Saved From Slaughter, Stakes Winner Go Mikey Go Returns Home
Equestrian News Release
Go Mikey Go, the 1998 Albany Handicap winner, who was saved from slaughter by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, will be honored prior to this year's running of the stakes race for 3-year-old New York breds at Saratoga Race Course.
The now 11-year-old son of 1990 Belmont Stakes winner Go and Go will be on hand at Saratoga for the Aug. 23 Albany, a race he won by 14 lengths under jockey Richard Migliore before his promising career was slowed by injuries.
Shortly after he won the Albany, Go Mikey Go suffered a bowed tendon, which sidelined him for nearly two years. Once he returned to the races, he was not the same horse. After running 11th in a $14,000 claiming race, he was once again sent to the sidelines, this time for nearly 2 ½ years. Trained by Gary Contessa during his prime in New York, he resurfaced for owner-trainer William Hedus. His final start came in a $3,500 claiming race at the Northampton Fair on Sept. 1, 2003. He was pulled up lame prior to the finish.
About a week later, TRF Treasurer Ray Roy got wind of the fact that four thoroughbreds had gone unsold after being entered in a small auction in Massachusetts. Told that horses not bought from that sale normally wind up being shipped to a Texas slaughterhouse, Roy went to the sales ground and bought the four horses on behalf of the TRF. He paid $300 for Go Mikey Go, about what he was worth to a slaughterhouse.
"When we got him, we had no idea who he was because he had no papers," Roy said. "It was only after we checked his foal tattoo with the Jockey Club that we discovered he was a horse who had won a stakes race in Saratoga. He was horribly lame, which is why he didn't sell in the auction. People at this auction are looking for riding horses, but he was too unsound for that."
Go Mikey Go has been under the care of the TRF since he was plucked out of the auction by Roy. The nation's largest and oldest thoroughbred rescue operation, the TRF currently cares for more than 1,300 horses, most of whom were saved from lives of neglect, abuse and slaughter. The TRF is wholly dependent on private contributions.
"I'm really happy that they are doing this for this horse," said Contessa, who made a generous donation to the TRF in the name of Go Mikey Go. "It's wonderful that there are groups out there like the TRF that step in save these horses from slaughter. It makes me very unhappy that some owners will send their horses to slaughter. I don't understand how they can do that. Slaughter is an awful, cruel death."
Go Mikey Go will be paraded in the paddock prior to the running of the Albany and track announcer Tom Durkin will make an announcement to the crowd which details his bittersweet story.
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