Presque Isle in the books

Our first year at PID is complete. We got one victory this weekend from our 3 starts and for the year, we won a total of 8 races from 14 starts - a great win %! While I was hoping for better results this weekend, we got a break when Wild Adventure was claimed from us. As I have been saying for a while, she has a pretty bad knee and the $$ we got for her is probably the best case scenario.

Minus a little traffic in Chicago, a seatbelt malfunction between Cleveland and Erie, and some cold/ rainy weather, our trip out east was a lot of fun as we got to see a part of the country none of us had seen before.

With only 3 horses left in the stable, it will be a quiet month on the track - a good time to sit back, take a little breather, and plot our next moves.

"Those aren't 2 pillows!!!"

For those who have seen the movie “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”, that quote will make sense. A few of us are about to embark on a trip that may rival scenes from P T & A. Suffice to say, getting to Presque Isle Downs from Minneapolis in less than 10 hours for a reasonable cost is a challenge. The ambitious itinerary starting a couple hours before sunrise on Friday includes multiple modes of transportation (my car, plane, shuttle bus, rental car) and stops along the way in Chicago and Cleveland.

With 75% of the stable running this weekend @ PID, it will hopefully be worth the effort. However, as mentioned before, the couple times I have seen Stumbling Block run in person have not been enjoyable. Maybe I won’t let him see me before the race so he doesn’t know I am there:)

Spreading the action

My creative juices just aren't flowing today. After last night's win (Straight Laced), the best I could come up with for a theme is that it was our first win in West Virginia. So I got to thinking about how many states we have won a race in - here is the rundown:

Florida - 41
Minnesota - 35
Pennsylvania - 7
Illinois - 6
Iowa - 4
OK, KY, OH, WV - 1 each

Up next: It's closing weekend @ Presque Isle and we are hopeful that the other 3 in the barn will all get a race in.

The Comeback

This weekend, on the shores of Lake Erie, an athlete of local interest returned to the game. Earlier this year, all signs pointed to his retirement and surgery was required to help him resume training. Along the way, there were signs of hope, but there were plenty of skeptics who pointed out the following:

1) He's too old.
2) It would cost too much to bring him back.
3) Could his injury withstand the wear and tear and pounding required?
4) Would his legacy be tarnished if he could no longer compete at a high level?

Brett Favre? No, I am talking about Slewey Armstrong. Similar to the Vikings' # 4, Slewey's return could be graded "so-so". However, both offered enough encouragement for me to think better days are ahead (IF THEY CAN STAY HEALTHY!!).

Next up: it sounds like we could be making a tour around the big lake this weekend as we may be entering races in Ohio (Thistledown), Pennsylvania (Presque Isle), and New York (Finger Lakes) in an effort to find races for Straight Laced and Wild Adventure. Additionally, we could see Stumbling Block again as soon as this weekend at PID.

Patience is a .....

.....I'll wait to complete that thought until Friday night. Slewey Armstrong is scheduled to finally make his WG debut (Race 1@ PID). Over 8 months since we claimed and after a number of setbacks/delays, it looks like Friday will be the day. At this condition, the competition is suspect at best but I am sure others in the race are looking at us and thinking the same thing.

Kudos to the anonymous reader who commented on my last post about Stumbling Block. While I am familiar with our horses' pedigrees, I was surprised to see someone else connect the dots - well done.

The Metric System

Success can be measured by any number of metrics. No matter which statistic you use and despite my tempered expectations heading into last night’s race, Stumbling Block made a strong case for the being the best horse we have ever owned. A few facts to support his case:

1) First and foremost, he is our all time leading purse $$ earner.
2) Last night’s win was # 6 – no horse has ever won more 7 or more races.
3) Only a dozen or so horses in North America have won more races than him in 2009.
4) He has won at least 3 races on 3 different surfaces (very rare).
5) I was concerned about last night’s jock switch – including last night, he has had 16 different jockeys in his 44 lifetime races. 7 different jockeys have had their picture taken with him.
6) All races with us have been at the level we claimed him or higher.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect with any of these numbers is that the phrase “and counting” can be added at the end. He has earned $247 more than Tytus thus far. Hopefully, Block’s story will have a better ending. This debate would not be complete without mentioning Lite Brigade. In addition to his earnings (only $800 less than Block), he added a lot of value from being sold twice for more than what we paid for him. Along with Silver Peagus, his financial contributions came at a time when we desperately needed some cash flow. His success allowed us to aggressively expand the stable – in hindsight, that didn’t go as well as I had hoped. That “careless” spending put us into a hole and Block has been the big shovel we needed to dig our way out.