Highs and Lows

Horse racing isn't usually a game of inches, but it was today. Diablo won by the narrowest of margins today in an exciting dual that lasted the length of the stretch. She came out on top beating a very nice mare who has won a couple stakes races this year and banked over $65k in earnings. A good win - replay available on Hawthorne's website. Also, the win should jump her up a few notches on Equibase's Top 100 horses by wins list (today's win was her 6th of the year).

Conversely, Chief ran a poor race on Saturday, never really got involved in the race. We definitely picked the wrong day to be in Chicago for a visit. However, I did get a picture with Miss Illinois (to be posted soon on the blog).

Next race: ??? After 4 races in the last 8 days, it will be a while before our next race. This will give me some time to wrap up the quarterly finncial reports.

The Devil Returns

After a brief freshening, Diablo returns to the races on Sunday (race 5). I'm not crazy about the jockey change, but Paul has had a tough time getting back into the country (green card issues) and won't be able to get down to Chicago until next week. Besides that, the race looks ok, there are a couple nice fillies/mares in there, but it looks like she has the best early speed, so it should be interesting turning for home.

It looks like Chief will have his hands full on Saturday. The race is filled with cagey veterans. At age 7, Chief is actually one of the younger horses in the race. If he runs his usual race, he should have a chance to hit the board. Hopefully, Mark and I can inspire him with our visit before the race:).

3rd, 2nd, .......?

Twinpost followed up Wayuphi's effort with a decent 2nd place finish today. She ran fine, just couldn't get to the winner. Maybe we'll keep the improvement going when Chief runs on Saturday (race 1).

Signs of life?

After a couple disappointing efforts at CBY, Wayuphi ran a credible race on Saturday. He broke well and stayed on the early pace. He just missed hanging on for 2nd. Something to build on. For those interested, you can see race replays on Hawthorne's website - let me know if you need any halp finding them.

Next race: Twinpost (race 2) on Wednesday. We're looking at races for Chief and Diablo on the weekend. We'll know mid-week if/when they will be running.

Hawthorne Debut

Wayuphi breaks the seal for us at Hawthorne on Saturday (race 7). Normally, I have a pretty good sense of how we're going to run, but I have to tell you that I don't have a clue about this one. He's fine physically, but just seems to stop running at points in the race. The class drop and switch to the dirt may help.

Looking deeper into the calendar...I have narrowed down my possible weekends for a January trip to Tampa. It will either be the weekend of the 11th-13th or 2 weeks later (25th-27th). Either way, if you think you may want to join us and have a preference between those weekends, let me know.

A New Dawn?

4th time's a charm? After 3 unsuccessful tries at claiming a horse, we finally won a shake. We claimed Dawn Raider for $17,500 (split 3 ways). Raider is a lightly raced 4-year old gelding who is bred up and down for the turf. He finished mid-pack today but got a terrible ride. With only 1 career win, he has all of his conditions left. So far, so good.

Earlier in the day, we loved the looks of Camptown King for $18,000. Apparently, a lot of others liked him as well. There was a 12-way shake for him. He ran a great race, he would have been a nice claim. Next?

Going Out With A Bang

360 days ago, we brought Starlet Sky to Kentucky Downs where she won and got claimed away from us. At the time, it hurt to lose such a nice horse. We went into a bit of slide after that and things got so bad that we had to give away a couple horses at lowly Beaulah Park. When we claimed Lite Brigade in January, our fortunes began to change culminating in a win today at a high profile track. While we once again deal with the loss of another nice horse via the claim box, we can take comfort in the fact that there are other nice horses out there to buy. We tried again to buy a horse earlier on the card today at Arlington for $25k but once again came out on the short end of a 4-way shake. We are looking at a few over the weekend to add to the stable.

Back to Brigade, what can I say, from Tampa to Des Moines to Winnipeg to Shakopee and finally in Chicago, he always gave us an honest effort en routre to his 4 wins. Rather than go on and on about the pros/cons of losing him today, I'll simply end with sharing one of the many emotions I have experienced tonight. When looking back on this day, I will always remember the tremendous pride I felt when I saw our horse stride into the winner's circle wearing our colors at glitzy Arlington Park. Beaulah Park has never seemed so far away.

Worth A Look

I'm sure many of you have seen this race before, but check out the link on the right-hand side in the Race Replays section titled "Maiden Race". There are a few fillies in here I wouldn't mind seeing in the barn.

Green Means Go

As of now, the plan is to go ahead and run Brigade in that race Friday at Arlington. That should be exciting. Jamie has had a few days now with No Tolerance and it looks like the best course of action is to give him some time off and plan for a return in Tampa. Not to be deterred, we tried claiming a horse today at Arlington for $18k (Sheikh and Awe), but we lost a 4-way shake.

Windy City Debut?

As some of you may have seen, Brigade is entered in a race on Friday at "glitzy" Arlington Park. I just wanted to let you know (in case any of you were thinking about making travel plans) that we may scratch out of the race. Jamie is going to take a look at the race to see how competitve we will be and make a decision at that point.

Get Well Soon

Yet another second place at Prairie Meadows. Given his physical condition, Iron Boy ran a respectable race. I was down there to cheer him on, but it wasn’t quite enough to propel him over the finish line first. We will now give him an extended rest in hopes that it will help him come back next spring. If he can return to his early-summer form, then Saturday night’s will prove quite useful in that it gives him a pretty valuable condition (allowance for horses who have started for a claiming price of $5k or less). With Iron Boy and Peagus at the farm together, let’s hope the staff there has some good body armor to defend against the bites.

Next race: ???? Jamie and others spent the weekend hauling the remaining horses down to Chicago. The Hawthorne meet starts on 9/21. We’ll also keep an eye on the races in Arlington next week to see if a) there are any horses worth claiming for the Hawthorne or Tampa meet, or b) there may be a race that fits Brigade.

241 Days

241 days and counting until opening day 2008 at Canterbury. It was a GREAT season. Shorter-term, it's 94 days until the opener at Tampa. In the interim, we'll try to cash a few checks in Chicago to help pay the bills. The "off" season got off to a good start last night with Twinpost's victory in Des Moines. Hopefully, Iron Boy will do the same when we send him down there on Saturday night (race 3).

A Look Back

Wow, Brigade ran his f***ing eyeballs out in the early stages. The pace was so hot that the 5-furlong split time was more than a second faster than the track record for the distance. Unfortunately, the race was 6 furlongs and Brigade just didn't have enough gas left in the tank. Hanging on for third was good considering that the multiple stakes winning horse who was pressing the pace early with him finished a well-beaten fifth. Similarly, Chief ran a respectable race on Friday night. So that wraps up our CBY season, 1 win short of the goal I set at the beginning of the meet (full season review coming later this week).

Looking ahead, we had plans to run Peagus in a small stakes race in Fargo on Monday. However, he had a setback this morning and won't be able to make the trip (more details to follow). We got Twinpost into a race on Tuesday down Des Moines.