Taking care of horses both on and off the racetrack is paramount. Any one of our team members can look people in the eye and say we “walk the walk” when it comes to retirement.

In 2011, West Point Thoroughbreds lost a cherished friend and faithful employee when Congie DeVito passed away due to complications from Osteogenesis Imperfecta (also known as Brittle Bones Disease). In his honor, we created Congie Black and Gold Fund to secure the retirement of past, current, and future horses purchased and raced by WPT.

We raise funds for the initiative in three ways:

• • • $50 per start per horse is drawn from the partnership to be placed into the fund, with WPT donating $100 to the fund for each start. We used to do $10 per start, but it’s simply not enough to secure happy retirements to the fullest extent possible.
    • Individual donations from Partners.
    • West Point allocates $1,000 to the fund when each new partnership entity is created.

Funds go toward re-homing, retraining, shipping, and daily care and maintenance for West Point horses no longer competing on the track. We’ve successfully placed hundreds of horses into good homes and keep track of every runner claimed away from us.

Success stories (see retiree gallery): 

Full of Luck: In the fall of 2017, WPT purchased the “King of Chile,” a multiple grade one winner by Lookin at Lucky named Full of Luck. He came to the States and competed in some graded stakes but ultimately found the level of competition in this country much tougher. He was claimed for 40k in the summer of 2019 and continued racing, slowly dropping down the claiming ranks before spending most of 2023 competing in 4k claimers. 

Through great teamwork, we got him bought and retired following his 61st start on September 25 at Mountaineer. The 10-year-old gelding shipped to the South Jersey Equine Adoption farm and was quickly adopted to a forever home due to his great personality and loveable nature. A true “war horse,” he retired clean-legged with a record of 16-8-12 from 61 starts and earnings of 460k.

Reason to Soar:  Read the story of Reason to Soar, a gelding who underwent life-saving surgery and was retired to his breeder’s farm in Florida. Generous donations to the Congie Black and Gold Fund made this all possible.