Horse Goes From Kill Pen to Winner’s Circle at Churchill Downs: The Story of Awesome Hawaiian

[Wandering Eyes]

The sixth race Wednesday at Churchill Downs was, on the surface, rather unremarkable. It was just a $30,000 maiden claimer for 2-year-olds, normally the type of race where even the winner usually doesn't amount to much. But the race turned out to be one of the most remarkable and heartwarming stories of the year.

You probably know prominent owner John Stewart and his family and their work to save horses from slaughter. But 99 times out of 100 those horses never race. Instead, they are given to a safe home and, sometimes, retrained for a second career. That almost happened to Awesome Hawaiian (Awesome Bet), but the Stewarts, and particularly Stewart's daughter Sarah, refused to give up on him. They were determined to give him, and two other horses they rescued, a chance. And it paid off. Originally purchased for $1,000 at the 2024 Breeders Sales of Louisiana as a yearling, Awesome Hawaiian wound up in a feedlot in Bastrop, Louisiana only two days later and a Facebook post said that if someone did not pay “bail” money to rescue him he, and the two other horses, would be sent to a Mexican slaughterhouse. There are no equine slaughterhouses in the U.S.

“Most of our rescues we find through Facebook,” Sarah Stewart said. “Mainly, though, it's through the perseverance of the fans who are watching out for these horses. With Awesome Hawaiian what happened is I had someone messaging us about these three thoroughbred yearlings. At the time, when I had first seen that post the countdown until they were shipped to Mexico was like a week. I thought someone would take those horses. They came straight from the sale and it would be fine.  Nothing happened and then we heard no one has saved them and that they're going to be shipped to the slaughterhouse the next day.”

Stewart stepped in and bought all three horses. Combined, they sold for $3,000 at the yearling sale, and she said she was able to buy the trio “for just a little more than $3,000.” She did it because she has a good heart, but never did she expect that any of them would go on to accomplish something on the racetrack. That just doesn't happen with horses caught up in the slaughter pipeline.

But there was something different about Awesome Hawaiian.

“Our trainer, Will Walden, said that what this horse lacks in talent he makes up for in heart,” she said. “He comes to train every single day and that he's ready to work. He wants this.'

Sent off at 3-5 (more on that later), Awesome Hawaiian won by two lengths under Irad Ortiz Jr. Someone was paying attention. He was claimed by trainer Joe Sharp and owner Larry Romero.

“It was a such a cool feeling to know we gave this horse a second shot and he came out here and showed what he can do,” said Chelsey Stewart, the CEO of the Stewart's Resolute Racing. She is John Stewart's wife and Sarah Stewart's stepmother.

“He proved something to all the doubters. We hate that he got claimed. But we've talked to new owner and to Joe Sharp and we know they will do right by the horse. We also offered to take him back if racing doesn't work out. They were very kind about that.

“No, I never thought this was possible. We were honestly expecting him to get beat in that race. We were just all thrilled that he had made it to the racetrack. We were all out there with our Awesome Hawaiian sweatshirts on and were just thrilled to be there. We were floored that he actually won. We got just as excited over winning that race as we did when we won the Grade I stakes (the Diana S.) with Excellent Truth at Saratoga. To us, he has proven himself to the Thoroughbred industry that he has value.”

While this turned out to be a feel-good story, the Awesome Hawaiian saga sheds light on one of the uglier parts of the sport, that there are still way too many thoroughbreds that are sent to slaughter. If not for the Stewarts, that no doubt would have happened to Awesome Hawaiian.

The three horses saved by the Stewarts were among 11 purchased by Steve Nalls at the Louisiana sale. He paid as little as $700 for one and $1,100 for another. Eight of the horses were bought for $1,000.

The TDN was unable to find any contact information on Nalls.

According to the AI Website gemini.google. com, this is his story: “A Steve Nalls from Sparkman, Arkansas, has been identified as a buyer and potential seller of horses and mules. He has purchased Thoroughbred horses at sales, sometimes for low prices, and these horses have subsequently appeared on social media pages for resale to a “bail pen” at escalated prices, under threat of shipping to slaughter. This practice is controversial within the Thoroughbred industry, though he reportedly agrees to release the horses' registration papers to those who buy them from the pen. He has also been listed as a consignor/seller of mules and horses at various auctions.”

The feed lot where Awesome Hawaiian wound up has a Facebook page and goes by the name North Louisiana Equine Transport & Feed Lot. On its Facebook page, there are references to horses that are in Bastrop and will be sent to slaughter if not bailed out. However, Sarah Stewart has no ill feelings toward the Bastrop operation.

“I know with a lot of these kill pens you never really know what their intentions are,” she said. “But the place I got them from, I told Chelsey they really do care. They somehow intervene with these trucks of horses that are going to go to Mexico and they ask people, 'do you want to try to find homes for them?' Honestly, I don't think they make too much of a profit off of this.”

As for the other two horses, it was determined that they had no viable future as racehorses, but they will be retrained so that they can have a second career, likely as pleasure or trail horses. But the Stewarts wanted to give all three a chance to prove themselves.

“I had mentioned it to my dad that it would be cool if we could include these yearlings into our regular yearling program to see if they could go on and we could go forward with them,” Sarah Stewart said. “He said that, if we are going to do this, we should give them the same shot as everyone else. They're going to have a good trainer, they are going to WinStar to be broke, they are going to be seen by the same veterinarians. The mind set was we were not going to treat them like they're just some rescue horses we got for $1,000. We are going to treat them the same as Puca's yearling and all the rest. They will all get the same shot.

“Everybody kept telling me that Awesome Hawaiian had no talent. At one point they almost didn't move forward with him. I said, 'Dad that's the yearling rescue we are talking about. Remember we wanted to give him a real chance.' He said, 'Sorry, I forgot about that. Let's move forward with him.' He went to training with Will Walden. What made a big difference is that Will believed in him as well.”

Eventually, even John Stewart was convinced. Chelsey Stewart said the reason the horse went off at such low odds was that Stewart put out a tweet telling his followers to bet on him and asked his employees at his MiddleGround Capital to do the same.

“He thought it would be really neat if the horse went off as the favorite,” Sarah Stewart said.

His career is now in the hands of Sharp.

“Now, we couldn't buy him back for double what he was claimed for,” Chelsey Stewart said.  “All of a sudden he went from nothing to six figures. It's crazy. Such a cool story.”

The new owner, Romero, specializes in Louisiana-breds and will send Awesome Hawaiian to Sharp's division at the Fair Grounds.

“I think he got claimed by a good stable and a good owner,” Sarah Stewart said. “We immediately got in contact with them and told them the story and said we would love to buy him back. They were saying we really want this horse. They know his story and thought it was awesome and want to race him at the Fair Grounds. They were just as into it as we were.”

A future stakes winner in Louisiana-bred company at the Fair Grounds? Why not? This is a survivor, a horse who has already beaten the longest odds possible.

“I had no idea the story about this horse,” Sharp said. “We obviously go to the Fair Grounds for the wintertime and he is a Louisiana-bred. That made him appealing. He had some good works and had all his conditions left. I was able to able to logon to the Kentuckybred.org website and watch a couple of his work videos and his breeze videos were really impressive. It just seemed like a logical horse considering where we go geographically. We haven't really decided where we'll run him next. He hasn't even gone back to the track for us yet since we just claimed him. Based on the way he won first time out I think he's capable of winning a first-level allowance race against state breds at the Fair Grounds. I spoke to Will Walden and he had all positive things to say about the horse and how he trains. It's a great story. My wife [Rosie Napravnik] and I are involved in horse rescue, so it's a great story. It's a neat story to be a part of. He sure is an easy horse to cheer for.”

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