A Fine Line Separates Winner’s Circle From Slaughterhouse

Just how precarious is the line between the winner’s circle and the slaughterhouse? Consider Charismatic.

A great-grandson of Triple Crown winner Secretariat, Charismatic was purchased for a relatively cheap $200,000. Last winter, he ran twice in $62,500 claiming races, meaning he could have been bought on the spot for that price.

Owner Bob Lewis explained he had given up on Charismatic and wanted to recoup part of the original investment. “The horse was costing us money.”

Then, unexpectedly, Charismatic won the Kentucky Derby, then the Preakness Stakes. Leading in the Belmont Stakes--just yards from the finish line and the first Triple Crown in 21 years--he fractured bones in his ankle. Four screws patched him up, but his racing career was finished.

“If he had sustained that injury a few months earlier, he very easily could have ended up in a slaughterhouse,” says Alan Furst, president of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

Instead, today Charismatic lives at Lane’s End Farm, where the stallion barn has a cathedral ceiling, skylights, varnished oak paneling and spacious stalls. His stud fee is $35,000, and his neighbors include Derby winner Pleasant Colony and his own sire, Preakness winner Summer Squall.