(symbol image)Image: keystone
A guest finds a strange, technological-looking thing in his food. It turns out: It’s a microchip – which was previously implanted in an English racehorse.
Mar 14, 2026, 6:33 p.mMar 14, 2026, 6:33 p.m
Matti Hartmann / t-online
A prize-winning racehorse was slaughtered after suffering an injury and served to unsuspecting guests at a community soup kitchen in Turkey. According to media reports, the case was discovered after a guest at the soup kitchen in Mersin, in the south of the country, found an object in his food and called the authorities.
Department of Agriculture investigators identified the object as a microchip racehorse called Smart Latch – an English thoroughbred mare who had won several horse races in the nearby city of Adana.
Officers then examined the food at the soup kitchen and discovered that the dish served there, kavurma, which is usually made with roasted lamb or beef, contained horse meat.
Owner is outraged
The racehorse’s former owner, Suat Topcu, came into the attention of the authorities. According to reports, however, it was not possible to prove that the mare had been slaughtered. For this he received a fine of 132,000 Turkish lira, the equivalent of around 2,600 euros, because he had not properly reported an alleged donation of the animal.
“We are very unhappy,” Topcu claimed, according to the DHA news agency. According to him, Smart Latch was recently retired after a leg injury. The mare last ran at the Adana racecourse on October 14, 2025 and finished seventh.
Topcu told the newspaper “Milliyet” that he had initially planned to use the mare for breeding. However, a veterinarian said Smart Latch was suffering from uterine insufficiency. Even if she becomes pregnant, a successful birth is impossible. “We then looked for a new home for our horse.”
Horse meat mislabeled as beef
According to Topcu, he wanted to donate the mare to a local riding club and hired a shipping company to bring the animal there. Until the ministry contacted him, he had no idea what had really become of the horse.
Investigators assume that the mare never arrived at the riding club and was instead taken to the butcher. The meat was then falsely labeled as beef and sold to a company that supplies the soup kitchen.