Clever Allemont saved from slaughter

Clever Allemont saved from slaughter


by Tom Musgrave
Clever Allemont, winner of the 1985 Rebel and Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, was rescued from slaughter on December 13.
Kristin Chambers, executive director of Winding Road Equine Rescue and Retirement in Waverly, Kansas, found the 26-year-old Clever Trick horse in a kill lot in Emporia, Kansas. Chambers said Clever Allemont's previous owner sold the horse to a dealer who sells horses for slaughter. Clever Allemont was set to be shipped out of the country to a slaughterhouse.
Chambers had been called by the dealer to come look at a mare he said was "too pretty to ship." When Chambers arrived at the dealer's kill lot on December 13, she also saw Clever Allemont.
The dealer asked Chambers if there was anything she could do to save Clever Allemont.
After taking photos of Clever Allemont at the dealer's kill lot, Chambers returned home and posted a story about him on the Alex Brown Racing online forum. In less than 30 minutes, a forum respondent, Susan Ackerman, donated funds to buy Clever Allemont from the dealer.
To view the forum thread, click here.
On December 14, Clever Allemont was shipped to Ray and Jeanne Mason's Donegal Ranch Quarter Horses in Williamsburg, Kansas. Chambers said former Thoroughbred Retirement Fund board member Diana Baker arranged for Clever Allemont to be boarded permanently at Old Friends Equine Thoroughbred retirement facility in Georgetown, Kentucky. He will be shipped to Old Friends shortly after Christmas.
Chambers said she continues to marvel at the speed with which the horse's rescue proceeded.
"Within 28 minutes [of posting the story on the forum], his 'bail' was posted," Chambers said. "Within 24 hours, he was invited to stay at Old Friends."
Dee Ramirez, a friend of the Masons, has volunteered to pay to ship Clever Allemont to Old Friends. For now, the horse is relaxing at Donegal, where he already has been visited by the media.
"He's been such a good boy," Chambers said. "He's into the camera."
Chambers said that the previous owner told the dealer "I hope you don't kill him" when dealer came to pick up Clever Allemont.
"It just wasn't his time [to die]," Chambers said about the speedy sequence of events following his rescue. "There was a shift in the universe. How else can you explain this chain of miracles?"
In addition to his wins in the Rebel and Southwest Stakes, Clever Allemont finished third in 1985 in the Arlington Classic (G1), Sheridan Stakes (G2), and the Fairmount Park Derby (G3). In his five-year racing career he was trained first by Lynn Whiting and then by D. Wayne Lukas. He won eight of 47 starts and earned $316,329. His stud career spanned 11 years, from 1988 through '99, in which he sired 72 winners from 125 starters. He stood his last season for $500 at Illinois Stud in Woodstock, Illinois.
Tom Musgrave is internet content editor of Thoroughbred Times