For Dallas and Donna Keen, the mission is saving thoroughbreds
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GRAND PRAIRIE — He's so very tall and big and red, his eye so intense, that he easily could intimidate or even frighten. But instead he lowers his head to invite a friendly pat. If ignored, he nuzzles the turned-away shoulder as if to ask, please, for just another moment of attention.

He's Lights On Broadway, the Texas-bred Horse of the Year in 2001. He's remarkably gregarious and friendly for a former racehorse, especially considering what he's had to endure. And he's so gentle that it strains understanding to contemplate the motives and the insensitivity that could have compelled, or allowed, somebody to sell him by the pound. Sell him to be slaughtered.

But Lights On Broadway was rescued. The 12-year-old returned to Lone Star Park recently, just for a visit, before going to his new home and to, well, the sort of retirement he deserves.

Lights On Broadway earned $572,445 in his 83-race career. Running for six trainers and various owners, he won 15 races, including six stakes, half of those at Lone Star.

But by 2005, the champion had slipped into the claiming ranks. In other words, he was competing in races where all the horses were offered for sale. And indeed three times he was sold, or claimed, out of these races. The slip became a slide, then a tumble, and last year he dropped precipitately to the bottom, running for a claiming price of $2,500 at Fonner Park in Grand Island, Neb.

Shortly after that, Texas' former Horse of the Year stood helplessly in the back of a trailer on its way to a rendering plant. Just by chance, Gregg Sanders, a quarter horse trainer in Oklahoma who knew of the horse, happened upon the van. Later, the Fans of Barbaro became involved, along with an anonymous Samaritan who donated more than $2,000 to the cause, and Angelo Trosclair's Thoroughbred Transport, and Donna and Dallas Keen. They all took a stand against the insensitivity that had put Lights On Broadway in that position.

"A lot of people think thoroughbreds are too high-strung to be retrained," Donna Keen said. "But they're smart. They can do a lot of things."

The Keens, of course, have a large stable at Lone Star, where Dallas ranks among the all-time leading trainers. But they don't train only racehorses; they also have a farm in Burleson, where they prepare former racehorses for other careers. That's where Lights On Broadway went, for retraining, after his misadventures.

"He was so thin you could count his ribs," Dallas Keen said, recalling Lights On Broadway's arrival. "And he had abscesses in three of his feet."

But that's all behind him. Around the barn at Lone Star, people call him "Super Pony." He's so tractable that Donna can ride him without a bridle. He literally follows her around, like a faithful dog, and when she opens her arms, he hurries to put as much of himself between them as he can fit.

But he's just one of many success stories for the Keens.

For $500 at the Weatherford Cow Sale, Donna purchased the big gray horse, Wyatt. He has become her regular pony, and she rides him — without a bridle, of course — at the racetrack. Wyatt also went through a period of retraining. He's so smart, she explained, that he can unfasten latches and open doors. He once got out of his stall at the farm, she recalled, and let out all the other horses, too, except one, the ornery one. An escape artist, he loves to rummage through trash cans to look for doughnuts.

Dallas' pony, Eye Man Who, won his debut at Lone Star in 2006. He won two more races before an injury forced the end of his racing career. Thanks to the Keens, though, Eye Man Who still has a career. He's a saddle horse, a trick pony and a careful observer of human nature. He does just about everything but bring in the morning newspaper, and he'd probably do that, too, if he knew it contained race results.

Over the last two years, the Keens have rescued more than 35 horses. In many cases, these were former racehorses that the Keens retrained and then placed in a new home. With the arrival and placement of Lights On Broadway, the effort, Donna Keen said, has intensified.

And it now has a name, the Remember Me Rescue project.

Team Keen To learn more about the Keens' mission, their Remember Me Rescue organization or how to help retired race horses, visit www.teamkeen.com.