Moonlight Bandit is a 10 yr old Kentucky bred horse by Winstar Farms that ended up in a small British Virgin Island  called Tortola.  Bandit was sold to Mark Casse trainer as a yearling for $190,000. Starting his racing career with owner John C. Oxley at Keenland going on to Churchill Downs, Aqueduct, GSP, Tampa Bay, Saratoga, Delaware, Penn National, Monmouth Park and then running his last 16 races back at GSP with Golden Age Stable.  In his 41 starts he made $155,004.  Meanwhile in 2019 the horseman in the BVI were trying to get the local horseracing back on track after the devastating hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the islands in 2017.  Bandit at no fault of his own was shipped off to Puerto Rico then on a boat to Tortola.  Racing was never able to get up and going again on the island  so many of the horses died of neglect and abandonment, some are still there but Bandit was a lucky one,  Tortola has a couple of amazing ladies that look out for the horses there, they saw he was in need and approached the owner.  Luckily the owner agreed to hand him over.  CTA was contacted and we have been trying to coordinate to get him off the island for 5 months.  It always amazes us that getting horses into the islands is so easy, but to get them out there are so many hurdles.  Seeing as he is coming from Tortola he has to do an international quarantine.  3 days. USDA and attendants in covered suits, sterilized and so on.  We were told no horses can fly in or out on planes, so the boat is our only option.   2 companies ship horses to the islands but neither one will bring them back, luckily the amazing people at Norma H San Juan who will not ship horses to the islands agreed to help us bring him home at a hugely discounted price.  So tonight is the night that Bandit will load that small vessel and take a 9 hr journey in a horse trailer on the deck of the ship to San Juan, PR.  He will hopefully be out of the USDA quarantine by next Wednesday, all this is pending bloodwork and USDA officials assessment of the horse.    He will then come to CTA where he will be evaluated by our vet.  Bandit will be like all the others and we will try and find him a forever home and a special someone to love him back on the mainland.  But we need the help of all.  $6000 for USDA, quarantine, labs, ground transport here in PR, care while at CTA $2500, second quarantine and flight to Miami $3094 so as you can see we need the help of many, Winstar, Casse, Golden Age Stable and everyone that was part of his journey for 10 yrs.  Like we always say,.  No horse should be left behind!