The word ‘intrepid’ is synonymous with someone who is brave, fearless, and valiant. The name is so powerful that it is painted on the side of four United States Navy ships, including the prolific USS Intrepid (1943-1974) aircraft carrier that served in World War II, the Vietnam War, as an asset to NASA, and is now stationed as a national landmark in New York City. Apt to his namesake, Intrepid Seelster has embodied those distinguishing characteristics from his racing career and into his life after racing. The son of Camluck and Immortal raced from 1999 to 2001 under the care of Canadian harness racing icon Bob McIntosh. In 65 starts across North America, Intrepid Seelster yielded $1,037,807 with a record of 18-11-10 and a career mark of 1:50 1/5 at The Meadowlands. At the age of 4, Intrepid Seelster was retired to stud at Seelster Farms in Lucan, Ontario where he sired winners of $5.2 million CAD until 2009 when he moved to the United Kingdom to stand at Camden Stud. In total, he sired 301 horses with $10.66 million earned. Intrepid Seelster was later sold and he returned stateside. As time moved on, his name lived on through his offspring, but he had fallen into the shadows and out of the spotlight. That was until July of 2024. Twenty-three years after his racing career and quite some time after his career as a stud concluded, the millionaire made his way back to the headlines on social media; however not in the positive limelight he had earned.  In a viral post on Facebook, the now 28-year-old horse was shown in a horrific state with every part of his musculature and skeleton protruding in the absence of healthy body fat. His eyes were sad and his demeanor was fatigued. The former millionaire racehorse and 10-time millionaire sire was reduced to a price of $400 with a prognosis that was undetermined if he’d survive to the next day. Kim Hale was the winning bidder. “I’ve been involved with Standardbreds my entire life, originally through racing and then in my 20s, being involved with the retraining and rehoming process. I live in a very small town, Campbellford, which is about 45 minutes east of Peterborough, and Kawartha Downs was and still is what I call my home track,” Hale explained. “In 2020, one of my close friends and I founded an organization focused on Standardbreds and rehoming here in Ontario, because we had owners calling us fairly frequently asking for help. Right then, Covid hit and we figured it would flop, however somehow, we made it through. Over the last few years, we’ve made a number of American connections and been privy to rescuing and bringing home over 30 Canadian Standardbreds who found themselves in the kill pens in the USA. Here in Canada, they don’t ‘hold’ the horses because the slaughter plant is just a quick trip down the road, so to rescue them here, we have to go to auctions.” And so, fast forward to July 2024 and Hale spotted a freeze-brand on an image of a horse posted to a group chat from the kill pens in Kansas. She looked up the brand and confirmed Intrepid’s identity. “He was in such horrendous shape,” Hale said. “I paid his bail fee right then and we made arrangements to get him into care because we didn’t expect him to survive the night. The only people who knew at that time was my New Start team and the volunteers in the USA. We had no idea how to go about it. We had rescued some pretty famous horses in the past, but he was clearly by far and away the most well-known and in the worst shape. “We didn’t know how to go about it because we knew it was going to blow up and probably cause some ruckus. Once we had everything in place for his care, then we took to social media to try and share what we knew, as carefully as we could. We didn’t know and even now, still have not been able to track down who was responsible for him being like this.” While most harness horsemen try to do the best they can by their horse in finding forever homes and safe landings, it seems to be all too easy to fall beneath the shadows and slip through the cracks, especially years after retirement. The most important thing after that happens is what the horsemen do after they are found in that situation, and in the case of Intrepid Seelster, it was quick to see many horsemen band together to raise money and find him a true forever home. “Graciously, so many people stepped up to cover his costs, the incredible community of racing and those who simply support equine welfare jumped to get all the funding he needed except his ride home. His incredible care team in Kansas, who truly brought him back from the brink of death, are wonderful caretakers who have seen so many emaciated cases and been able to bring them back to health. Then he went onto Kentucky and finally home to Sarah and Jeff who adopted him and were able to give him a safe retirement home when he was healthy enough to get back here to Ontario. “Truly, it was an incredible community effort. I’m blessed to have been a small piece of it and been able to know that these connections across North America can save truly lives. He was one of our 83 adoptions we did in 2024 and he’s probably going to forever be my most memorable rescue because I had a lot of sleepless nights feeling pretty helpless and wondering if we’d have to share terrible news if he didn’t pull through,” Hale said. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Though they had no prior to connection to Intrepid, Jeffrey Gillis and Sarah Anthon made the decision to provide him with his forever home with them. “We didn’t have any connection to him other than we had bought a yearling or two sired by him when he stood in Ontario,” Anthon said. “I saw the photo Kim posted online the day he was rescued and I showed Jeff. We were both almost in tears seeing a horse in the condition he was in, especially one who had accomplished what he did; he deserved better. “Jeff said to me, ‘should we offer him a home?’ I said, ‘absolutely, we have the farm, why not?’ So I messaged Kim, asked where he was and if we could adopt him. She explained the situation, where he was, and how unstable he was. And she thanked me for the offer but wanted to see how he does over the next few weeks. They weren’t sure he would make it. Once it was clear he was a warrior and fighting hard to live, she said he could come home to us as long as we could make it all work!” The move took a lot of planning to execute given the state of Intrepid. Once he gained enough strength to be able to ship a distance, Anthon found a landing place with friends in Kentucky until he was able to make the trek to Canada. “When he was in Kansas out of the kill pen, the idea was to get him halfway home when he was healthy enough. I reached out to good friends of mine from the dog show world, who also breed and race thoroughbreds, and they so kindly agreed to house him for as long as he needed to be 100 percent healthy weight-wise and make the ship home to Ontario. He was there for about six weeks. They are both vets so they decided he was a good candidate for gastrogard and offered to supply that at their cost. He thrived in their care and was able to ship home at the end of November.” And now, today, Intrepid Seelster resides at their 55-acre farm in Ontario, Canada. Gillis is a trainer based out of Ontario. He has over 1,500 wins and $31 million earned with two of his most prolific wins in Covered Bridge’s display of heroism at the 2023 and 2024 Gold Cup and Saucer. Anthon works full time in real estate while saving time to help with the farm. At their farm, they have four minis, six broodmares in-foal, four yearlings and a number of racehorses in training depending on the time of year. “We have one full time employee, Sara,” Anthon explained. “I love looking after the retired one, the minis, and the breeding part of the operation! Jeff and I always do night chores together after work and I’m usually around on the weekends. We have 55 acres, a half-mile track, and lots of paddocks, so we definitely had the room to let [Intrepid] live out his days spoiled. “His life right now consists of turnout daily, yelling at the mares due to foal, eating all he can eat, and snuggling with the minis through the stall bars,” Anthon added. Despite all the adversity he had faced and overcome, Intrepid never lost his character or personality. “He’s a funny horse! It’s amazing he’s so kind after what he went through. He’s sweet, a gentle old man, and very easy to have around. He sure loves food and begs for his hay cubes. Paws like a fool, too. He is particularly sharp right now with all the mares inside waiting to foal, he thinks they’re pretty exciting. “We call him Treppy. He’s so full of himself, but old so we laugh at his studiness towards the girls. They can’t stand him,” Anthon laughed. A millionaire, a sire of winners of over $10 million, a horse who has overcome the greatest adversity, a friend and pasture-mate, and finally a well-deserved retirement. Intrepid Seelster has not let his past define him, but he has proved the definition of his name in his characteristics as a brave, fearless, and valiant animal.