“I Didn’t Want to See Him Suffer”
Trainer Jackie Thacker talks to Matt Hegarty about Monzante:
“I saw where they said he was salvageable,†Thacker said. “That’s not what we saw. We saw a horse that was in a lot of pain, that was suffering. I’ve got to live with that. It was my call, and I stand by it.â€
6:15 PM Update: More from Esther Marr:
“He was ready to run,” the trainer said of the gelding, who was jogged the morning of the race and pronounced sound…. Thacker said he has successfully retired several past racehorses and given them to people that have re-trained them for second careers. But he had not yet considered retiring Monzante because the horse still showed an interest in racing.
