Not so long ago, Taxi — the foal no one knew about from the mare no one wanted — was one of the feel-good stories of the local horse racing world, claiming $46,000 in total purses in just seven races.
Now, the promising 4-year-old thoroughbred is at the center of a legal battle among his owners.
“The worst thing that ever happened to Taxi was that he began winning,” said attorney Christine Righeimer, who is representing Gail Vacca, one of the owners, in a lawsuit filed against most of Vacca’s former partners.
The fight over Taxi might never have started if her mother, known as Lulu, had been sent to a Canadian slaughterhouse as planned. Instead, Lulu was rescued at an Indiana horse auction in 2009, and, as she was nursed back to health, foaled Taxi, who turned out to have a knack for winning races.
Now, on one side of the dispute is Vacca, the president and founder of Illinois Equine Humane Center in Maple Park, who saved Lulu. On the other are most of the co-owners, who disagree with Vacca’s decision to retire the horse following injuries to his front left leg and lungs.
One of the owners being sued said that she and the other defendants care deeply about Taxi’s health even though they strongly disagree with Vacca’s decision to end his career. They would like him to keep racing.
“Honestly, I just think that every partner … wants what’s best for Taxi first and foremost,” said Laura Donohoe, of Bolingbrook. “And unfortunately there is a difference of opinion about what’s actually best for him.”
The lawsuit, filed last month in Kane County Court, alleges that Donohoe and 10 fellow shareholders in Rescue Me Racing LLC violated the ownership contract when they voted in May to oust Vacca as company manager and to strip her of her role as Taxi’s “equine welfare manager.” According to the contract, Vacca had the final say over issues relating to the horse’s health for the duration of his life or until Vacca was no longer willing or able to serve in that capacity.
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Vacca also was to serve as the sole manager of Rescue Me Racing. The company was formed in 2011 when Vacca and some friends and supporters of a horse rescue she founded decided to train Taxi to race.
The contract states that no owner may hold a majority stake and that any amendment to the contract must be approved by 75 percent of the owners. It does not specify whether the votes of owners with smaller shares in the company receive the same weight as those with larger shares. The owners who voted to oust Vacca hold 84.75 percent of the shares — a figure an attorney for the group cited in the letter sent to Vacca.
Vacca contends that the correct interpretation of the contract should be that each owner gets one vote of equal weight, and that her opponents’ vote is illegal because it fell shy of the required 75 percent majority.
The fact that Taxi ever ran at all is a miracle. Last year the Tribune reported how Vacca noticed a lame horse hobbling around a pen at an Indiana horse auction in 2009. The ailing mare was awaiting a final ride to the slaughterhouse.
Vacca, who has been involved with horses for four decades, recognized the mare as a thoroughbred and, after some bargaining with the dealer, rescued the horse for $300. She soon discovered that the mare, named Lulu, was pregnant. She foaled on April 15, 2010, prompting Vacca to name him Taxi in honor of tax day.
A little investigation into the foal’s background revealed an impressive lineage. Lulu, whose name was really Silver Option, had become a brood mare after a short racing career. Taxi’s sire, Magna Graduate, was a $2.58 million career stakes winner now doing stud duty in Kentucky.
Vacca and a group of 14 investors formed Rescue Me Racing, which started training the horse to race under the name Magna Fortuna — Latin for “good fortune.”
“In order to give Taxi the best opportunity — which is what we all kind of set out to do in the beginning of this partnership — we wanted to make sure that he was raced in as humane a manner as possible,” Vacca said.
After two lackluster starts in 2013, Taxi began to show some talent, winning a race at Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero that March by nearly 10 lengths and then another race that May at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights. But an injury to a ligament in his left front leg prompted the owners to give him four months of rest and rehabilitation.
The horse was cleared to resume training last November and was moved to Hawthorne. At that point, according to Vacca, the partnership between her and a number of the other owners began to fray.
“When Taxi hit the track, things started to change, the dynamic of the group started to change,” Vacca said. “It seemed like they were kind of split into camps a little bit: Those that were more on the rescue end of the operation and then those that were more into the racing aspect of it.”
In April, a few weeks after Taxi ran a pair of races at Hawthorne, he bled from his nose after a workout, the lawsuit states. On May 1, a veterinarian diagnosed the problem as a severe exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, a condition Vacca said can worsen if a horse continues to train and run races.
Vacca announced that day she was going to retire Taxi, prompting a “heated exchange at the vet clinic” between her and some of the other owners who were present, Vacca said.
Donohoe said the owners wanted to take Taxi to a farm in Elgin for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, a device often used to speed the healing process for both humans and animals. Vacca objected, saying there is no solid evidence showing that such treatment is effective for pulmonary hemorrhages.
The other owners took the horse that same day to the Elgin facility.
“Our hauler took him over (to Elgin) and left him, and then that evening, we all received an email from Gail saying that she had taken him from the farm in Elgin back to her farm and that he was being retired,” Donohoe said.
A few weeks later, on May 20, Vacca received a letter from an attorney for the 11 informing her she had been voted out as manager of Rescue Me Racing and stripped of her position as equine welfare manager.
In June, the group filed a lawsuit in Kane County seeking to take possession of Taxi. The judge tossed it out on procedural grounds two months later. But the ruling in August opened a door for the majority group, which showed up at Vacca’s barn with a horse trailer about three hours after the hearing.
“When the judge was talking through her ruling, she actually made the statement that any of the partners could have possession of Taxi,” Donohoe said. “And that’s when we went over to Gail’s farm with the notice and the letter of demand and took him back” to his trainer’s barn at the racetrack in Arlington Heights.
Vacca sued Sept. 12, and three days later a judge ordered that Taxi be returned to Vacca’s farm. The judge also reinstated her as a manager of Rescue Me Racing and as equine welfare manager pending a further court order.
“It’s sad and it’s unfortunate and I never would have believed it would have turned out to be like this when we first set out to do this,” Vacca said. “I made a promise to that horse when he was born … that I would have his back until the day he died.”
Donohoe said she and the other owners wouldn’t want to see Taxi raced until he has had a full evaluation and a clean bill of health.
Her concern, she said, is to make sure the horse has every chance to run if he is able.
“There are some horses — and I know it sounds corny — but they were literally born to run,” she said. “They thrive on it, and you can tell. He’s one of them. He’s a horse that loved his job.”
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