Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
What’s best for Green Gratto may not be what you think
MIAMI – Following the recent uproar on social media regarding Grade 1 winner Green Gratto’s return to the racetrack, it has been agreed upon by all parties involved that the 9-yearold will not race at Gulfstream Park West or Gulfstream Park.
His trainer, Tamara Levy, understands the reasoning that led to the decision and will send Green Gratto back to the farm of his owner, Liz and Norman Wilson, in Ocala, Fla. And while that might satisfy social media, Levy believes sending Green Gratto back to the farm will not necessarily make the horse happy.
Green Gratto won the Grade 1 Carter at the age of 7 in April 2017 for trainer Gaston Grant. He would not win again in 12 subsequent starts, retiring from racing after a third-place finish in an allowance race at Aqueduct one year later. Sold privately, Green Gratto then became a stallion prospect in New York, but it became evident he was unable to impregnate mares.
Levy picks up the story from there.
“Once the partnership group that owned him learned Green Gratto could not perform at stud, he was sent to Kentucky and put out in a field where it was apparent he did not receive the best of care,” Levy began. “My owner was subsequently contacted, and the horse was sent to her farm in Ocala, not in the best of shape, by the owners with the express purpose of putting him in a livestock auction in Ocala. She advised against it. When the owners still insisted she do so, she purchased the horse herself at the sale and returned him to her farm and nursed him back to good health.”
Levy said the Normans had a full reproductive work-up done on Green Gratto and discovered he indeed was unable to impregnate mares, after which he was gelded. The plan at that point was to retire him on the farm, but soon it became obvious the horse was not ready for that life just yet.
“She turned him out, but he was very aggressive around other horses and running the fences in the fields all the time,” said Levy, who has had her training license for eight years and has a dozen horses in her care at Gulfstream Park West. “So she moved him to a local training center to keep him in a stall with a small turnout paddock. But he still wasn’t happy.”
Levy said that one day Liz Wilson put some tack on Green Gratto and sent him out to the track with her other horses.
“Being able to train again made him happy,” Levy said. “He started putting on weight and eventually got up to a quarter-mile work. This wasn’t an overnight process. He was in training during the spring and throughout the summer. Eventually, he became too much to handle on the smaller track.”
Levy said she advised her owner to give Green Gratto a complete physical before sending him down to her at Gulfstream Park West.
“They went over him from head to toe, just as you would a horse being purchased at the sale, and he got a 100 percent clean bill of health,” Levy said. “I had him here six weeks before we finally breezed him over the weekend. He went a half-mile in 49 [seconds], going easily, and cooled out great. And then the whole story reached social media.”
Levy said the horse’s best interest was foremost during the process.
“I understand the fact he was a Grade 1 winner and earned $1 million, but we have no control over his résumé,” Levy said. “At no point did we have any intention of running him for a $6,250 claiming tag. We weren’t doing this looking to get rid of him. If we didn’t believe he could still run at a high level, we wouldn’t have run him. But now, because of social media, he’s going to have to go home and be deprived of doing something he really enjoys.”
Levy said she resents the fact people who have had never had contact with Green Gratto, or any idea what’s best for this horse, have basically dictated his fate.
“Old Friends and Florida TRAC offered to take him in, but, trust me, at no point since this ownership group took him in has he needed to be rescued,” Levy said. “And he certainly wouldn’t be the only 9-year-old running here or at other tracks around the country, for that matter. I just think it becomes a dangerous road we’re travelling down when we start letting social media and people who are non-horsemen start dictating what horses we can run and which ones we cannot because they think they know better.”
Canter for the Cause
Gulfstream Park’s inaugural Canter for the Cause proved a huge success on Saturday with more than 100 participants from throughout the state partaking of the opportunity to walk, canter, or trot their horses across the Gulfstream track.
All proceeds from the event, sponsored by the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and Florida Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders’ Association, went to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and Whispering Manes Therapeutic Riding Center in Miami. Each rider was given jockey silks and a commemorative saddle towel before taking their horse around the track and taking a picture in the winner’s circle.
“It was great to see so many participants, their friends, and family come out for the event, and to see the community come together and raise awareness and funds for two such great causes,” said Mike Lakow, vice president of racing at Gulfstream Park and former president and CEO of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.