Just Say No To Slaughter

Here's another feel-good story about thoroughbred racing, this time in the form of a race track owner who has taken a very public stance against slaughtering racehorses. Richard Fields, the relatively new owner of Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston, has instituted severe penalties for trainers at his track who sell their horses to "kill buyers."

The ban has been in effect since last year but this year Fields is invoking the penalties that go along with it. In what the Boston Herald says may be the first of its kind crackdown in the industry, Fields is revoking stall privileges of trainers who violate the rule. In other words, a trainer caught selling a horse for meat, will be prohibited from racing at Suffolk Downs.

Bravo to Fields for walking the walk! "Nobody has gone to that extent," notes Diana Pikulski, executive director of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. "It's basically saying if you are going to do business here, you have to treat your horses humanely."

Not only is Fields banning trainers who violate his no-slaughter rule, he financially supports a pair of groups that help provide retirement homes for race horses and has even sent a trio of retired Suffolk Downs horses to his own ranch in Wyoming to live out their days.

Proving that it is possible to own a race track and treat horses humanely, Fields is high on my list of people making a difference in the sport. Or as Jeff Hooper of the New England Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association says, "I'd like to be owned by Richard Fields."