Page 14 - August 2019 Thoroughbred Highlight

Continued from Page 13
Some members of the track maintenance
crew began to help, along with the Fort Erie Fire Department. An excavator was used to clear some way from the back end of the horse and a board was placed underneath to give him some rm footing. Combined with straps used by members of the re department and the lead
shanks Mr. Changue was
lifted out of the hole.
Now he’s matured maybe, but he’s still got that streak in him.”
The horse had been tired from the trauma, but miraculously suffered only a few scrapes in behind. He was walked around the barn and showed no signs of lameness. He was then put back in his stall and some work was done to help heal the abrasions.
“I was standing at the barn the whole time,” said Albu. “I was emotionally exhausted. It was a scary situation.”
Albu said from the time the horse fell into the ground to the time he was helped out of it took an hour and 15 minutes.
“It was an eternity, believe me it was scary,” he said. “I was there the whole time. I’d never seen anything like that before. I’ve never even heard of anything like that.”
Passero had left after about half an hour of holding on to the horse to tend to his mother. There was nothing more he could do for Mr. Changue.
An image of Mr. Changue after being rescued from the sinkhole
from the Facebook page of Kohlsmith
The idea that horsemen are competitive but will help one another in times of distress was reinforced by what happened.
“Everybody had come forward and helped,” Albu said. “We couldn’t thank people enough for the way they had all come together.”
“I was shocked,” Passero added. “Some of those guys I don’t even know. If you’re in your shedrow you’re in your own little town. I guess people care about horses. I knew that before, but this reaf rmed it.”
As the day progressed, images of Mr. Changue
in the sink hole appeared on the Facebook page of Kohlsmith. She posted several photos, but one of them showing the horse’s head peering out from
the hole was a classic example of a picture being
“Believe me, we
didn’t know for sure
that the horse would
survive because it was a dangerous situation,” Albu said.
He told Passero he would call with the news of the outcome.
“He was expecting the worst because he’d never seen anything like that,” Albu said.
Passero was relieved to hear the horse overcame the trauma. Passero, who has owned horses for about 15 years, has had better stock than Mr. Changue. One horse set a track record at Woodbine for a
mile and three quarter races, but Mr. Changue has endeared himself to Passero because of the way he runs and his compete level.
“He never gives up and he likes to chase all the time, no matter how far behind he is. He’s running all the time,” Passero said. “This horse had a little bit of a history. Nobody liked him because he was kind of wild (early in his career.) Nobody wanted to gallop him.
worth 1,000 words.
Albu started receiving calls from North American
media outlets, including CNN and ESPN, seeking to interview him. The track hadn’t given out his phone number and Albu was shocked by the amount of calls he received, but opted not to talk to anyone.
“At that point, all I wanted to do was move forward,” Albu said, speaking for the rst time about the entire incident. “I didn’t want to even relive it again. I know it was a big story and stuff, but for me it was a done deal. I didn’t want to talk about it.
“From that point of being terri ed that something bad was going to happen, I was excited that he was out and okay and then my concern for a couple of days was how he was going to react. After a couple of days of walking, he wasn’t able to stay on the ground. He was up in the air and we started training him again
Thoroughbred Highlight - Page 14 - August 2019