He shoots, he scores

In today's No Tolerance race, the horse who crossed the line first is owned by former Chicago Blackhawk Denis Savard. Old North Stars fans should be familiar with the name since he and others like Al Secord sparked a fierce rivalry in the 80's. While none of that may seem relevant to most of you, I offer that info simply to distract you from our horse's poor showing. I don't want to sound like I am making excuses for this horse, but those who watched the race would know that he had a pretty rough trip and was not put in position to make a run.

Today's race ends a very succesful quarter atTampa. The 3/31/08 valuation for a share of Web's Gems is $17 - shares available for purchase/sale until our next race (Race 6 on Tuesday - Balsero). A full analysis of the quarter will be e-mailed to investors in the coming days.

Matt

What the ?

For those who read the workout notices closely, you may have been confused by Miltos' workout at Hawthorne this morning. No, we have not pulled off a "Baltimore Colts" and moved the stable to Chicago overnight. In fact, as of yesterday, Miltos was on a farm in Ocala, FL learning how to swim. She is sitting by the pool sipping drinks with umbrellas, not working out in Chicago.

Moral of the story: when it comes to workout notifications, don't believe everything you read.

Matt

A Day Later

A couple items worth noting today:

1) No Tolerance is entered for Saturday (Race 5).

2) We bought a horse today - Mooji's Sister (5-year mare bred in Florida). We split the $12,500 price with Jagger. "Mooji" won her race today and looked good beating a competitive bunch. I have not received the quick medical review from Jamie, so let's hope she came out of today's race in good order.

For those keeping score, the scale has definitely tipped towards the females in our barn.

Matt

No news is no news

Nothing new to report - no races scheduled, no horses purchased.

I will take this opportunity to make my one and only reminder about the upcoming quarter-end. Anyone wishing to buy or sell shares of Web's Gems can do so at the next evaluated price (at this point, it looks like it will be in the neighborhood of $17 per share). For this quarter, the minimum amount for new investors is $5k and the minimum for additional investments from existing partners will be $2k.

Matt

Bargain Hunting

We're not quite seeing the same quality of horses available for claiming that we are used to at Tampa. The last few claims we have made have been of the "cheap" variety. Today, we claimed one along those lines - Stop That Akki ($8k split w/ Jagger). "Akki" is a 5-year old mare bred in Florida. She ran "ok" today and has checked out fine physically thus far. Best case: she responds as well as Secret Lies did to Jamie's program. Worst case: she struggles to compete at the N1Y level. Reality will likely fall somewhere in between.

Matt

A Good Fourth

I can't say there have been many races in which I would have been happy with a 4th place finish. However, I am definitely pleased with Dawn Raider's effort today. Very few races feature fields as deep as this one today. With a little better trip, he might have been able to get up for 2nd place. As it turned out, he was closer to the winner than he was to the 5th place horse. A very encouraging race.

Nothing on the schedule for a while. With the recent claims and races run, we find ourselves in a bit of a lull. While we may not be racing for a while, rest assured I will be shopping for new additions to the stable.

Matt

Our trip to Florida

Rain, wind, sun, humidity, heat - we just about saw it all in our few days in Tampa. Attending the Yankees game on Thursday, we saw Billy Crystal's pathetic publicity stunt as he went down swinging in his lone appearance at the plate. Jamie's dog (Jagger) came within an inch of his life as he came out on the short end in his tussle with a German Shepherd. We rubbed elbows with some of the top owners and trainers this sport has to offer who were in town to watch a potential $50 miilion horse (War Pass) finish dead last at 1-20 odds in the TB Derby. We ran into to a couple friends (Jackie and Charity) who were in town. Lastly, I was able to chat briefly with the gentleman who bred Lite Brigade (Wilbur France).

As for the racing action, we saw our own heavy favorite (Miltos) come up short and finish 3rd. We knew she wasn't 100% coming into the race and she confirmed the need to give her some extended time off with hopes it will help her ailing ankle.

A few races later, the old guy (Silver) showed some young guns that experience matters. He broke sharply, got a clear lead and hung on by a nose as he stretched his neck out right on the wire in a race that will move into my personal "top 5" list. If you recall, he also won a race on last year's Derby undercard. My theory is that the big ham enjoys showing off to a big crowd.

In a shocking development, Silver was claimed away from us for $32k!!?? Earlier in the week, we were trying to get him in a race for a $20k tag. As such, the claim was a financial windfall for us. At that price, he would have had to win at least 5 more races before generating that much cash flow. That said, it still was a little tough to swallow on the heels of losing a couple other barn favorites in the last few weeks. 12/31/07 valuation was $12k, realized value was approximately $25k.

All in all, a productive trip down south. While I am able to manage the stable a couple thousand miles away, it is always more efficient to make direct contact with the operations. Additionally, I get a kick out of sharing the time with investors (Mark K.) who are able to take advantage of the whole experience this investment has to offer. Mark did a great job on this trip as the photo journalist (pictures to be posted soon) and treating Jamie's staff with some burritos and cerveza.

A look ahead: Dawn Raider is entered as an "Also Eligible" on Tuesday. However, it is unlikely he will draw in, so it looks like he will have to wait for another day.

Matt

A Little Chilly

Only the most naive would have expected our torrid pace of January/February to continue. Today's 5th place effort by Secret Lies continues a recent trend going in the wrong direction where even our wins have been tempered (La Celeste). That's ok, we're still in good shape with what we have and we'll work towards finding a couple new runners to replace the recently-departed.

To that end, I am off to Tampa tomorrow and will be looking for possible replacements while checking in on the others. I will do my best to rally the troops - a few carrots, peppermints, and words of encouragement can't hurt.

Matt

Glass Half Full

Tytus split the field today - 5th in a field of nine. Not a bad effort in a tough group. He beat some good horses and was just a neck out of 4th. However, the top 2 finishers are the type of horses he needs to be able to beat in order to take it to the next level.

Next race - Tuesday. Secret Lies returns off the "long" layoff (race 4).

Matt

Yuk

Well, that kind of sucked. A couple "middle of the pack" finishes and we lost a horse I did not want to lose. Financials for Ravencliff: at 12/31/07, I assigned a value of $6k; with earnings, expenses, and today's claim, we realized a value of approx. $14k. I hope the bettors in the bunch followed Centeno and cashed a ticket.

Let's hope for better results tomorrow. However, it poured down there today. I assume they will take the races off the turf. If that happens, it is likely that No Tolerance would be scratched.

We make our American stakes race debut on Saturday. Tytus takes on a bunch of toughies - included in the field is a horse that was one of the favorites to win the Belmont Stakes last summer. Yikes. Oh well, I guess we'll find out what we have in "T".

Busy Week

We've got back-to-back doubleheaders the next couple days. Hopefully, if all goes as planned, that will serve merely as an appetizer for the main course on Saturday. Stay tuned.

For those looking to wager a few $$....The most confidence I have of the four running is La Celeste. General looks ok in his spot, the cut back in distance should help. With him, as we've seen, it may just be a matter of which side of the stall he wakes up on tomorrow. Off his last effort, I am not sure what to expect from No Tolerance. If he doesn't compete at this level, we may be in trouble with him. And for Ravencliff, I think bettors should follow Centeno's lead. Clearly, he thinks Jamie's other horse in the race has a better shot. Bet on your own risk - demand value!!

Matt

Game of Inches

We lost a heartbreaker today. Miltos ran a big race and just lost a head bob at wire. To run that well in a competitive field was very encouraging.

Next race?? We tried to enter a couple for Tuesday but neither race filled. Maybe Thursday.