Who will save the horses?

Bill Finley ESPN.com

1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand met his apparent end in a slaughterhouse in Japan.
(In the spirit of full disclosure: at various points in my career I have been compensated by the New York Times, working there as a freelance writer, and by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. I no longer work for the TRF and, so far as the Times goes, well, they seem to have lost my number. My wife is a former vice president of the TRF. She is no longer affiliated with the organization).
When it comes to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the New York Times, reporter Joe Drape and the thorny problem of old race horses going off to be butchered in a slaughterhouse, there has been a lot of finger pointing of late. I'm not sure any of it has been constructive. Today, four days after Drape wrote a story in the New York Times that leveled serious charges against the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and the TRF responded with accusations that Drape is a lousy reporter who badly misrepresented the facts, the industry is no closer to solving a problem that has existed for as long as the sport has.   Read MORE....