Assistance Foundation, BTW Receive Grants

Beyond The Wire and the Maryland Horsemen’s Association Foundation are proud to announce they are both recipients of 2023 grants from Thoroughbred Charities of America, whose mission is to fund and facilitate the support of Thoroughbreds and the people who care for them.

The TCA said that that grants totaling more than $821,000 were awarded this year to 75 organizations including 45 aftercare organizations, 20 backstretch and farm worker programs, six equine-assisted therapy organizations, three Thoroughbred incentive programs, and one research organization. Over the last 33 years, TCA has awarded more than $26 million in grants.

BTW, Maryland’s Thoroughbred aftercare program, was launched in 2017 and since that time has re-homed more than 600 locally-based horses. Jessica Hammond, administrator, said the additional funding via the TCA grant is extremely helpful. The grant is $10,300.

“We were so excited to receive notification, after our application, from the TCA that Beyond the Wire was given a grant for more than $10,000,” Hammond said. “It allows us to retire horses and send decent stipends to our retraining and rehab facilities. We pay for horses to be shipped from the track to our facilities and we pay a stipend for each horse’s care while they are there. The stipends are so important to the programs we work with because as we all know, it costs money to take care of horses and the prices of everything have gone up.

“Rehab horses are particularly expensive requiring stall rest, which requires bedding, hay and labor. Many horses also need to be rescanned or re-X-rayed at some point during their stay at the facility. We send between $1,500 and $4,000 with each horse depending on their condition and needs. All donations and grants are super helpful to our organization and we thank the TCA for their grant and for the work they do serving people and horses in our industry.”

The MHAF, a partner organization of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, is a 501c-3 charitable organization established to provide financial assistance for extraordinary circumstances to eligible employees actively working at Maryland racetracks and/or Thoroughbred farms. It is supported financially by fines levied by the stewards and by the Maryland Racing Commission, and through private donations.

The MHAF in recent years has also supplemented financial assistance from the MTHA for backstretch employees and trainers. It received a $12,500 grant from the TCA.

“We’d greatly appreciate the TCA recognizing our organization and its contributions by selecting it for a grant,” said Linda Gaudet, a member of the MHAF Board of Directors. 

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