The *Saratoga Farmers’ Market* is celebrating Travers Week by honoring the Thoroughbred horse.

This Wednesday and Saturday the market will be sponsoring /Apples and Carrots are for Thoroughbreds. This event will benefit the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF), the nation's oldest and largest Thoroughbred horse rescue group. Market Vendors will donate apples and carrots for the public to purchase with both the money and the produce going to the local TRF farm.

Founded in 1982, the TRF is a non-profit organization that provides lifetime retirement for numerous thoroughbreds at farms and satellite facilities across the nation and adopts out hundreds of others after retraining them for second careers. The TRF is a safety net for horses who might otherwise have been subject to abuse, neglect or slaughter. The TRF, which is wholly dependent on public support, currently has more than 1,200 horses under its care, including an estimated 150 who raced in Saratoga.

That list includes several who had some of their finest moments at the Spa. Quick Call won the 1988 and 1989 Forego Handicaps, two of nine races he won at Saratoga. TRF retiree Go Mikey Go romped by 14 lengths in the 1998 Albany Handicap. Run Man Run broke his maiden in 1998 Saratoga before going on to win the Grade I Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita. On the racetrack, Silver Safari was a tough old pro who won three times in high-priced claimers on the grass at Saratoga.

The TRF's many farms across the country include a growing list of facilities at prisons, including Wallkill Correctional in New York. There, inmates are responsible for the care of the horses. The TRF prison programs have achieved remarkable results due, no doubt, to the inevitable bond that forms between horse and man whenever the two come together. Horses are indeed good for the soul.

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