Tellem Goodbye was a tough race horse. He wasn't always the fastest, but he always tried his best. From the age of 2 to the age of 11, he ran in 127 races. He won 17 races, came in second 14 times and third 19 times, so he was in the money 50 times. Tellem Goodbye won the Coney Island Stakes and the Hoover Stakes, both pretty big races. He came in a good second in the Ohio Discovery and the Capital City Stakes in Ohio. In his career he earned $118,427. He had a lot of fans on the track -- people respected the horse's big heart and he was known as a "hard knocker".

He paid his way, as they say on the track.

But by the time he was about 10 years old, he was in the hands of a trainer at Beulah Park, in Ohio, who figured the old horse was pretty much useless. Joe Ward was also training a few horses at Beulah Park, and to make ends meet, he worked for other trainers now and then. On the day of Tellem Goodbye's last race, Joe was working for the trainer, and led the horse to the paddock for saddling. Joe noticed that the horse was really skinny and poorly groomed. He asked the trainer why the horse looked so bad. The trainer replied that it didn't matter how the horse looked, because he was taking him to a slaughter auction after this race.

Tellem Goodbye had always paid his way, but now he was going to pay with his life.

"I knew the horse, and how hard he tried every time he ran," said Joe Ward. "Most people around the track knew Tellem Goodbye, especially the fans. It would have been a shame to have him meet that kind of end."

Joe and his wife Linda offered to buy the horse for whatever he would bring at the slaugher house. They took him to Joe's father's scrapyard to be weighed on the scales. He didn't weigh very much, and the Wards paid the $600 that Tellem Goodby would have brought for slaughter.

They called him Big T, and they took very good care of him on their farm. Soon, he was sleek and shining, just as he had been in his youth. As a matter of fact, he was bored with life on the farm. He felt and looked so good, Joe and Linda decided to race him again. He was happy to be back on the track, and Joe was a good trainer. Big T repaid the Wards' kindness by winning six more races. In his last race, he injured a tendon, and the Wards decided it was time for him to retire permanently.

"We expected to keep Big T forever," said Mrs. Ward. "I've turned down offers to purchase him because I was afraid someone might keep him for awhile and then sell him again, and he'd eventually end up at slaughter."

But Big T was bored again in the pasture with nothing to do all day. He was too old to race anymore, but he needed something to keep him busy. The Wards heard about a special program for horses called ReRun. They called them up.

"I know he'd be happier being useful, and the college program seemed like the perfect situation," said Mrs. Ward.

So, the race horse once known as Tellem Goodbye took an easy job as a transition to retirement. He went to Asbury College and was part of the basic horsemanship and barn management program for a while. Students took very good care of him while they learned about horses. Big T was ridden three times a week, so ge got a little exercise while he taught the advanced students to ride. He wasn't bored at all.

After a couple of years, he was ready for true retirement, and Tellem Goodbye found a new home with Beckie and Tom Dunlop of Lafayette, TN. Beckie and Tom had previously found room in their hearts and barn for another ReRun retiree, so he has a fellow ex-race horse to play with in the green pastures of retirement.

At last Tellem Goodbye is being paid back.