Hop Sing Update

Last year I wrote about the death of the Daylon Tropper who died in a barn accident at Scarborough Downs after winning a race the night before.  At that time, I questioned why a millionaire horse was still racing after having been successful in the Opens at Yonkers Raceway.  As much as I didn't approve of him still racing, at least he was still competitive and winning races and his death came as a result of a freak accident not related to racing.

Which brings us to the nine year old Hop Sing, who we discussed back on April 9, 2010 when I questioned why he was still racing.  This winner of just under $967,000 returned from a two race campaign in 2009 where his best finish was being distanced in a $25,000 claiming race.  On April 10, he kicked off his 2010 campaign in a non-winners of $12,000 in the last six starts conditioned pace at Yonkers Raceway when he finished last, losing by 24 lengths.  Let's see how he has done since then. 

Good news as Hop Sing has finally came up victorious today in his tenth start of the year.  After kicking off his 2010 campaign with that last place finish on April 10, he raced five more times at Yonkers in the bottom class where the best he managed was a fifth place finish, where he lost by five lengths.  After his last start at Yonkers on July 19, Hop Sing headed north to Monticello Raceway where he finished sixth on August 3; his local debut.  After one more failed start, Hop Sing was dropped into the bottom level conditioned pace, racing for a $2,500 purse where he finished second in his first start in the class which was followed up with today's victory in 1:59.3.  The net result for this season is 1-1-0 with earnings of $2,225 in ten seasonal starts, bringing his lifetime earnings to $968,799.    

Despite the victory today, I can only hope the connections of Hop Sing will know when to say enough is enough.  Just because we can race them till they can go no further doesn't mean we should.  Hopefully, the day will come when his connections will decide to retire him to a pasture to live out the rest of his life.

Should any owner of standardbred not know what to do with their horse who's career is (should be) over, you can contact any horse rescue group, including Anouk Bush at Horse Rescue United.  I list several of these rescue groups on my blog's main page.