Express Delivery

First in, first out, first home. It was as simple as that. Miltos Express cruised to a wire-to-wire victory today as the even-money favorite. Next up for her, a race in a few weeks in her home state of Florida.

Let's race two...we have a doublehaeder scheduled for Saturday. Tytus and Ravencliff in back-to-back races (7 & 8). Both races look tough with deep and talented runners. Forecasts are calling for snow in Chicago which would jeopardize the races. Let's hope their weather people are as clueless as the ones we have here.

Matt

As Expected

When we claimed Chief last spring, I seem to recall writing something to the effect that he should win a few races, throw in a couple klunkers and plod along for minor paychecks in other races. He has delivered just about what we expected. Including yesterday's 3rd place, he has now hit the board in 7 of 10 races with 3 wins. He has paid for himself and earned a little vacation. He'll be on the next commute south with Dawn Raider on Monday. Upon arriving in Florida, we'll turn him out to a farm for a couple months. Beyond that, he'll return next year for what will likely be his final year of racing.

Next race: Miltos runs in race 5 on Thursday. She looks good in that spot and should be competitive. Mid-week, we'll be entering a few for races next weekend.

Slump Buster

It wasn't a real long drought, but Unreal General returned us to the winner's circle after a 5-week absence. It's not often after a claim when you can win the next race and get back 1.5x your purchase price. That's what happened today - nice R.O.I.

Next race: Dawn Raider on Friday (hopefully). The race is scheduled for the turf and we will scratch out if expected rain takes the race off the grass. Other than that, we'll be entering Chief tomorrow for a race on Saturday.

Peagus jogged around the track today while Brigade and Diablo take off for Tampa on Monday to join No Tolerance. Ravencliff and Miltos are preparing for one more race in Chicago and Tytus still might get in one more race in the Windy City. Iron Boy is still chilling here in MN. Did I forget anyone?

Matt

Race Update

Just talked to Jamie - we have decided to scratch Diablo out of her race tomorrow. Instead, she will be shipped down to Tampa next week to prepare for a race during the first week of the meet. Lite Brigade will be joining her on the first trip south. In other "horses on the move" news, Peagus will be leaving Minnesota tomorrow en route for Chicago. Once back in training, he'll be ready to run when Tampa's meet is in full swing.

Next race - Unreal General makes his debut on Sunday (race 4). We tried both days this weekend to get a race for Dawn Raider, but the race did not fill. It looks like it may be a "go" for next Wednesday.

Matt

"Glitterized"

Miltos ran 4th in a race won by Stage Glitter. For the first out for us, I thought Miltos ran fine. She should be ok. The first race of the day was a disappontment - Tytus bounced a bit off his last race, ran out of gas and finished sixth after leading until the top of the stretch. We may ultimately find out that he may be better off running in sprints. In yesterday's race, it was simply was a matter of Chief not running his race for whatever reason. Back to today, we picked up another horse for $8k. His name is Ravencliff (4 year old). He ran ok today and so far has checked out fine physically.

Next race: Diablo on Friday?? She is entered in race 9, but we may scratch out and wait for a better race. I will pass along a decision once one is made.

All in all, a disappointing weekend given the high hopes, but all horses came back to the barn and will be able to give it another shot next time.

Matt

Welcome Home

We re-claimed Lite Brigade today for $25k. He didn’t run well today, but he’s coming home to a barn that knows how to treat him. He’ll now get a much needed break (at least a couple months) until Tampa.

For Sunday, we got in 2 races of the 3 we entered. Both Tytus and Miltos Express will make their debut for us. “T” looks really good in his spot. He ran a career best speed figure the day we claimed him. If he can avoid the dreaded “bounce”, he should be very competitive. Miltos drew into a very deep field, including an old friend - Stage Glitter. Let’s hope Glitter bounces off her career best effort the day she won for us. Regardless, there are a number of other nice horses in the field that will be tough to beat. We should have a better idea what we have on our hands after this race. The allowance race for Diablo did not fill. We’ll try to find a claiming race for her next week.

Matt

Miss me?

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. A nice break from the action. We get back into the races on Saturday with Chief (race 10). He looks ok in there - decent field, favorite jockey, terrible post. Let's hope we can make it "Tanner Time" once more in Chicago. We'll find out tomorrow if we will have any runners on Sunday.

Our days in Chicago are numbered. Tampa opens up for training this week and opening day is 4 weeks from Saturday. We'll try to cash a few more checks in the next couple weeks and then head south.

I finally got my hands on some winner's circle photos from Hawthorne - they should be posted on the blog soon.