Rental Return

We claimed Uno Way Calle about 9 months ago for $10k and sold him today for the same price. In between, he gave us some good times. We walked him over to the races 11 times and he put forth a solid effort in 10 of those tries. Normally, I wouldn't be too upset to lose a horse after running a poor race, but his race today was over before it started when he broke poorly. I pretty much knew he had no shot to win right off the bat and it was a little frustrating ending our ownership of him on a sour note. But the horse owes us nothing - we did fine with him and he supplied one of the more memorable races of '08 when he was DQ'd from the win (the first and hopefully last time we have to experience that). We wish him well as he heads off to be with his new owners.

Buzzkill

As I wrote earlier, Tytus had a lot of obstacles to overcome today, not the least of which was facing a field with combined earnings of over $1.4 million. Despite that, I thought he would run a little better than he did. His effort brought a halt to our mini-run. Earlier in the day, Wild Adventure took it to the group of fillies put up against her. She'll have one more soft condition (N3L) to work through until her competition stiffens.

Next Up: ?? Uno Way Calle is ready to race, but we're having a tough time getting his race to fill.

"Workmanlike"

Darby Lee did just enough today to beat a soft field of conditioned claimers. Her "free squares" are all used up - she'll need to prove herself against straight claimers going forward. Big day on tap tomorrow as we get to see how Wild Adventure stacks up against Flordia fillies and Tytus makes his return. In addition to the 9 other runners, he will have to overcome his rust and injuries/illness to see if he can remember what it's like to be a racehorse.

Worth the wait

We kept Stumbling Block in Chicago last week hoping for a race to fill, but it never did. Plan B: rush him down to Tampa and try our luck there. He rewarded our patience today with an exciting stretch drive to get up just in time for the win. Those who read between the lines could tell I was not overly-impressed with Darby Lee's win a couple weeks ago (buy for $25k, win for $5k). No asterik for today's win - very pleased with the effort!

Next up: ??

Odds n Ends

We picked up another horse today in Chicago - Slewey Armstrong is a 7-year old gelding bred in Iowa that Jamie had in his barn a couple years ago. I have been a "fan" of this horse for a long time. He's comes from the same breeders (a very good outfit in Iowa) as Starlet Sky. As I mentioned in my year-in-review, with this buy, the hope is that we picked him up at the bottom of his claiming range ($10k). His real value will come in a few months if we still own him when he can run for some extra $$ at Prairie Meadows. In the interim, he has proven that he likes the Tampa surface in the past. I have not yet seen today's race, but I am told that he ran a decent race and came back in good condition.

Stumbling Block arrived in Florida today after failing to get a race to fill for his condition in Chicago. "Slewey" and Wild Adventure will make the trip south this weekend as the racing focus shifts entirely to Tampa. Uno Way Calle was in the entry box a number of times this week only to have his races fail to fill - patience is a virtue?

Friends in Low Places

I heard a saying a while back that stuck with me. For owners/trainers, someone said you should "keep yousrself in the best of company and your horses in the worst of company". In other words, try to place your horses in races they can win. Today, Darby Lee finally found a group of "friends" she could outrun. Her win today broke our105 day winless streak. We dropped her into the lowest possible condition and she prevailed. Not exactly what we envisioned this summer while spending $25k for her. Nonetheless, we'll take the victory. We are undefeated in 2009 - Wild Adventure will attempt to extend that streak next Wednesday in Chicago (race 9).