The Tradition of Cheating in the Sport of Kings

01/04/2025

This is for my horse friends that have older dogs

I found Sam on the highway a long time ago! He was been by my side through some very tough times and some very good times! His loyalty and companionship is unmatched and he was a very, very special dog! The first picture where he is sitting with me was taken when he was 2 and the picture right beside it was taken at Quiet Winter when he was over 13 years old!! A while ago Sam started struggling getting up the four stairs to get into the house and I started to worry. He would flounder and I would have to pick up his back end to get him in. As time went on he could no longer walk and I made the very difficult decision to put my best friend to sleep. At the last minute, I had a change of heart and decided to try something! I got in touch with my vet at the racetrack and asked him to order some testosterone for Sam and he agreed that it might help. I gave Sam a half cc and four days later I started to notice a dramatic change in him! He started bouncing up those stairs with no problem! He would run up to me wagging his tail like he used to years ago and was a much happier and healthy dog! I’m not a vet but highly recommend testosterone for old dogs that start to struggle. Sam honestly acted 3 or 4 years younger than he did before I started the treatments! I gave him 1/2 cc every couple of weeks in the shoulder and he had a better quality of life and stayed with me another year and a half before I had to send him home!! I am honestly shocked that veterinarians to not constantly recommend this treatment but feel it might end the unnecessary surgeries for older dogs and hurt their bottom line?? You should be very proactive with your dogs! Look up studies that were done with dogs and testosterone and you might be surprised!! If your vet is not willing to try testosterone treatments, I feel you might want to find a vet that will !!
I Really Miss Sam But Have So Many Special Memories!!!

12/31/2024

Roaring

Roaring, lazy flap and Laryngeal Hemiplegia are the same condition that negatively affect and can possibly end the career of many horses! When this occurs there is a partial collapse of cartilage in the larynx and it blocks a horses airway! A lot of surgeries are performed to correct this problem but I feel the surgeries are rough on a horse and the results are mixed!
Years ago I bought Two Notch Road out of a sale in Maryland. I didn’t have him scoped and had I did, I never would have bought him! I sent him to Jim Hackman’s farm in Virginia, which happens to be where he was born. I decided to have him scoped him just to check if all is well and it wasn’t! Jim called me and told me that Two Notch had a lazy flap on the left side and the vet recommended surgery right away! I was visiting my mother at the time and told her I was really upset with the news from the vet! My mother had a friend that was a speech therapist and gave her a call. Her friend informed her how much magnets helped people with throat problems! I called Jim and told him to hold off on the surgery and that I was going to try the magnets. I ordered two Nikken magnets and bought a cribbing strap. I used a vetrap and positioned the magnets on each side of his neck and left the strap on 24-7. Two Notch Road broke his maiden in a two year old stake going a mile and then the following year he broke the track record going a mile and a sixteenth on the turf! Horses with breathing problems don’t break track records going long!! That record still stands today, fourteen years later! The magnets did an amazing job for Two Notch and he raced until he was twelve years old! I let trainers Derrick Ryan and Mark Henning try the magnets and both had great results!
My point is, I feel that owners and trainers should try the magnets before doing that dicey surgery! If it helps your horse as much as it helped Two Notch, you will be in great shape!!

Glenn Thompson

10/12/2024

Help For Horses With Ulcers

The first thing I would like to say is that I am not an ulcer expert but I am a horse expert. I can tell by looking over a horse and looking in their eyes if they are happy and healthy.
Many horses suffer dearly because of ulcers. The products that are available to help are limited and some of the omeprazole products are very expensive. To keep a horse on these products will be similar to making a mortgage payment on a small house and most people can’t afford to do that. This is a problem for me because I feel at 90% of the horses that could benefit from these medications will never receive them because of the profits that the pharmaceutical companies insist on making. They are choosing greed over taking care of the horses in need and that’s not a good look! The omeprazole products also have a list of side effects that I feel are concerning.
With all that being said, I found a product that has been around for a long time that I feel works much better at a fraction of the cost! I do add a little kicker to it and the blood counts have been amazing as you can see in the pics. The product is called Nutrient Buffer and the kicker that I add is a liquid vitamin called Red Glo. I have a 6 year old mare named Judgement Time that had ulcers and for a while, I used the omeprazole products. The omeprazole definitely helped but there were plenty of days that JT did not finish her lunch or dinner and the blood counts were not even close to what you see here! What I do is take a 60 cc oral syringe and put 20 cc’s of Red Glo in it and then put 40 cc’s of Nutrient Buffer. They get a dose right before each meal! The horses actually love the flavor and will come to you like you are giving them a treat! The Nutrient Buffer and the Red Glo both cost right around $60 per gallon. The Buffer will last you over one month and Red Glow will last you two or three months! I really appreciate the fact that the Nutrient Buffer company keeps their product very affordable so that people on a tight budget can take care of their equine companions! The horses pictured are Judgement Time and Power and Glory and they have been racing for the last five months. The blood counts you see were taken a few weeks ago and speak volumes about how well this combination works! If you want to save thousands of dollars over the next year and improve your horses health, I highly recommend you try the Nutrient Buffer and Red Glo!! Your horses will thank you and perform at their best!!

Glenn Thompson

09/25/2024

The Stage Is Set

We have Power And Glory running in the 6th race at Aqueduct tomorrow. The race is a New York Bred stake race for fillies and mares going a mile and an eighth on the turf. The race is named “The John Hettinger” and has very stiff competition. This race was not my first choice by any means and how we got here is an interesting story that goes back a few years. I first entered Power and Glory in an allowance race on the turf and the race went but we were an “also eligible” and needed a couple of scratches to draw in. We didn’t get any scratches and couldn’t race. The next race that I entered in was a NY bred 2 other than. I put her in three days in a row and sadly they never used the race. This led to two final options: the stake race that I am in or the NY bred 1 other than which was the logical spot to put her in all along! The problem I had with the logical race is that it was scheduled for Sunday and a test of faith was put before me! Before I go any further I want to show you a chapter out of my book that relates to this topic.

Do Angels Come to Visit?

For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one title will buy no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:18 KJV)

—Jesus Christ

When I am training racehorses in Aiken, I have one steady rider and hire freelance riders when I need the two-year-olds to go out in pairs. The freelance riders show up very early in the morning before they go to work for their own outfits, and we get the babies out in the dark. A couple of weeks ago, I had the riders come in on Sunday so we could take the babies up to the main track and school them in the gate. I don’t like training on Sunday and believe in following God’s advice, or shall we say commandment, and have a day of rest! I rationalized a bit and trained anyway. This week, I was going to do the same but, for some reason, I was really struggling with it. I am not only working on Sunday myself but also asking other people to do it as well.
Friday, I was in the acute care psychiatric ward in Charleston, South Carolina. I am sorry to disappoint many of my “close friends,” but I was not being committed! I was there to visit a friend. I was waiting to talk with my friend, and a tall man with long red hair approached me on the couch. He introduced himself and said he was a patient in the hospital. He seemed very kind and coherent and had my attention! There was something about him that I liked! I had a sense that he was a very special man! He indicated that he was in the hospital because of his faith, and then he hit me with a question that had me scratching my head! He asked me if I knew that “working on the Sabbath is a sin”? He explained that it is one of the commandments and should be taken much more seriously!
This was sort of a “wow moment” because I was thinking about it a lot on the way to Charleston. I looked at him with a smile on my face and came up with my best defense. I explained to him that I worked with horses, and they require care seven days a week. I then mentioned that Christ even used a sheep as an excuse to work on the Sabbath. He was much better versed with the Bible than I, and we sat and talked for a while. I really enjoyed our conversation and honestly felt that he was in that hospital to speak to me! when I went back to work on Saturday morning, I cancelled our Sunday training session!
So the question I have for everyone is does God send angels when we are struggling for answers? Or was my new friend at that hospital at that time, with that specific advice just by coincidence? I am going with angels in the psych ward in Charleston, South Carolina, and they might be putting me in there next week to join my friend!

Before I go any further I want to explain that money is tight right now and we need to gather some acorns for the winter in Aiken! The purse on the allowance race is $80,000 and that would absolutely have taken care of that! The purse on the stake race is $125,000 but my odds in the stake are going to be over 50 to 1! I would have been one of the favorites in the allowance race! Every time I thought about going in the race on Sunday, I had a bad feeling. The memory of that special man in the hospital kept coming back to me and my ultimate conclusion was that if God went out of his way to send an Angel to speak to me about one of the Ten Commandments, that I might want to pay attention and listen to his timely advice!!
I skipped the allowance race and it ran last Sunday. I looked at the results and felt we could have easily won. Now I am looking forward to racing tomorrow in the stake. I have very mixed emotions about how things came together but know in my soul that win, lose or draw, I did the right thing!!

Glenn Thompson

Photo of Davy Jones and Catechol by Equiphoto

Race horse trainer Glenn Thompson shares his experiences and knowledge with the Sport of Kings.

08/23/2024

Power And Glory’s Trip To Saratoga

The picture below I am attempting to give instructions to jockey Meli Iorio in the paddock. In the background we are getting photobombed by Power And Glory and it looks like she’s trying to listen in??
The post I did a couple of days ago about this trip and our chances of doing well in this very difficult race was well received. There was a lot of support and I could feel people were genuinely rooting for us! Power and Glory ran her lifetime best and finished 4th when the pressure was on at the most prestigious track in the country! Was finishing 4th a great achievement? If you consider her talent level 3 races back it is quite a remarkable performance. The smile on my assistant Alejandro’s face after the race said it all! He has been riding her every day out at Overbrook Farm and kept telling me how good she was feeling! Her jockey, Melissa was trying to smile but she was having trouble breathing. She had never ridden in a 1 3/8 race before and put in everything she had to hit the board! Power and Glory sensing her weakness after the race decided to make her suffer for hitting her with the whip and ran off after the race!! I want to give props to Mike Smith. I asked him to speak with Melissa and give her any advice he could about the long distance races. He called her the morning of the race and I believe gave her very good advice! This was Melissa’s first trip to Saratoga and nailing Ramon Vazquez, Flavien Pratt and Tyler Gaffalione at the wire in a 4 horse photo was quite an accomplishment! I am very happy to have her onboard and proud of the way she handled herself!
This fourth place finish meant more to me than many can understand. The horse Sy B that ran in a Grade 1, 2 her last two starts was the one that on paper should have beaten us by 25 lengths. She did beat us but she only beat us by three lengths! Considering Power and Glory’s humble beginnings that’s not too bad!!
I want to that everyone for coming along for the ride and hope I we have a lot more excitement in the coming months!! 

08/19/2024

Long Shots, Why Do I Keep Trying

The picture is of Two Notch Road breaking his maiden in the Continental Mile at Monmouth Park. Two Notch had run three times prior to the stake race at Monmouth and his top Beyer number was a 27! To draw a comparison, a donkey can probably run a 27 on a good day! This drove me crazy because I galloped and breezed Two Notch myself and I knew he had talent! There weren’t any other two year old races besides the stake left at Monmouth so I put him in! I was ridiculed and laughed at by my family, friends and peers! I was taking a horse that can’t outrun a fat man and putting him in a stake race against some of the best horses in the country? Two Notch Road won that day under Shannon Uske, ran a 76 Beyer number and paid a whopping $216.40!! Three races later as a 3 year old Two Notch Road broke the track record at Monmouth for 1 1/16 on the turf and that record still stands today 14 years later! Two Notch also sorted out all those people that were laughing at us and he gave me a deep sense of satisfaction when I saw them all and smiled!

I have a six year old mare named Power and Glory that I am running at Saratoga this Thursday! She is running in an allowance going a mile and three eights! She has about as much business being in this race as Two Notch did being in his! She recently broke her maiden in a ten thousand dollar claiming race! She is a New York bred and I bought her out of a yearling sale several years ago in Maryland. I have always felt she had class but she never demonstrated much talent in her races. She has had some bad luck but nothing that really excused her poor performances. Her last race however gave me a glimmer of hope and that’s all I need sometimes! I have always felt she wanted to run in longer distance races. In her last race she finished very well and ran a much improved 63 Beyer and her jockey Meli Ioiro told me that she galloped out very strong after the race! This led me to the feeling that I am right about her wanting to run in the longer races and sent me on a search to find one! Most tracks don’t regularly put up extremely long races but Saratoga had one that fit distance wise! As far as talent goes, on paper just like Two Notch, we are way out of our league! The past performances are out on this race and there is a three year old filly that two races ago finished second in a Grade 2 at Belmont and was only beaten a half length! My experience tells me that a filly that ran that well in a G2 should beat Power and Glory by 25 lengths but my heart isn’t buying it!! Power has a presence about her and she demands respect! She will give me a death stare sometimes that not even the ex wives can produce! There is something special about her and I am hoping that this Thursday in the 3rd race at the Saratoga Racecourse we find out what it is!! I am hoping just like Two Notch Road, she turns her career around!! Come along and join us for the ride!!

Glenn Thompson

Monmouth Park Racetrack
Monmouth Park Racetrack Memories (now and then)
The Chronicle Of The Horse
BloodHorse Jockey World

08/04/2024

Do Thoroughbred Horse Trainers Have Clues That Their Horses Are Going To Breakdown


I feel a high percentage of trainers have knowledge of problems with their horses before they break down. I feel how they handle this knowledge can sometimes determine whether a horse lives or dies. I am going to discuss the last three horses that I had to put down due to injury and the mistakes I made that led to their deaths. These unfortunate situations all happened over 10 years ago and a lesson was learned with each one of them.
The first horse we will discuss will be given the nickname Money. I have very rarely race two-year-olds over the years but Money was one of the horses that I felt comfortable with doing so. He was very athletic had good confirmation and good bone. He also had an amazing personality and really loved training in the morning! He was a very happy and animated horse! He ran three times in his life and had a 3rd, 4th and a 5th. One day while pulling up from a gallop, Money took a bad step and came back to the barn a little off. Not dead lame but off. I called my vet and when he was examined, it was determined to be a problem with the left foot. This was a relief for me because a lot of foot injuries are an easy fix. To make sure that nothing else was involved, X-rays were taken and they looked clean. So now we simply go to work on the foot and assume that Money possibly stepped on something on the track and he had a bad bruise. We tub him with hot water and Epson salts some days and I ice him on other days. We also give him bute powder to help with the pain. After about two weeks I feel we have the problem behind us and want to put him back in training. I call the vet and Money is examined and jogged and determined to be sound. The next day we put the tack on him and start walking him around the shed. He is very happy to be back to work and is bucking and playing in the barn. We keep him in the barn for several days and then determined that he was good to go out to the track and start jogging. The first couple of jog days I have to give him a little TQ otherwise my rider might not have made it back to the barn? We do this for over a week and all this time Money is traveling sound and has no heat in the foot. I determined at this time that we could resume galloping and made plans to do so the next day. This decision is sadly going to lead to Money’s death. We take him out the next day and somehow he knew he was going to gallop and is extremely happy about it! We back him up to the 7/8 poll and turn him around to gallop. As I watch him pass me I am smiling seeing how happy he looks and how much fun he is having! A little further down the track, my smile turns to a look of horror when Money suddenly starts to bear out badly, takes a very bad step and is pulled up on the turn. The track siren goes off, the track is cleared, the horse ambulance and my vet are called. When I got to Money, he was holding his left leg off the ground and I knew that this was not a survivable incident. His pastern was shattered and we were going to have to put him down. Kind of funny, but you wouldn’t know it from the look on Money’s face! He held his head high and was looking at the grandstand when the injection was given to end his life!
Looking back at this, I feel from the outside, I did everything right but I didn’t. Money died while under my care and that is unacceptable! I missed something somewhere along the way that led to his death. The only thing left to do is learn from it and remember the special times I had with that priceless horse!! Next up we have a horse we will call Whisper. Whisper was a big and very handsome bay gelding! My Dad was training him for a while up at the Meadowlands and then I took over. The first thing I regret with Whisper is that I didn’t retire him early on due to his poor form. He was sound as a bell but seemed to have no interest in being a racehorse. He would have made someone a very special show or riding horse. He was a very sensitive and sweet horse! He loved people and he loved me. The race before his final run, the Daily Racing Form issued the following comment for his performance that night at the Meadowlands: “Taken up at the three eighths pole” what this comment didn’t mention was why. When Whisper went into the turn, he saw the shadows on the track due to the night racing and the lights. When he got to the shadows he started jumping because he thought that he had to! I imagine this was very frightening for the jockey and led to him taking up Whisper! That night he ran in a small shadow roll. A shadow roll is a piece of equipment that goes on a horse’s head to prevent them from jumping shadows. Simple explanation is that it prevents the horses from seeing the shadows. So now we get around to what I should do? One of my choices was to run at another track in the daytime. I opted not to do this because Whisper was a New Jersey and the competition at the other tracks was going to be much tougher and as I said, he was not into racing. Next option was to turn him out and wait until next year. I decided not to do that and to tweak the equipment a little and give him another chance. I want to say at this point that money is always involved with decisions concerning racehorses. I feel the majority of breakdowns are due to the financial pressure that owners and trainers are under or the simple greed of some individuals. It is very expensive to own and train racehorses! I ended up finding the biggest shadow all I could get my hands on and trained him in it for a while. He seemed good with it and I falsely convinced myself that he was not going to jump with the new equipment! Deep inside I had my doubts though! This decision was going to lead to Whisper’s death! The race went of and he was looking good until the turn came up and he started taking big jumps again! He ended up finishing the race but when he jogged back, I could see that he did serious damage to his tendon and was in danger! I felt sick to my stomach because I knew that I really screwed up and this kind lovable horse’s life was in danger. This event happened over twenty five years ago and I believe we made the decision to put Whisper down two days later. This was a very sad day that involved a lot of guilt on my part! I rolled the dice when I wasn’t sure and they came up snake eyes. Had the current Glenn Thompson been training this horse, he would have been a lovely show horse long before he ever raced at the Meadowlands…. Now we get to Buck. Buck was a red headed rascal and I bought him out of a yearling sale in Maryland over 20 years ago. He was an enthusiastic and entertaining horse! He also demonstrated some talent with his workouts in the morning! He was what you call a morning glory because his workouts demonstrated much more talent than his races! Buck started drifting out in his races and workouts and we couldn’t figure it out. He jogged sound and his legs were cold so I thought that the getting out was a mental thing and went to the equipment box to solve the problem. The first thing I tried was a burr. This goes on the outside of the bit and makes it uncomfortable for a horse to get out. It will stop many horses from drifting out but it did not stop Buck? At this point, I feel I should have accepted that something was wrong that the vets and I couldn’t figure out and retired Buck. The dollar and the desire to win some races with a horse that I bought in a sale got in the way! Back to the equipment box I go and pull out extension cup blinkers. These blinkers pretty much blocked the vision from Buck’s right side. So now if Buck was going to get out, he wasn’t going to see where he was going! We trained him in those blinkers for a few days and breeze day came up. I gave the jock instructions and told him that if Buck got out to abandon the breeze and bring him home. Buck didn’t get out at all and had an amazingly fast workout! At this point I was relieved and proud of myself that I finally had this figured out and I looked forward to seeing him win his first race! We had one more breeze to complete before his race and we sent him out there with those remarkable blinkers to see that amazing talent that he possessed! He was once again having a great workout and I was smiling ear to ear! He goes to change leads at the 7/8 pole while pulling up and breaks his right shoulder. Game over!! I came to the conclusion that Buck had something wrong with his shoulder the whole time that I had him. He was never sore or showed any symptoms at all except when he was going at high speed. The vets and I couldn’t figure it out and I felt horrible about the fear and pain he must have felt every time he went out to race or breeze. Once again, the current Glenn Thompson would handle this very differently and he would have been retired from racing and lived a happy life some where…. Horses that get in or out do so for a reason and it usually involves pain and a flaw that might not be detectable! Horses that consistently get out should receive very special attention from the state vets at the tracks! Throwing a burr or a set of blinkers on a horse that has a problem is obviously not the right fix! My poor decisions with Buck led to his death and had it happened in a race, it could have led to other horses and possibly a jockey’s death! So there you have it! Those were the last three horses that I had break down. The unfortunate and poor decisions that I made led directly to their deaths. I hope all owners, trainers and veterinarians read this and can somehow learn that the decisions you make with the horses in your care are extremely important. You should always lean in the conservative direction and think things through very carefully! I never should have lost Money, Whisper or Buck…..

Glenn Thompson

Bringthefaith.net
Sportofkingsbook.com

Race horse trainer Glenn Thompson shares his experiences and knowledge with the Sport of Kings.

08/02/2024

Decision Time

Picture is of Judgement Time this morning under Alejandro Contreras on her way to train at Overbrook Farm. They were supposed to be on the van on the way to run at Delaware in the fifth race. Overnight the weather shifted from 34 % chance of rain and 92 degrees to 55% chance of thunderstorms and 95 degrees! I took this under advisement and felt my Holy Spirit aka intuition aka gut feeling was in a subtle put strong way, telling me to stay home and race another day. I really liked our chances today and wanted to run but it is very important with racehorses that you listen to the clues you are given and put the horses health front and center! Hopefully we will find another race for her soon….

04/25/2024

BARN FOR RENT IN AIKEN SOUTH CAROLINA

I have 20 stalls that I can lease out in one of the nicest barns in Aiken. The rent will be $8 per stall! The lease could last until March of 2026. The barn is located behind the Track Kitchen and at the end of the Whitney Polo Field. You are a five minute hack to the Hitchcock Woods, Bruce’s Field, a jumping ring and another polo field that is perfect for ground work! The stalls are huge and have a top door that opens in the back so the breeze can blow through. The shed-row is also very large and perfect for training when the weather is dicey. We have three paddocks and you would possibly have the option to lease some from neighboring barns.
Contact:
Glenn Thompson
[email protected]
732 682 1994

03/27/2024

God Sending A Not So Subtle Message

This morning we were scheduled to breeze Judgement Time and Power And Glory in Aiken. I was not confident that the track was going to be ok because we had some rain last night. I was pleasantly surprised to walk out and find it to be in great shape! Giving credit to our track superintendent William Allyn for that and off we go to tack up the horses. Concerning the weather, it is raining lightly and you can see flashes of lightning in the far distance. There was no thunder associated with the lightning meaning that it was far far away? Power and Glory is going to be first and she jogs and then gallops around and starts breezing at the poll. She goes a slow and steady 5/8 of a mile and comes back to the barn in good shape! My rider said she did well and didn’t get very tired. Next we tack up Judgement Time and our standard protocol is to jog twice around the barn and then go out to the track. When she begins jogging the first time around, a powerful and unbelievable lightning bolt struck very close to the barn! The thunder that followed less than a second later, shook the barn!! The following is the conversation between God the devil and myself regarding whether or not to breeze Judgement Time? The devil chimes in first and mentions that lightning Never strikes twice in the same place! He then brings up that it is supposed to rain the next couple of days and if we don’t breeze today that we might not be able to do it for several days! He also made sure to mention how good the track is this morning!! My rider jogs by me in the barn and I tell him to give Judgement Time a couple extra turns while I finish my conversation! The devil pops back into my head that if my father was here and in charge the he would go ahead and breeze the mare! Now It truly crosses my mind, what would Pop do? Dad was known to train, no matter what! There is a term known to describe trainers like him and it goes like this: “If Hi**er was bombing the infield of the track, J Willard Thompson would still be out there training his horses!” The devil had a point but Dad definitely did get wiser in his later years and I do not believe he would have sent a horse to the track considering the timing and power of that lightning bolt! Now it’s God’s turn and and can feel him looking at me with his eyebrows raised! The words “Are you really thinking about breezing My Horse?” come to mind….. My answer sheepishly came next when I said that “I never even considered breezing Your Horse, we can do it another day!” Repent, Repent
My rider comes jogging back around and I inform him that we are staying in the barn and will breeze another day. A couple of minutes later and when we would have been breezing a blinding rain storm came through and things would have not gone well had we been out there!!
Listen To The Voice Of God