Air travel safe for horses, plane and simple
Purses, prestige motivate stables to move their stars to tracks around the world
Sheikhzayedroad loves to fly, and it shows.
Upon disembarking from his seven-hour flight to Toronto from Amsterdam, the gelding circled his stall at Woodbine Racetrack — his room for the next couple of days — and threw himself down for a roll in the wood shavings, a sign he’s relaxed and glad to be there.
Woodbine is a happy place for him. The six-year-old is making a return to the scene of his last triumph when he won the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Stakes over the E.P. Taylor turf course in September 2014.
On Sunday, he will compete in the Grade 1, $1-million Canadian International at Woodbine, where he is listed 6-1 in the morning line in against a field of 10 other competitors.
But he’s not the only thoroughbred who has hopped on a plane for a shot at some big prize money and coveted graded status. Horses from England, Ireland and Germany have descended on Toronto for Sunday’s International, E.P. Taylor Stakes and Nearctic Stakes — a treble of races that have historically attracted equine globetrotters.
Despite being an indulgence — most racehorses will never set foot on an airplane — air travel has become a relatively streamlined and routine mode of equine transport.
American Pharoah travels on H.E. “Tex” Sutton’s Boeing 727 cargo aircraft, affectionately known as “Air Horse One.” Sheikhzayedroad, meanwhile, arrived in Canada on a plane that belongs to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. Sheikhzayedroad’s traveling lad, Ian Russell, flew with E.P. Taylor Stakes entrants Terror and Nakuti on a KLM Cargo that arrived Tuesday night.
“Terror and Nakuti were both firsttime fliers, and I have to say they were both very good,” said Russell who, as travelling lad for Newmarket, England-based trainer David Simcock, spends most of the year on the road with the stable’s racehorses.
Their journey started on Tuesday morning. After their daily exercise, the two fillies left England to catch a flight to Amsterdam. They were led onto the small plane, where stalls were configured to secure the horses in place.
Once arriving in Amsterdam, Terror and Nakuti were walked off the plane and into a metal crate with a stall for each of them for the long, seven-hour haul to Canada. Once in the crate, the cube was wheeled onto a hoist to prepare to be loaded on to the KLM flight. There, they waited in a cargo building for their plane, which was, of course, delayed.
“That’s probably the most frightening time for a horse besides taking and off and landing, the actual moving up and down,” said Russell.
Once their cube is lifted onto the plane, horses tend to relax, perhaps getting jitters during takeoff and landing.
Rob Clark, president of Tex Sutton, said their pilots make ascents and descents much more gradual as to prevent injury to the horse. They will also purposely avoid weather to prevent the plane from encountering turbulence.
During the flight, Russell will regularly check up on the horses and make sure the horses have plenty of hay and water. Racehorses spend most of their time in a stall, so wheth- er they are high in the sky or are on solid ground, they are used to standing in a stall.
Air Horse One is equipped to hold three horses abreast, but American Pharoah only travels with one seat mate: his trusty sidekick, Smokey.
In North America, it is common for a racehorse to travel with a companion they are familiar with. When Secretariat flew to Toronto in October 1973, he did so with his appaloosa buddy Billy Silver.
“If they have a pony they always train with, then they will often travel with that pony. It’s to keep everything as routine as possible,” said Clark.
“It almost becomes like a good-luck charm.”
In the movie “International Velvet,” there is a scene where a horse goes berserk and was put down during a flight. That scene is believed to be inspired by Markham, who was euthanized on a plane en route to the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo after panicking and putting the entire flight at risk.
Russell, who has travelled with horses for seven years, has never experienced a horse getting out of control during a flight. And Clark says in Tex Sutton’s six decades of flying horses, all horses arrived at their destination safely.
In September, Tex Sutton’s aircraft made 26 flights and moved 247 horses throughout North America.
Good horses will act professionally in every aspect of their life, both Russell and Clark agreed.
“If they will ship well, they will ship well on the plane,” said Clark.