Thrown away

On Friday, May 18th, 2007, almost everyone in the racing industry was fixated on Baltimore’s Pimlico Racecourse, where 133rd Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense was favored to capture the second coveted jewel in the Triple Crown the following day. Few if any were aware that some 2800 miles away at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley, California, former graded stakeswinner Inesperado suffered a catastrophic breakdown and had to be euthanized.

French export Inesperado made his American debut a winning one in the summer of 2003, surging through a hole at the rail to win the Cinema (G3) at Hollywood by a nose. After winning four of nine starts in France for his original owners, it would be his most lucrative season for new owner 2 Plus U Stable and new trainer Bobby Frankel. In addition to the Cinema, Inesperado also added wins in the La Jolla Handicap (G3), Sir Beaufort Stakes, and Del Mar Derby (G2) to his name, the latter over eventual Breeders’ Cup Turf victor Johar, now a stud in Kentucky.

Two years later and twelve races later, Inesperado was dropped in for a claiming tag and was taken by Round Table Stable. From there he continued to descend down the claiming latter, dropping from $80,000 to $35,000, to $22,500, to $7,000, and finally, in April of '07, to $4,000. By this time Inesperado was eight years old and a world away from the limelight which had shone so brightly on him during his three-year-old season. What is even more disheartening than the horse’s fall in stature was the arcane persistence in which he was raced.

At the time of his death, Inesperado had finished out of the money in ten of his previous eleven starts and had not won in over three years. If money were the object of desire, surely a stud career would have been a more enticing option for a multiple graded stakeswinner who was still entire in his sixth season of racing.

And while most of the blame falls on the horse’s last connections for running him despite the animal’s clear lack of competitiveness even at racing’s lowest level, one who has to wonder where were 2 Plus U Stable and Bobby Frankel during all of this time. Retiring a past-his-prime horse who earned well over half a million dollars in a single season of racing for his owner and trainer (Inesperado’s career earnings neared $700,000) seems like something any decent person would do.

It is time racing stops mishandling the very animals on which the sport itself exists. The fact that such a prominent stakeswinner of yesteryear faded into obscurity without so much as a peep from the racing community is deplorable. The horse had more than earned a retirement –even a stallion career, perhaps—but it is apparent now more than ever that racing is indeed a business and no longer a sport.

Inesperado deserved better.