Honoring Fly to the Wire

Tomorrow is the Gr.3 Laz S Barrera Memorial Stakes at Hollywood Park, a seven furlong race that Fly to the Wire finished a close second to Blazonery in 2003. Fly to the Wire was bred in Florida by Adena Springs, and he raced a total of twenty- eight times, with an astounding record of 11-9-2. This was a serious racehorse, and he finished off his amazing career with a series of 5 consecutive wins in the 2006. Ironically, one of the horses he narrowly defeated in that winning streak was his now pasture mate, Full Moon Madness. Small world.

Fly to the Wire was donated to Tranquility Farm in 2006 by his trainer Robert Hess, after bowing a tendon trying for six in a row at Del Mar. Since that time he has been living very happily with our retired geldings, and he can always be counted upon to go out of his way to impress our visitors. It seems that some horses just never get enough of showing off for their fans!

In memory of the Turlock horses.

If you followed the story of the Turlock horses and tried to intercede on their behalf, the end of the story will be hard to take. They are gone, and without a doubt at this moment they are in tansit to a Mexican slaughterhouse or have already left this cruel world. The news report and subsequent flurry of phone calls to law enforcement yielded nothing but mental anguish for everyone involved. It is not a crime to load up a bunch of horses and drive them across the state line, a very courteous detective sadly explained. Not having the manpower to chase a trailer to the border to document the sale of these unfortunate horses for slaughter, there was really nothing that they could do.

It happens every day. The only consolation in this case is that the killer buyer has felonly animal cruelty charges pending against him in another county. Small comfort. Until we close our national borders these monsters will continue to operate in plain sight. There is in fact no enforceable protection for our horses. So please keep following this issue. When actions are pending in Congress please respond and bring an ever-wider group of outraged citizens to demand an end to the export of American horses for slaughter. That is all we can do. Having to helplessly watch the fate of these horses unfold was extremely painful to everyone, but it can only serve to strengthen our resolve. Only when our borders are closed to horse traffickers will we finally see justice for the Turlock horses and the thousands of others that meet the same terrible end every year.