Michigan horse rescue co-founder Gail Hirt needed only a few minutes March 23 to call a Texas kill pen and pay $1,400 for a strapping chestnut mare whose photo the livestock dealer had just posted on its Facebook page. Called Last Chance Direct Ship Horses, the threat is clear—either someone buys the horses it promotes or they will be sent to slaughter.
Hirt saw the horse's name but was struck more so that the mare earned $970,311 at the racetrack. She didn't truly know who she'd just rescued.
"I didn't fully understand or appreciate what she had done until later when I started looking her up," Hirt said. "I saw her photo, and how much she made. Most mares don't earn that much. I thought, 'Oh hell no, this mare does not belong there' and called immediately."
The mare is Ginger Brew, a graded-placed multiple stakes winner who won the 2008 Woodbine Oaks and ran second against males in the Queen's Plate Stakes for owner/breeder Adena Springs. She was named Canadian champion 3-year-old filly for 2008 and went on to become a multiple stakes-producing broodmare.
Hirt is executive director, treasurer, and co-founder of Beyond The Roses Equine Rescue and Retirement, a Thoroughbred rescue and rehabilitation nonprofit near Emmett, Mich., north of Detroit and near the Canadian border. The farm opened in 2012 and since then has placed more than 300 Thoroughbreds, primarily ex-racehorses, into new homes with second careers.
Beyond The Roses started out rescuing and rehoming what it refers to as the "war horses" at the track, many with career starts of around 75 races. More recently, though, broodmares have become an increasing part of its donations and rescues.
"We started helping them out one at a time," Hirt said. "We're a small farm, so we cannot take five or six horses at a time. But few people are helping these mares and a lot end up at kill pens."
How Ginger Brew ended up in a kill pen in Kemp, Texas, is through a chain of seemingly well-intentioned decisions initially that ultimately left her in the hands of disreputable horse traders.
Ginger Brew retired from racing to Adena Springs North's breeding operation in Ontario. For the Stronach family, she produced nine foals that included grade 2 stakes-placed winner Jamyson 'n Ginger, stakes winner Shamans Girl, and stakes-placed winners Friends for Life and Lady Brew.
The mare was then offered in 2021 in foal to Hard Spun at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where Mark and Lori Collinsworth bought her for $90,000 for their new breeding farm called Forks of the Paluxy, near Bluff Dale, Texas. Tragically, Ginger Brew's Hard Spun foal was born dead.
Ginger Brew has not been an easy mare. She was bred in 2016 and 2017, but did not produce foals the following years. She then skipped being bred in 2022 after losing the Hard Spun foal and was next bred in 2023 to grade 1 winner and sire Mr Speaker, who the Collinsworths also purchased to anchor their breeding program. She produced a filly by Mr Speaker named So Shoe Me in 2024 and has not gotten pregnant since then despite multiple matings, according to breeding records.
Last December, the Collinsworths decided to get out of the breeding business because it has not been economically viable. They sold several of their 16 mares through digital sales, and others privately. One buyer inquired whether they had any other open mares he might be interested in, and they told him about Ginger Brew.
"The buyer is a wonderful gentleman and a reputable breeder. He said, 'Man, I sure would like to have that Ginger Brew and breed her because she is proven,'" Mark Collinsworth said. "Before we'd heard from him, we were looking to send her to a retirement farm because we've done that before, but we had our vet look at her.
"(The vet) told us she has a chance of getting in foal and it wouldn't hurt to try. She is a big, stout, heavy, and healthy mare with great genetics, and I thought it would be great to see another Ginger Brew out there running in four years.
"I asked the buyer, 'You are going to take good care of her, right?' He said, 'Of course, yes.' This gentleman really wanted her very badly," he said.
The new owner bred Ginger Brew twice, and she never got in foal. Then, according to Collinsworth, the new owner had been approached by a man who said he was looking for a horse for his family's farm.
"I heard from him that he had conveyed the mare to a nice man who wanted her for his kids and family. He thought it was a match made in heaven, a golden retirement opportunity," Collinsworth said. "It didn't turn out that way. Apparently, it was a ruse. Gail Hirt told us this is a common technique people use to go around and gather up these horses. I don't know how you sell an older horse and lock down its future once it leaves your place. I can tell you, we won't go through this again."
Ginger Brew wore a tag while she was at the Last Chance kill pen that indicates she was put through a livestock auction before she wound up having her photos posted on social media for ransom, according to Hirt.
Beyond The Roses did get financial help from The Stronach Group for the bail and shipping costs for Ginger Brew, according to Hirt. The mare was shipped to a quarantine facility March 27 in Oklahoma and then will be sent on to rescue's farm in Michigan.
Despite the successful rescue of Ginger Brew, Beyond The Roses has taken criticism from some who follow horse rescue on social media and believe the mare was singled out because she was a famous racehorse and that other mares of less renown were ignored.
"I didn't do this because she was a celebrity. I did it because the mare didn't belong there; not any of them do," Hirt said. "I don't care if it's a donkey or a mule or Quarter Horse. I don't care what it is. It doesn't belong there, but because we focus on Thoroughbreds, she caught my eye. I didn't realize she was some celebrity."
Hirt also noted that Last Chance did not have any other Thoroughbred mares at its facility at the time. The only other Thoroughbred was a 2-year-old gelding that had not been broke and trained, and Beyond The Roses does not have the facility or the staff to handle this type of horse.
As for how breeders can be more diligent when selling the horses in their care, Hirt said the breeding industry and the racing industry need to get away from the "one more" mentality.
"Trainers want one more race and many of them break down in that last race," she said. "Same with the mares. Ginger Brew is 21 and I'd say she's borderline but really when they get into their 20s, haven't they done enough? Hasn't she done enough? Everyone thinks you're going to get that Secretariat magic out of her. I would tell owners, 'Don't take them to auctions. Contact the rescues and work with them.'"
