, Puxa Saco, 20, was in a kill pen (below). Yes, this former “winner” and “producer” was headed to equine hell – the slaughterhouse.
As one of the fortunate few who was noticed, fundraising for her rescue began on July 1: “[she] is available for $850.” While she was eventually “bailed out” – the vile term for when the kill-buyer’s ransom is met – the words of her former trainer, Ms. Sahadi, are instructive. On February 16 of this year, Sahadi, who personally banked multiple thousands off Puxa, tweeted the following:
In another tweet, she says, “We are activists for this sport, our horses and their caretakers. I for one am not interested in the extremists’ ignorant rhetoric.”
When Puxa’s situation came to light, someone on FB asked, “Anyone contact Jenine Sahadi?” The answer: “She knows, she was really helpful with confirming her id.” To which, another asked, “But not her bail?” The response:
So upon hearing her former (lucrative, I remind) charge was in a kill pen, the best Ms. Sahadi could offer was an identification? Beyond that, where was she in 2017 when Puxa’s stock had dropped to what everyone in racing knows to be an ominous level? “Complete and total devotion” – as defined by the horse people.
Of course, the rot goes much deeper than Jenine Sahadi. Where were you, Homer Noble & Gayno Stable? Where were you, Richard Rowan? Where were you, Northwest Farms? Where were you, Hinkle Farms? Where were you, Alastar Thoroughbred? Where were you, Tom Young (who may be the one who ultimately sold Puxa to slaughter)? And finally, where were the “thousands of men and women who would take a bullet for their horses”? Obscenities, all.
As a postscript, one of the commenters on the rescue thread suggested Puxa, because she is 20, be “kindly” euthanized. First, we at HW fully support euthanasia 1), if a life without pain/chronic illness/neglect is beyond reach and/or 2), in lieu of putting the horse on a slaughterhouse-bound truck. But as far as we know, Puxa is relatively healthy. So euthanasia would not have been the kind choice if (of course) a loving home could be found. So who was this person calling for euthanasia? Carrie Brogden, owner of Machmer Hall Farm, a Thoroughbred breeding operation (or, as they call it, a “livestock farm”). Here is Brogden talking about one of her recent products – “#44”:
“Paid for our kids school, my house, etc.” – that about sums it up. Racehorses, to the racers, are assets to be expended, resources to be mined, means to an end. (The specific end – a paycheck for the likes of Brogden and Sahadi or glory for the already-wealthy – is irrelevant.) So please ignore their declarations of love and protests of “we care.” Horseracing is simple, base exploitation – and the horses suffer and die for it.
Was this mare saved in the end?
Yes…it’s mentioned in this piece (under the photo of Puxa Saco in the killpen).
Another brilliant indictment of racing, Joy and Patrick. Funny how there’s so few ardent cheerleaders (still neck-deep in their own sludge of cruelty) who continue to engage publicly and try to pull for their side. Most have gone underground in shame and self-protectiveness as our legions grow. But Ms. Sahadi doesn’t seem to be one of those, at least not yet. She’s still very active in her vocal defensive posturing for the killing machine.
(Got to give her credit, though, for being about the only one to recognize that it’s Horseracing Wrongs that’s driving the destruction of their beloved anti-sport. The rest of them just huddle together and snipe at PETA:)
No one ever said they were the brightest bunch, Kelly…let them snipe away at PETA. :)
They snipe away because they got caught. These racing people are some pretty vile scum.
Kelly, and this is prime – a tweet to Sahadi just a short while ago;
L Lawliet
@Rue_Ryuzaki
Just found you from a recent HW post about you and Puxa Saco. I’m on their email list just to keep a tab on what those lunatics are up to.
You just keep on keeping tabs, folks!
LOL, I swear they all visit this site more often then we do:)
Just a few thoughts I’ve had for years of picking up after the horseracing industry…
In addition to the thousands of racehorses killed while training & racing, countless horses are sent to auctions/slaughter after they are used up racing…while the industry exclaims they care.
Industry members, so you love your “athletes”? – prove it. Have a hotline for every racing jurisdiction…a phone number where you can be reached immediately when one of your tattooed TB’s is found at auction/with the kill buyer. When you receive that call, YOU send a trailer & YOU pay the bail & YOU bring that discarded horse to one of YOUR safe farms…and YOU place that horse into one of YOUR industry-funded organizations where the horse will reside the remainder of his/her life – at YOUR expense. YOU bred him/her for your industry, used him/her for YOUR industry, so YOU be responsible for him/her for LIFE.
Put your multi-billions of dollars made on the backs of these horses where your collective mouths are. You love them? They’re your priority? Then stop putting the responsibility of their very lives on those who didn’t put them on this earth, didn’t pocket their earnings, didn’t sell them again and again, didn’t breed them and sell their foals…didn’t make one dime off their bodies and stolen lives.
Until your dying, unnecessary, profit-driven gambling industry takes its last breath and no more of your horses endure horrific deaths on tracks and in slaughterhouses, this will be…a START. You care? – let’s see. Your horses are waiting.
I am so glad that Puxa Saco got saved (I hope I understood that right?). It makes me sad, disappointed, angry and somehow speechless – I simply don’t understand those people… They make so much money from them but are unable to take care of them when they mostly need them? Only profit counts and nothing else? They squeeze the last bit out of these poor animals even with the slaughter. This shows all the contempt for the animals when they are no longer profitable. They take away their dignity and are not worth it themselves! I am so sorryfor the animals because they are helplessly at he mercy of the human… I think many people don’t know what is really going on.
You did understand that correctly, Elke – Puxa Saco was lucky to have been noticed in the killpen and was subsequently rescued. Too many are not noticed and not fund-raised for – they ship to slaughter and no one is the wiser.
How can people be so CRUEL and Heartless?????????? People Suck. There’s a special place in hell for these ABUSERS!!!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately the human race has become exactly what we despise Parasites.
First, thank you , Joy and all who contributed to the rescue of this defenseless mare.
And thank you, Patrick, for this highly effective site.
We know this pathetic story is far from unique. This is exactly the theme of racing, cruel exploitation for money culminating in cold-blooded abandonment to the slaughter house. It is the final chapter in the horse’s story, the chapter all the connections help write but deny. Once the last few dollars (the blood money) is pocketed the connections claim they “know nothing”!! This the real “IGNORANCE”, Jenine Sahadi!!.
AND, Carrie Willwerth Brogden what is your plan once your “easy money” dries up and the mare can no longer line your pockets? Will she end her days on the slaughter house floor where these poor exploited broodmares die? Do you have the decency to provide for her or will she be abandoned for a last few dollars ? As the co-owner reaping pretty impressive rewards, do you intend to step up for her ?!
.
This is the inevitable end for most broodmares. They get old, they are difficult to get in foal, nobody wants to feed them to wait another year, they ship them to slaughter. Anyone who thinks broodmares have a better chance is delusional or lying.
They only think the mares have a better shot at a lifelong “home” because when the fillies are invariably broken down and used up by the tracks, there’s always some asshole (with dollar signs in his eyes) who’s willing to swoop in and announce, “She should make me a promising breeder!”
And the geldings too am I right??
Little chance
The geldings just go sooner.
Thank you, Patrick Battuello and Joy Aten, so much for your efforts and dedication to saving horses from the pain and suffering and killing in an industry that prioritizes profit over genuine kindness to horses.
I hope and pray that one day another person involved in the horseracing industry will see that what they do is despicable and stop doing what causes pain and suffering to horses.
I hope that another person that spends one dollar or two dollars on a bet on a racehorse will see that their bet contributes to the pain and suffering of racehorses and stop. Stop gambling on horses. Stop contributing to the pain and suffering of horses.
Instead, donate one dollar or two dollars or more, if you’re able, to help save a horse exploited and dumped by racing people.
Let the wagering handle dry up. Let the government subsidies to the cold-hearted killing machine of horseracing dry up.
Sahadi’s help wasn’t needed to identify a horse by lip tattoo. It is possible to research a tattoo on the Jockey Club website for free. Sahadi as trainer would have pocketed 10% of earnings. Glad that “she tried to do something to help.” Really?????
That was my thought too.
Exactly, former trainer – and if the tattoo is difficult to read and there are several possibilities, (white) markings (which Puxa Saco has) are used to confirm identity. Giving her credit for some “help” with identification was clearly a stretch to thank her for something.
10% of earnings Plus training fees of $75-$130 a day.
Yes it is possible. A lot of the horse rescues don’t want to make the horse racing community mad because some trainers will give their horses to rescues or aftercare farms. If we make them made, we alienate them and risk the horses going right to the kill pen. I’m not saying this is a great thing by any means.
We are well aware of making racing industry members “mad” – and that when they become angry, they take it out on their “beloved family members”. Speaks volumes, doesn’t it…
Yes it does. Not in my nature to pander to greedy people.
It’s called “pass the buck”. And ” Who, me?” More so, ” That’s life, isn’t it? And anyway, she is spent, had a good life, and now her time is just up.”
Compassion? Are you kidding? “Oh, you extremists are liars. We take great care of our TB’s and are so grateful to them.”
Somehow, the “owners” are missing. Really? In other words, hiding or “busy” and “unavailable “. And, more to the point, “not responsible ” for Puxa anymore.
Jenine Sahidi, you didn’t even have to “take a bullet” for Puxa. Gave her ID? So big of you! Wow, people should be on their knees in admiration and gratitude to you! Can you and Lisa Rago, or one of the caring “thousands” maybe do some sleuthing and locate the former “owner” (slave master), Richard Rowan, who is missing in action, somehow, but who made a good profit from the enslavement and torment of Puxa Saco, so he and subsequent TB slave owners (which precisely what they all are) can PAY for her “retirement ” and rescue?
Thanks for all of research, as always, Joy Aten.
Same old saying….we love our horses like family, yea right, does that mean that when your mother, father, wife, kids start ‘wasting’ your money, you’ll send them off to a home so you don’t have to worry about them any more or spend any more of your hard-earned, blood-money on them!!!!! Don’t you just love how they say that they ‘didn’t’ know the horse was in the kill-pen, just like many famous racehorses have ended up on the dinner plate for a ‘fat-assed’ person to eat. The so-called owners, trainers and jockeys JUST DON’T GIVE A DAMN about the horses, how they can look in the mirror and like what they see or sleep soundly at night is beyond my comprehension.
One thing everyone outraged by this could do is ask your Congressional Representative and Senators to pass the SAFE Act which will prevent horses from being shipped to slaughter in Mexico or Canada! Please, if you care about horses, contact your reps!
Agreed, Caitlyn. Thank you.
Thank you Caitlyn. That is something we can all do! Let’s all do it tomorrow!! So many people didn’t realize that outlawing horse slaughter in the U.S didn’t help and maybe even added more suffering. Horses are jam-packed into stock trailers and suffer the long trips to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered. Not in my backyard isn’t good enough!!
I shouldn’t have said maybe added more suffering. There is no question that outlawing slaughter in the US added more suffering.
Please explain how horses would be protected from abuse, neglect, abandonment, starvation, black-market slaughter in the United States if the SAFE ACT were passed.
I don’t think it would protect horses. I think it would MAYBE protect humans who eat horse meat from eating horse-meat that is contaminated with drugs or medications that clearly state on the label that (something to the affect of…) “This drug not for use in animals intended for slaughter.”
I think the safe act would limit a breeders ability to dump horses at auctions for the kill buyers to purchase. There would be no money in it, therefore the pipeline would stop. I don’t think black market slaughter in the US would be a thing as we don’t eat horse meat here. Right now, these horses travel jammed in a van without food and water for 20-30 hours. If they make it upright to their destination they are cruelly slaughtered. It has to end.
It would officially make the U.S. a horse slaughter-free country, and that, notwithstanding those other horrors you mention, would be moral progress.
Those breeders treat those poor innocent horses like trash and are only in it for the money they make off them. Those horses deserve to spend their last years in a sanctuary and all winnings need to be taxed to pay for their retirements
Seems to me the horse racing industry could take 1 percent of the purse and put it toward future care of the animals that made them so much money. Actions and not words actually count.
Can’t really dictate where the horses go though. They can collect all the money they want and someone will still sell them to the meat man.
But there should be no racing. It is inherently abusive.
I am sick and tired of these s.o.b.’s. It is sicking to read something like this. Everyone of these people are the scum of the Earth!
It sure tells you what many human beings are like. That’s why we need to fight racing and any activity which uses the bodies of animals for profit or entertainment.
It is so sad! I was born in Kentucky so I have had a natural tendency to horses. I had a beautiful Morgan mare, Dawn, for several years! Unfortunately, she broke her leg running down a hill on my ranch in Madera, California. I had to put her down; I cried for days over her death but I had no choice. I now live in Palm Springs; There are some stables here but I want to buy another Morgan mare. I actually love animals better than people; they are loving and loyal. At one time, I wanted to become a veterinarian but I just could not see me putting any animal to sleep! I do believe there is an “animal heaven” where God is watching over them.
To think I foolishly contributed to this industry without thinking through the consequences. Boy if there were Federal laws requiring all owners, breeders, trainers, winning jockeys along the line have to contribute to the retirement of these TB’s, you would see a huge cut in the numbers that are bred. Way too many are bred to begin with. A portion of all winning purses or sales should be mandated to be placed in a retirement fund for that horse with a Board of Trustees, not with the individual breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys. Any bankruptcies to avoid the retirement fund law should result in imprisonment until they come up with the funds or stay in jail, you assholes!
The trainer can blame everyone else, but you have a responsibility to the animal. I have show horses and don’t act as if I’m god supporting all the workers and help. Look in the mirror, and remember when you get old and useless in a rest home bed good luck! Keep pushing the call bell. Karma. Funny how how my show horses are imported and well cared for till the end. Hope the nurses are on break often:)
Absolutely discusting. Shut racing down and have those useless horsemen and horsewoman get a job.
I AGREE! I ACTUALLY LOVE ANIMALS BETTER THAN PEOPLE; THEY ARE LOYAL AND LOVING! I HAVE TWO DOGS NOW WHO ARE MY BEST BUDDIES! NO ROOM FOR A HORSE IN MY BACK YARD DUE TO A SWIMMING POOL!
I find horse racing despicable. Horses should not have to be raced out and then having to birth over and over, only to end in a kill pen. This is shameful.
Thank you for the great work you are doing. I will continue to boycott this cruel business and encourage others as well.
The “winner” of race 9 at Monmouth was just VANNED OFF. Trained by Patricia Farro (one of Gina’s favorites in the horse-killing world, as I recall), will this cheap claimer GELDING live up to his name?
Probably not:(
Kelly. Did he drop from the heat?? Remember last year when the CEO insisted a sea breeze is always present at Monmouth??
I have no idea, Nancy. I just remember Gina always going on about “Python Pat” and the hundreds of horses she’s had a hand in killing. Chartwriter, as usual, was deliberately vague about Dodged a Bullet’s apparent struggle to “win” the race.
Considering the weather report I just looked at for Oceanport – 91 degrees today – and being pre-dehydrated (with Lasix) for their races, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume heat exhaustion was a factor if not the outright cause. Makes me sick – these morons whine about standing out in the heat to “counter protest” while the horses they demand continue to race are dropping like flies because of it.
It is too fuckin Hot and Humid for this bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to FORCE the humans to run in this…at breakneck speed.
Yikes! They just VANNED OFF another one. This time the poor thing was at least eased first. What a shitshow.
But only after a dose of Lasix to dehydrate them and throw their electrolytes into further imbalance…
Kelly I have 2 appropriate nicknames for Patricia Farro 1. Python Pat. She claims horses only to squeeze the life out of them. I then realized that a python has more compassion than Ms. Farro could ever possess. So I started calling her a name that was much more reflective of her 2. Parasite Pat.
She’s maimed and killed so many and one of her recent claiming very cross ms is called Roman Reign.
RR is a 9 year old gelding who made over $225,000, but that still isn’t enough to ensure a soft landing.
Instead Parasite Pat claimed him and has been running him into the ground.
There’s unequivocally no doubt in my mind that she intentionally runs them to death and like a true parasite moves on to her next host.
Thank you, Gina! And, speaking of 9-year-old geldings, they’re actually going through with running one tonight at Los Alamitos. Really. Rule He Will is still slated to run in one of their stupid, deadly “Mixed – Quarter Horses Preferred” races. And it’s not even gonna take place 18 hours before tomorrow’s CHRB vote on whether they’ll be allowed to keep their license.
Then again, who’re they kidding? We all know how the board’s gonna rule on this. And it matters not at all to any of them (with the exception of Wendy Mitchell) that Los Al has every intention of keeping their daily bloodbath going, in any and every way they can.
Well Kelly you were right!
Los Al submitted a “Safety Plan” which is a carbon copy of Santa Anita’s (they probably just spent 5 minutes photocopying theirs) and PRESTO cleared to run by the CHRB.
We all knew their meeting was public wallpaper like they all are, but Jenine Sahadi has this to say about animal advocates and HRW “they are all ignorant.”
Yes right Jenine just keep on lying so that you can continue to kill racehorses and/or support those who do and then use your energy to defend the dumping just like a true parasite does.
The trouble is Ms. Sahadi you can’t hide the truth anymore and that makes you angry.
I”m against any group or business that exploits horses, grayhounds, cats, dogs, farm animals and wildlife. Aren’t we as humans above this by now! Time to refect on the lack of conscience by some humans.
Non racing Thorohghbreds ARE the responsibility of the Thoroughbred industry PERIOD Since the industry merely exploits these beautiful animals for money and profit when they stop racing or producing they just eat money -so they are thrown away like trash Federal oversight and federal animal welfare laws should take over the horseracing industry to treat their animals better bc the industry is not and will not Star’s story is one example of millions It is a disgrace to horse lovers worldwide
Horseracing is horrendous, much worse than you can imagine. They don’t even hide their despicable behavior.
Its not just the racing industry.Its the WHOLE HORSE WORLD!!!
Get that thru your thick heads for ONCE.
And sitting on these sites spewing your shit doesnt change anything for any horse heading to slaughter or the next 100.000
Go protest kill pens..slaughter sales/houses.
Wheres the vegans…u never see any of them protesting horse slaughter.
Nothing has changed…not even improving the conditions for horses.
So all your spewing venem and blame does nothing.
Put your mouths in action..
I don’t know if you actually think you make any sense. You committed a logical fallacy that everyone learns about in sixth grade, commonly known as “whataboutism”. Look it up if you didn’t go to sixth grade.
The vegans are here protesting horse slaughter!
A huge shout out to Joy and Patrick for their vigilance and for exposing these creeps for what they are.
Oh boy do I have a story about Ms. Sahadi.
When I worked the Del Mar summer meet as an Associate Steward back in 2005 Ms. Sahadi’s Training “career” was taking a nose dive.
At the time her family owned a large TB breeding operation in California (can’t remember the name), but it was financially struggling and they were looking to dump their stallions and lots of broodmares.
I’m sure some of them ended up at kill pens.
Now Ms. Sahadi works in the Del Mar racing office as a “horseman’s liaison.”
Despite her success as a Trainer (as defined in wins) I’ve rarely seen her advocate on behalf of racehorses in any meaningful way.
On Twitter the other week when I pointed out that she had dumped some racehorses she immediately blocked me.
Horse racing parasites like Ms. Sahadi live in their delusional world while knowingly killing and dumping racehorses.
Instead of being thankful that her “beloved
Puxa” got saved she spends her energy defending her vile non-action and/or assistance for this beautiful mare that was fully exploited by the horse racing business including her reproductive system.
I have a special message for Carrie of Machmer Farm: go out and get a job to pay for your child’s education instead of indiscreet forced impregnating of broodmare victims so you can exploit them.
You’re all parasites every single one of you.
Gotta love racing creeps who immediately block anybody who questions anything in their top-secret, super-defensive, horse-killing world. I’ve collected quite a few of them myself, and they all pounce on that block button a couple seconds after I post my first tweet to them:)
Gina, these are not normal people they belong to a subculture. Normal people get out and work to pay for their houses and their kid’s educations.
Lazy individuals like Brogden just exploit these poor broodmares until the last dollar is extracted from their worn out bodies and then there is the few hundred to be made at the auction!!
What a way to Iive!!!
A normal moral person wouldn’t be able to live with themselves. How can anyone look at all their adorable faces and do such deplorable acts of depravity ???????????? I hope those adorable faces haunt them til their last gasp of breath.
Thank-you Rose for reminding me how despicable and abnormal this “sub-culture” is.
Shame on all of them!
A total and complete betrayal of gentle animals who don’t deserve what’s forced upon them.
I despise this business and the people in it.
evil
It is a business. It is wrong. I have paid for several horses to pull them and keep them from shipping on the trucks. I have seen the same horses I saved have meaningful lives after. Do right by these horses…NOW…
Here on the Eastern seaboard the humidity and heat right now are off the charts, even at this hour 12:30 am you step out in the backyard and it feels like you’re in a hot bowl of soup,they say it is going up to 98 with smothering god awful humidity, I swear to god they better not try to race today,or I’ll be so flippin mad.
I would like to rescue a horse in this situation. I continue to be disgusted at the lack of invoking the “big” groups like the Humane Society, PETA, IFAW.
I am against the abuses and torture of horses who are used in horseracing. I hope someday to have a place where I can house horses as pets.
Disgusting
The only ‘Love’ the racing industry supports is the ‘Love’ of money. These beautiful horses are worth nothing to them once their usefulness is finished. …shameful and needs highlighting
A retirement fund should be required. I will continue to boycott the race horse industry.
There are retirement funds but not enough to catch them all. Slaughter is the dark underbelly of the horse industry.
PETA has nothing to do with all us crazy women trying to save these horses. The industry loves to throw us in the pot with PETA as a cover for their crap.
i hate everything to do with racing a horse — they race them too young — when they get injured they fake sympathy by mine is with the sadness the horse had to die too soon and them assholes just want to keep getting richer and richer — hope someday in the future they suffer such a horrible loss in their family and then feel the pain all of us horse lovers feel for all the poor innocent ones that were sadly born and bought by you assholes just to give you money
Sahidi is a friend of Maggi Moss, who also is a wolf in Sheep’s clothing. Maggi owned a horse named “Veillit'” who failed a drug test. The horse still won “Claimer of the Year” in Iowa that year. Maggi Moss and the trainer cited with drugging the horse, also won “Owner” and “Trainer” of the year. Then Maggi Moss blamed her own Groom, for drugging the horse “almost to death” and the Trainer was cited. A month later the horse was sold in a claiming race, two weeks later the horse was ran in a claiming race (no down time after almost dying). The groom now was photographed working for another trainer in Santa Anita after Ray Paulick said there was ” a manhunt for him”. No follow up story. https://olivedollyparton.wixsite.com/horseracingblogxoxo/post/what-ever-happened-to-veilleit-a-maggi-moss-owned-horse-who-tested-positive-for-acepromazine
The horses are over-bred to make up for such a small percentage that ‘make it.’ And as we can see from this story, even the ones who pay, are eventually disposed of when they are of no use. It’s the complete lack of responsibility for the end result that is yet another disgusting throw away attitude of these ‘caring’ horse owners. They cannot justify their actions so they attack the ones who are exposing the truth. Keep up the good fight horseracingwrongs! To any doubters, just go to a TB rescue.