Hazel Park
September 25, 2014
By Andy Kozlowski
C G Staff Writer
HAZEL PARK — A bit of Bavaria is coming to Hazel Park by way of Hazel Park Raceway’s Oktoberfest celebration the weekend of Oct. 3-4. Historically, a horse race would close out the world-famous funfair back in Munich, Germany. It’s fitting, then, that Hazel Park’s Oktoberfest is held at a thoroughbred meet.
The festivities take place during race hours, 6:30-11 p.m. this Friday and Saturday. Parking and admission is free, as always. There will be abundant German food and drink — seasonal beers, meats, cheeses, potato pancakes, desserts, and more — as well as a mix of traditional folk and mainstream music, and dancing with dance troupes.
The event goes on rain or shine — there will be tents set up for the barbecue, bandstand and other exhibits, as well as the guests.
“Our beer suppliers will provide great seasonal drinks that would be suitable for Oktoberfest, whether it’s wheat-based or pumpkin and so on. We’ll have traditional German foods, as well,” said Ladd Biro, director of racing at Hazel Park Raceway. “There will be plenty of food and beer, and participation with the audience, dancing and singing along. And of course, there will also be races. We want everyone to just come out and have a good time.”
The event will also help support the horses that are the stars of the racing industry. Former WXYZ-TV anchor Robbie Timmons will be there with her nonprofit CANTER, short for Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses. CANTER will be holding a fundraising event in conjunction with Oktoberfest, in the form of a 50/50 raffle.
The average thoroughbred concludes their racing career when they’re 3-6 years old, but lives for 30 years or more. The unpaid volunteers of CANTER document those horses and find suitable owners for them via their website, www.canterusa.org. They thoroughly screen every applicant and make sure the horse goes to a “forever home.”
What’s more, they retrain the horse for a nonracing career. For example, the thoroughbred could be retrained as a hunter, a jumper or an eventer, or used for cross-country, for polo, for dressage or for trail-riding. The idea is to take a horse that no longer has the competitive drive to race at the track, and to find a new application for its innate athletic ability.
CANTER, a nationwide organization, makes no money off of the horses. They invest about $4,000 in each thoroughbred, providing rehabilitation, retraining, and veterinary and farrier care. The horses are then adopted out for anywhere from $500 to $3,500. Many of these horses come from champion bloodlines such as Secretariat, Storm Cat and so on, and would normally cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Thoroughbred owners and trainers at Hazel Park Raceway contact CANTER when their horse is ready to retire. CANTER then picks up the thoroughbred and transports it to a training facility at Stapleton Farm in Leslie, south of Lansing. Thoroughbreds requiring surgery spend six to eight months in rehab at CANTER’s Hamilton Ridge Farm, also in Leslie.
Oktoberfest attendees can learn all about CANTER at the track. Volunteers from the organization will be onsite explaining what they do.
“We enjoy doing this, and we like seeing the results, whether it’s a trainer selling a horse directly to someone, or giving the horse to us to put in our training program and then we see it adopted out,” Timmons said. “A lot of them choose CANTER because we have pre-approved buyers that will ensure they go to a good home.”
Buyers fill out a buyer approval application, describing them as a rider, their farm and their boarding facilities, and what they’re looking to do with the horse. They also have to include an equine vet. CANTER conducts follow-up throughout the year, including pictures of the horse in its new career, and may visit the horse at any time.
As one of the founding officers of CANTER, which formed back in 1998, Timmons said she is continually impressed by the potential in each of the horses.
“We’ve taken horses that are 10-12 years old, and they still do very well. They still have the athleticism about them. They were bred to be top equine athletes, and they received constant training, all of the top veterinary care and nutrients. By the time we get them, they’ve already done it all; they would just rather do something other than racing,” Timmons said. “Every horse has a different personality … and when the owners see their horses in their new careers, they just light up. They love to see what they’re doing now.”
Hazel Park Raceway, 1650 E. 10 Mile at the corner of Dequindre, will hold its first Oktoberfest from 6:30-11 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3, and Saturday, Oct. 4. Parking and admission is free, as always. For more about Hazel Park Raceway, call (248) 398-1000 or visit www.hazelparkraceway.com. For more about CANTER, visit www.canterusa.org.
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