Here is how BloodHorse opened its article on the death of Tom’s Ready:
“Tom’s Ready, a 10-year-old multiple graded-stakes winner and millionaire, was euthanized Oct. 30 at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington due to complications following colic surgery, according to Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement farm where the stallion had lived since 2020.
“The dark bay son of More Than Ready was donated to Old Friends courtesy of Gayle Benson of GMB Racing after being pensioned from stud duty. He arrived at the Georgetown, Ky., farm Nov. 23, 2020, and enjoyed three years of retirement.”
“millionaire”
“pensioned from stud duty”
“enjoyed three years of retirement”
Vile. Vile. Vile.
While Tom’s, who was last raced in 2017, will not make our lists, make no mistake this poor boy was an industry casualty. (Old Friends, by the way, is fully accredited by, and thus in cahoots with, the disgusting Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.)
Ten years old is young for a horse considering they can live to be over 30 years old if they’re taken care of properly. In about 1962, the World Book Encyclopedia said that the average lifespan of a horse was 20 years of age.
TOM’S READY was half of the “average” lifespan for a horse and approximately one-third of what is possible under optimum circumstances.
He evidently wasn’t cutting it as a sire or they would not have pensioned him. It’s all about the money in this egregious cruelty to horses.
I disagree, respectfully. You don’t know Old Friends very well to say such a thing. I have been there.
All their horses are retired from racetrack, breeding sheds and foaling barns. Every breed should have such a place to send retirees to, to live out their lives.
Every horse, regardless of breed, should have the kind of life provided for them by their original owners that they don’t have to be cast-off the ledger of a business as a cull or as an unwanted liability.
Daily Racing Form reporting Geaux has been euthanized a short time ago. Another pathetic victim of this sinister industry.
Now they are backpedaling and saying he was not.
Apparently they want to torture him a little longer.
Marie, they said originally he was not doing well with the exception of eating. Multiple outlets reporting the euthsanization. Unbelievable
Colic happens. I have been there myself with a horse that never stepped on a track. It is always very scary when it happens because it can go awry very quickly. Most people can’t afford the surgery, so they are put down. They took him to a super vet clinic.
The colic isn’t the point of the post. The horse made a million dollars, plus more in the breeding shed, and even then he was a cast off. Racing required the use of Old Friends to give him a home. Kinda sad, no?
The choice of words they use that he was “donated” to “Old Friends” as in some inanimate object; as in the Union Gospel Mission accepts DONATIONS of used motor vehicles and other inanimate objects/items. You can donate your car that you don’t want anymore to Union Gospel Mission so they can use it to help people needing assistance. You can donate items of clothing and other reusable items to second-hand or thrift stores like St. Vincent de Paul and the Goodwill Industries.
But, dumping a horse that earned over a Million Dollars for you to a rescue???? And calling it a “donation”??? Are you freaking kidding me???
I agree he was a victim of the horseracing/gambling industry. Retired from everything the racing industry had to offer him (as long as it had a financial return) says to me that he was a spent horse whose untimely death was inevitable. If it hadn’t been colic it would have been something equally as painful.