It’s a big scandal that shook the racing world and the public.
An avalanche of investigations has been launched in Turkey after a diner at a soup kitchen discovered a small metal object in his food. It wasn’t a piece of crockery or a bone. It was a microchip belonging to a racehorse. The British newspaper The Sun drew attention to the case.
Laboratory tests confirmed the shocking fact. The meat in the dish came from a racehorse, a four-year-old thoroughbred mare named Smart Latch. Not long ago, she was running on racetracks and during her career she managed to win three races and earn approximately 19,000 pounds, i.e. about 550,000 crowns.
The mare’s story should have ended in a completely different way. In October of last year, she broke her leg in a race and her career was immediately over. Suat Topcu’s owner therefore took her back to the farm with the plan to make her a breeding mare.
“We brought her home to be a mother,” Topcu described. But the veterinary examination brought another unpleasant news. It is said that the mare could not have foals.
The owner therefore decided on a gesture that was supposed to be a good deed. He donated the mare to a riding club, where children were supposed to learn to ride her.
“Maybe it was my mistake to donate it without an official transfer. I wanted to do a good deed and I became the instrument of something evil,” he later admitted.
But the horse never arrived at the riding club.
The investigation suggests he was illegally beaten along the way. Its meat was then sold as beef and entered the food chain. It ended up in a soup kitchen in the city of Mersin. It is a port city in the south of Turkey, about 800 kilometers from Istanbul.
The whole case came to light only when one of the guests came across a microchip while eating. This is mandatory for racehorses and serves to identify the animal as well as monitor its health and career.
“Even without documents, thanks to the chips, we can find out where the horse is or what happened to it,” explained Eray Hazar of the Association of Racehorse Breeders and Owners.
The scandal immediately caused a huge wave of outrage. In Turkey, the slaughter of horses for meat is prohibited, and even stricter protection applies to racing animals.
The authorities acted vigorously. More than two hundred kilograms of suspicious meat was destroyed, and the facility where the food was prepared was put on the list of enterprises posing a health risk. The case is already being investigated by the police and the public prosecutor.
Meanwhile, the horse’s owner talks about a personal tragedy. “I was there when that horse was born. I took care of him for two years before he went to the track,” Topcu said.
And he added a sentence that quickly spread across social networks and among racing fans. “He who can harm an animal can also harm a man.”