“Every horse is good for somethin’. He could be a cart horse or a lead pony. And he’s still nice to look at. You know, you don't throw a whole life away … just ’cause he’s banged up a little.” Quote from “Seabiscuit.”

Sand Lizard should have been good for somethin’. He was gray, personable and well over 17 hands. At 9, he was a tad older than most riders looking for hunter/ jumper or eventing prospects would prefer, but he was an exquisite, balanced mover with a good mind.

At least, he was the last time I saw him on the California racing circuit.

But something went terribly wrong between Sand Lizard’s last race in California (a fourth-place finish in a $32,000 claimer at Santa Anita on Jan. 10, 1998) and his final career start four months later (pulled up in a $12,500 claiming race at Les Bois Park in Idaho on May 27).

I had kept an eye on Sand Lizard for several years, and tried to buy him privately a few times from his California owner/trainer, William Wilmot. Always, the response from Wilmot was the same: “If you want him that bad, you can claim him.”

By the time Sand Lizard became affordable — for me — he was on a track ambulance heading back to trainer Paul Treasure’s barn at Les Bois. Treasure said he didn’t know why Sand Lizard’s jockey, Cammie Papineau, pulled him up.

“The girl said she felt him go ‘off’ but he’s fine now,” Treasure told me. “He’ll be perfect for a jumper, with a little time off.”

Sand Lizard left Treasure’s barn three days later, bound for my home in Temecula, Calif. I could hear him nickering the moment the van turned onto the block. His head was hanging out a partially opened window, and he seemed to have a wide grin on his lovely, open face.

It took us half an hour to get Sand Lizard off the van. He couldn’t walk. Eventually, we were able to gently guide him, groaning and grunting with every halting step, to a small pen. And there he remained, for over a year, until he was deemed pasture sound … the victim of one race too many.

Not All as Lucky as Zenyatta

Zenyatta has been a boon to the racing industry, no doubt. Sure, on-track attendance soared whenever and wherever she raced, but her greatest gift may be the new generation of fans she introduced to the sport.

Realistically, Zenyatta’s fans are not hard-core gamblers who carry the Ragozin sheets around like a Bible. They are horse lovers, first and foremost, who were attracted to racing because of one magnificent mare.

There’s certainly room for both types in racing, but if it’s going to remain a “sport” it must find a way to keep Zenyatta’s fans coming to the track … and bringing their horse crazy friends with them.

The downside of following the career of a horse like Zenyatta, of course, is the skewed perception that other, less transcendent horses — like those who make up about 95 percent of the thoroughbred racing stock in the United States — are similarly cosseted in their racing lives, never mind their racing afterlives.

Endless studies can be commissioned, and countless task forces can be launched, but that only distracts us from what we already know: Racehorses’ chances for a productive afterlife are contingent upon the care they get during their racing lives.

Helen’s ‘Silver Seniors’

The term “pasture sound” is relative as it relates to most of the retired racehorses at the United Pegasus Foundation (UPF) ranch in Tehachapi, Calif.

Home to 65 horses, Pegasus was founded in 1994 by Helen Meredith, a former exercise rider whose husband, Derek, trained 1993 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Cardmania. When she started the nonprofit organization, Meredith, 52, hoped the main objective would be retraining thoroughbreds for second careers.

While a few of the early Pegasus graduates did go on to careers in eventing (Iron’s Odyssey has taken several young riders up through preliminary, and is still competing at 19) or jumpers (Azagal, who raced for eight years, was adopted by a teenager), most of the donated horses were not sound enough to withstand the rigors of jumping (or, in many cases, any activity more physically demanding than walking).

Many horse rescues have, understandably, refused to take in “special needs” horses, choosing instead to focus on horses with viable career options. By virtue of the unsound horses that were donated to Pegasus early on, it has become more retirement focused, though Meredith is currently working with two young horses she hopes to adopt out.

“So many organizations are against the retirement part of it, which is really kind of upsetting,” Meredith said. “You’ve got these old guys that started out as stakes horses, and ran ‘til they were nine or 10. Unless the horse is perfectly sound, it’s going to be hard to place. What are we supposed to do … just shoot the sucker and move on to the next one? These poor horses are getting no merit.”

Sand Lizard, now 21, is one of Meredith’s “Silver Seniors,” horses who, because of her meticulous care, are thriving in their geriatric years. “Sandy,” as he has been known ever since he hobbled off the van 12 years ago, is still a head-turner. Pure white now, and posed regally in the pasture he shares with several other geldings, Sandy still looks like the jumper prospect we hoped he’d be.

Sandy sees me — or rather, sees the carrot cake I’ve brought as an early birthday offering — and nickers loudly. His gait is ungainly — with two calcified front ankles, it’s bound to be — but he still beats the other geldings to the fence and does a face plant into the carrot cake, leaving nary a crumb for the others.

A stakes winner at Saratoga bred by Loblolly Stable, Sandy raced 72 times, winning eight times and earning $420,403. He was a crowd favorite, not only for his dashing good looks but for his tendency to hit the board at a big price.

As a volunteer for Pegasus, I put Sandy in my “virtual stable” of horses to follow throughout their careers, mainly because he fit the profile of an “at risk” horse: a former stakes winner who had descended into the claiming ranks.

Meredith and I were both devastated to see the condition Sandy was in when we acquired him, and stunned that he had even passed the track veterinarian before his last race. Like almost all of Meredith’s retirees, Sandy was the victim of cortisone overuse. His ankles had virtually no cartilage left; he limped pitifully for a year or so until his joints fused.

Now, he is Danny Ocean in the Rat Pack of 11 other geldings in his pasture, keeping them in line with his long, yellowed teeth and staging impromptu coups against vets and farriers.

An Advocate for the Horses

Meredith’s outspoken opposition to drug use in racehorses has alienated her to some in the industry.

She had a public falling out with a former supporter, prominent breeder Gary Biszantz, who insisted that she stop making annual trips to Canada to rescue Premarin foals. Meredith argued that the money reaped from UPF’s sale of the Premarin foals was, in fact, supporting the thoroughbreds.

For several years, the racetracks gave UPF donations ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 annually. Now, they are lucky to get $2,000 to $2,500.

The list of Pegasus retirees could fill a trophy case. Music Merci earned $1.5 million racing in sprint stakes. Kingdom Found earned more than $800,000, and Time to Pass won 11 stakes races. Moscow MD earned more than $400,000 and retired sound at age 10, but was unadoptable because Meredith couldn’t get the “spook” out of him.

The grand old man of the group is Cardmania, who made three Breeders’ Cup appearances and earned $1.5 million racing to the age of nine. Now 24, Cardmania was left in the U.S. by his French owner, Jean Couvercelle, once his racing days were done.

The luxury-sized bay clearly has a bond with Meredith; as his former exercise rider, she can be forgiven for showing favoritism. Many of the older geldings are suffering from typical senior issues: Cardmania has Cushing’s Syndrome, a pituitary gland disorder that causes excessive hair growth.

Straight to Bed, who was owned by Mike Pegram (Real Quiet, Lookinatlucky) and trained by Bob Baffert, has cataracts and is blind in one eye. Babyitscoldoutside is anemic; Time to Pass has a weak heart in addition to his arthritis.

“Sometimes I look at him, and I think it may be time,” Meredith said. “The next minute, he’s jumping around like a friggin’ 2-year-old. Their eyes tell you when it’s time. As long as they have a bright eye, then they stay.”

Grim Statistics Reveal Sad Fate for Most

The Jockey Club, thoroughbred racing’s national registry, reports that 68 percent of the approximately 35,000 thoroughbreds foaled in North America annually (only 27,233 live foals have been registered this year) will have a racing career.

Of those, 70 percent will win one race, only 5 percent will win a stakes race, and two-tenths of a percent will win a Grade I race. But here’s the worst news: According to the Humane Society of the United States, approximately two out of every three horses that come off the track — many young, healthy and sound — are euthanized, abandoned or slaughtered.

The racing industry has only recently begun to address these grim statistics. There is still too much emphasis on the perceived “horse shortage” that often results in canceled race cards. Despite the horse shortage, there are still thousands of horses coming off the track every year.

“We can’t save them all, we’ve always known that,” Meredith said. “But we can certainly do better than we’re doing.”

Recently, programs that serve as a kind of “Social Security” system for thoroughbreds have taken root. CARMA (California Retirement Management Account) is an opt-out program in which 0.3 percent of all purse monies in California are used to fund equine retirement groups like UPF.

Michael Blowen, founder of Old Friends Equine in Midway, Ky., is working with U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a champion of animal rights, to create a national Social Security system for racehorses.

In Need of a Christmas Miracle

Meredith says the foundation would have folded if not for CARMA, which gave them $41,000 last year.

In 2008, when gas prices soared and hay went from $4,500 to $7,500 a load, Pegasus fell behind on its bills; Meredith estimates they are presently $80,000 in debt.

“We need that miracle of a big donation to catch up,” Meredith said.

As other rescues spring up, Pegasus is sometimes left off a particular donor's list, as it was this year when Thoroughbred Charities of America — which had been a regular supporter — gave them nothing.

“That really hurt,” Meredith said.

Funding the retirement of old racehorses is a subject that can lead to contentious debate. One of the dirtiest little secrets of racehorse retirement farms is that many of their retirees were owned and raced by people still involved, and thriving, in the sport of kings. Only one of the Pegasus retirees is supported by the owner who campaigned him on the track; a handful of others are sponsored by fans.

Meredith says it costs about $200 a month — tax deductible — to support a Pegasus retiree. Considering day rates at the track range from $80 to $120 … that’s a bargain.

Meredith vows to keep fighting for the horses, and speaking out against practices that result in more lawn ornaments and fewer sport horses. Her goal is to keep the foundation solvent until the last retiree is gone.

This Christmas, I urge all of you to put down the Dubarry catalog and ask Santa for a donation to your favorite horse charity. Most are nonprofit, so your contribution will be tax deductible. I think you know where my donation is going.

As long as she has a bright eye, I’m right there with her.

Donations to the United Pegasus Foundation can be sent to P.O. Box 173, Tehachapi, CA 93581, or made by phone by calling (661) 823-9672. Contact Stephanie Diaz at MediaPlan88@aol.com.