Souper Spectacular

[Charles Bunbury]

Link to Racing Post

[Rochelle Bos]

I saw this in a Facebook OTTB group the day she bought him! Very happy he’s found his forever home <3

[Tiyoun Long]

I read this in the RP today, and couldnt believe how this $1 million dollar yearling had fallen on such hard times. Thank heavens he was rescued. Having just retired my own racehorse, theres no way i would dream of selling him on, as you just cant be sure where they'll end up.

In the UK we have an charity called ROR (retraining of racehorses) and they run showing, / dressage/ show jumping and eventing competitions specifically for retired racehorses. It aims to stop what happened to this poor old fella, and ,at the same time,give thoroughbreds a fulfilling second career.

[Darcy McBride]

I am happy for "Seven" too. It's such a shame that so many end up this way. Kudos to the new owners!

[LA Pepper]

I dunno, but my first thought when a horse is" given away to a zoo" is that he's intended for tiger food. so in one way this horse is lucky he ended up in an auction, even a killer auction, because someone may have tried to help him by getting him out of the zoo, and even luckier someone bought him. Whoever sent him to the zoo , I expect, thought he would 'disappear.'

[Emily Meachum]

It would depend on what kind of zoo it is. My first thought was that he was at a petting zoo, so it didn't strike me as that odd initially. If it was a zoo with wildlife, that would be pretty weird. AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) affiliated zoos are very very picky about the sources of the food that their animals are fed and they do not accept donations for food. The zoo I volunteered at in high school would not take meat from hunters for instance. So, it would have to be a sketchy roadside zoo if their intent was to use him as meat. The fact that he made it out alive is what makes me think it was a petting zoo. We'll probably never know where exactly he was though.
And it's not just the horse racing industry's problem, I think it's horse overpopulation as a whole. People don't have the land and money for horses anymore. It's why I cringe when I see articles about encouraging the increase of the thoroughbred population to fill races. Where exactly are all those horses going to go when their racing careers are over? As someone who grew up going to dog shows, I think horse breeders need to take a note from responsible dog breeders and be willing to take back animals they've bred at any point during their lives. It might help keep horses like Souper Spectacular from ending up in such bad states.

[Nena Olson]

He was donated to Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, which has a petting zoo and lets people feed horses/zebras, so I doubt he was meant to be food. The zoo then rehomed him to the lady who eventually sent him to auction.

https://www.usracing.com/news/sad-tale- ... le-brother

[John Nicholson]

Sad to see how he’s ended up but hopefully he gets the treatment he needs to recover,I’ve donated and there still $225 short of the $10,000 so if anyone would like to help just follow the link