An electronic identification microchip found in a meat stew served by a Turkish soup kitchen turned out to be from a racehorse retired early with a broken leg.

The fate of four-year-old thoroughbred mare Smart Latch, illegally diverted to a slaughterhouse, is said to have shocked the racing community.

Food control investigators at the agriculture and forestry ministry identified the chip as from a horseracing track, Adana Yesiloba Hippodrome in southern Turkey, according to Turkish daily Milliyet. DNA analysis of the meat, served as a sauteed “beef” dish at a city authority soup kitchen in nearby Mersin, reportedly confirmed it was “single-hooved animal meat”.

Records from the Jockey Club of Türkiye (TJK) show Smart Latch had three career wins to her name.

Former owner of the horse Suat Topcu told Milliyet that after the leg fracture ended the horse’s career he intended for her to begin a new life as a breeding mare on his farm.

"We brought her to the farm to become a mother. However, during the veterinary checks, the vet told us she could not be a breeder because of a physiological defect in her uterus," Topcu was reported as saying.

He explained that he then decided to donate the horse to an equestrian club in Osmaniye, where children learn to ride, and handed the horse to a driver – but the animal never reached its destination.

He added: "My error [in the handover process] was perhaps donating the horse without officially transferring the title. I tried to do a good deed and instead became a vehicle for something evil."

Eray Hazar, president of the Adana Branch of the Turkish Racehorse Breeders and Owners Association, was quoted as saying that the racing community was in shock. Breeders, he said, view their horses "like their own children".