Cover image supplied
A week ago, Carisa Oakley - who retrains thoroughbreds off the track in Wagga Wagga - turned to social media to share the passing of one of her horses, a thoroughbred who raced as Final Man (Reward For Effort). She was met with a sea of empathy for the loss, and amongst it, a rising tide of commiseration and anger about a letter sent to her by Racing New South Wales.
The letter was in response to a request for financial aid - Oakley had applied for Racing NSW’s End Of Life Welfare Program to put a dent in the veterinary expenses that came with Final Man’s death - and it informed her that Final Man was not eligible for the program as he had raced primarily in Victoria.
“There must be so many people out there who would happily give homes to these animals if they knew they could get assistance when needed,” one comment read. “There should be no borders when it comes to thoroughbred welfare.”
Another shared their experience, “my (thoroughbred) has the best of everything, feed and care-wise - I wouldn’t have it any other way - but it would be nice to qualify for something.”
A third went a step further; “they are so quick to beat their drums at how helpful they are to (retired racehorses), but even quicker to wipe their hands of said retirees. (...) It’s a wicked game of smoke and mirrors.”
"They are so quick to beat their drums at how helpful they are to (retired racehorses), but even quicker to wipe their hands of said retirees." - Anon
Giving something back
Oakley grew up in Tasmania as an active member of the Pony Club, and had several thoroughbreds on and off growing up. She took racehorses to the beach and, when they retired from the track, restarted them herself. When she moved to Wagga to attend university, she took up track-riding and stable hand work “to pay the bills”, and got to know a lot of thoroughbreds that routinely crisscrossed the border to race.
A fractured jaw and a handful of other injuries forced Oakley to take a step back from racing, and she instead refocused on eventing. Taking leave from her studies for a while, she spent time working for a professional eventer and honing her craft there.
“I was realising that I probably was never going to be able to progress any further in the racing industry itself,” Oakley told The Thoroughbred Report. The allure of a good thoroughbred persisted, though, and she continued to take the odd one on, particularly after purchasing her own property meant she could keep them in her back yard.
“Because I rode trackwork to pay my bills in university, I felt like I owed the horses something in return once I left the industry,” Oakley said. “They helped me pay my bills and live.
“Because I rode trackwork to pay my bills in university, I felt like I owed the horses something in return once I left the industry. They helped me pay my bills and live.” - Carisa Oakley
“I don’t resell them very fast. They go out, they do a heap of things, I usually have them a year before they’re moved on. Obviously that means I don’t ever make a profit - I don’t think I’ve turned a profit on a single one.”
But a profit is not the point - for Oakley, the true worth is in seeing a racehorse transition smoothly into a second career.
A lovely animal
A chestnut gelding born in 2016, Final Man - known by Oakley as ‘Fynn’ - had been a handy horse in his younger days, stringing together three metropolitan wins in Victoria in the autumn of his 3-year-old year for Nick Harnett. His breeder Michael Phillips trained him for a period following that, but he would never find the same form. Sold for $10,000 in an Inglis Digital online auction in February of 2023, he would change trainers a couple more times before ending up in the stable of Donna Scott.
For Scott, he would mostly race in New South Wales, trialing twice in the state before five runs with his best result a third. Connections of the rising 8-year-old opted to retire him in August last year. Across 33 starts, he raced in Victoria 27 times and six times in New South Wales, including once for former trainer-Ben Brisbourne.
Taken by the presence of the tall, imposing gelding, Oakley picked him up from a friend who was downsizing her retraining operation.
The late Final Man
“He was well taken care of, there’s no doubt about that,” she said. Final Man was timid at first, but Oakley wasn’t put off. “He was a nice, eventing type. I was like, ‘oh, he doesn't look like a quick project, so maybe I'll grab him and give her a hand, as well as pick something up for myself that had already been spelled’.”
The pair were making steady progress, with Oakley hoping to make it to Racing NSW’s lucrative Equimillion competition in October, when disaster struck - the gelding came down with a colic far more severe than it appeared on the surface.
“I got up in the morning and he was just laying down, and it wasn't too alarming,” Oakley recalled. “But then I walked over and he got up, but he wasn't real happy. We went to the university and everything presented well, but then 12 hours later, he just went downhill really quick.”
What at first seemed mild quickly revealed itself to be a serious impaction, and less than 24 hours after discovering his discomfort, Oakley was making the difficult decision to pull the pin.
“He just spent the whole time while being examined with his head in my chest, just having scratches,” she said. “He was just such a beautiful horse. I think anyone that would have worked with him would say the same thing. He was a lovely animal, a really sweet gelding.
"He was just such a beautiful horse. I think anyone that would have worked with him would say the same thing. He was a lovely animal, a really sweet gelding." - Carisa Oakley
“I'm really sad about it, obviously, and that's probably why I'm so annoyed, because I didn't ever want anything to happen to him, because he was such a lovely animal.”
A humane death
Final Man’s bill amounted to $4500 - a price Oakley was willing to pay, but since there were initiatives in place from Racing NSW, she thought it was reasonable to ask for a small amount to cover the cost of euthanasia, which would knock approximately $500 off of the final fee. This was not the first thoroughbred that she had spent thousands on vet care for.
“I just thought, I've never been eligible for anything with Racing New South Wales before, I've never asked for a cent from them before, and I knew they had the welfare fund,” she said.
Racing NSW and Racing Victoria both have end of life programs for eligible thoroughbreds that cover the cost of humane euthanasia. Both have different terms for eligibility; Racing NSW’s Team Thoroughbred website specifies retired thoroughbreds must have been “predominantly domiciled in NSW”, and Racing Victoria clarified over email that horses domiciled for at least 30 days in the state would have access to their programs.
The hitch: Final Man did not meet Racing NSW’s “predominantly domiciled” requirement. In the letter Oakley received from their welfare team declining financial assistance, they specifically cited the fact that only six of his 33 starts took place within New South Wales, and that made him ineligible for help.
“He has changed owners a couple of times and I have contacted them and told them, ‘don't worry, he was very loved’. This is not a welfare case - in terms of, he wasn't starved or neglected. I was just asking Racing NSW for what they say they offer, and if they rejected me because I didn’t have enough ‘hardship’, that would be different.
"I was just asking Racing NSW for what they say they offer, and if they rejected me because I didn’t have enough ‘hardship’, that would be different." - Carisa Oakley
“To which I should add, they don't specify what hardship is. I think paying $4500 is a lot for most people.”
The Team Thoroughbred website further states that the End Of Life Welfare Program would apply “where the cost of euthanasia may be prohibitive to the owner” and “it is necessary on genuine welfare or safety reasons and in the best interests of the horse”, but there is no further details about what constitutes prohibitive cost.
“He's not the first one I've had to put down with significant vet bills, but they were Victorian horses (who raced only in Victoria) and I knew they wouldn't be eligible, so I never asked before.”
The late Final Man | Image supplied
Oakley told The Thoroughbred Report about another horse who needed extreme remedial dental work, but was unable to tolerate the sedation needed for the procedure, so Oakley opted to not let her suffer. As the mare raced her whole career in Victoria, Oakley did not approach either jurisdiction for financial aid.
“For people like me, I can't sustain this level of bill,” she continued. “If I have another one that colics, that’s $9000 in total if I try. So it comes to the point of, well, do I try? Or, when they look a bit sick, do I just make the call? Because then (the total cost) drops to $500 to $800.”
"If I have another one that colic's, that’s $9000 in total if I try (to save them). So it comes to the point of, well, do I try? Or, when they look a bit sick, do I just make the call?" - Carisa Oakley
Final Man collected $212,100 in prize money across his career - $6725 of which was earned in New South Wales.
He would have contributed a total of $3182 to equine welfare funds across the states as part of 1.5 per cent deductions from prize money across both jurisdictions.
“I'm just going to keep the ones that I've got, and then I'll only take client ones, because they pay the bills,” Oakley added. “I just can't run at that loss.”
A particular twist of the knife came when Oakley was filling out the paperwork to apply for the aid.
“Someone had screwed up, so when they sent me what was meant to be the empty form, it had a horse already on it,” she said. The horse was in its twenties, but what has stuck with Oakley now is that its career on the track had been brief; six last-placed starts in New South Wales. “It had gotten accepted. I’m not disputing that horse getting the funding, but if they were eligible, then why wasn’t Fynn, who raced and retired in the state as well?”
Crossing state lines
Oakley’s frustration is not about being left with a bill, it is about the grey area that exists between Principle Racing Authorities (PRAs) for horses like Final Man. He was left stranded between two jurisdictions; for one, he wasn’t living in the right place, and for the other, he didn’t give enough of his life and career to the state.
Who will come to the aid of the next Final Man?
Racing Victoria outlined to The Thoroughbred Report that once the first 30 days in Victoria have lapsed, it doesn’t matter where a horse was bred or raced, it can access Racing Victoria welfare programs while within the state. While this would not have helped Final Man, it places horses on an equal footing across Victoria.
There is no specific guideline on Racing NSW’s welfare hub to define “predominantly domiciled”, and while Final Man may have spent most of his career racing in Victoria, he did retire over the border. He would have been eligible for Equimillion, Racing NSW’s flagship competition weekend in October, but not to receive end of life care from the entity.
Is there the potential for an interstate solution? As of right now, the percentage of prize money allocated for equine welfare remains segregated by state. Racing Victoria asserted that they regularly correspond with other PRA welfare teams to work on collaborative programs, and collaborate with the RSPCA.
Racing NSW were approached for comment and have yet to respond.
Oakley is fortunate that paying the bill is not a matter of life or death, but that might not be the case for others. What worries her is the horses who don’t spend their lives in one place; horses who come south from the Northern Territory, horses who retire to Australia from Hong Kong. The racehorse who doesn’t spend their whole career with the same trainer, who may even move from state to state. The Queensland-bred yearling who sells to a Sydney trainer and retires before making it to a trial. How do they earn their soft landing?
“You can rehome horses easily off the track, I just don't know how many land on their feet,” she said. It begs the question, how many horses are left in limbo?
