It's not often that I would be satisfied running fifth. However, given the bias against the inside of the track, I thought Oculuna ran a respectable race today. After watching the earlier turf races, it was clear that the jockeys wanted no part of the inside of the course where the footing was softer since taking a majority of the drainage from recent heavy rains. However, with the big field size, we could never get outside and as hard as she tried, it was to no avail. After the race, our jock came back covered in mud - from a race on the grass! It was not meant to be today, but if she comes out of the race in good shape, we'll start looking for the next spot to run.
With today's loss, our hopes of an undefeated year were dashed. Stumbling Block did his part earlier this week as he cruised to a relatively easy score in Tampa and extended his lead as our all-time leader in wins and $$ earned.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
In the news
From today's DRF:
Leggio looks like anybody's race
By Abram Himelstein
The words "wide open betting affair" come to mind when looking at the full field in the $75,000 Leggio, a 5 1/2-furlong turf race for fillies and mares.
While the favorite, Coy Cat, has shown her love for the Fair Grounds turf, the 5-year-old mare will not scare off any of her competitors.
Coy Cat is 3 for 3 over the Fair Grounds turf, including a win in the Bienville on last year's Louisiana Derby Day undercard.
She will face many who look like they could get the job done, including longshot Oculuna.
Oculuna won a third-level optional claiming turf sprint here on New Year's Day, coming four wide down the stretch to win by a nose. She only has one functional eye, but her trainer, Tom Amoss, doesn't feel that she is hampered by the limitation on her sight.
"She doesn't even know that she is missing an eye," said Amoss. "She's shown that she likes the track, and shown that she likes this distance at the track."
Leggio looks like anybody's race
By Abram Himelstein
The words "wide open betting affair" come to mind when looking at the full field in the $75,000 Leggio, a 5 1/2-furlong turf race for fillies and mares.
While the favorite, Coy Cat, has shown her love for the Fair Grounds turf, the 5-year-old mare will not scare off any of her competitors.
Coy Cat is 3 for 3 over the Fair Grounds turf, including a win in the Bienville on last year's Louisiana Derby Day undercard.
She will face many who look like they could get the job done, including longshot Oculuna.
Oculuna won a third-level optional claiming turf sprint here on New Year's Day, coming four wide down the stretch to win by a nose. She only has one functional eye, but her trainer, Tom Amoss, doesn't feel that she is hampered by the limitation on her sight.
"She doesn't even know that she is missing an eye," said Amoss. "She's shown that she likes the track, and shown that she likes this distance at the track."
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Deep Waters
Come Saturday night, we’ll know a lot more about Oculuna. The field for her stakes race came up extremely tough. One of the competitors ran a head behind Rachel Alexandra in a stakes race as a 2 year-old. Besides us, there is only one other horse who has ever even been in a claiming race before. The stats don’t favor the inside post - most winners in turf sprints come from posts 5-8. With all that being said, we’ll either get a sobering reality check or know that we have something special in the barn.
While the filly’s race offers a lot of unknowns, I have a pretty good idea how Stumbling Block’s race will unfold on Thursday. He runs against a similar bunch that he has faced at this level before and if the pace and trip are favorable, he has as good as shot as any in the field to get his picture taken.
While the filly’s race offers a lot of unknowns, I have a pretty good idea how Stumbling Block’s race will unfold on Thursday. He runs against a similar bunch that he has faced at this level before and if the pace and trip are favorable, he has as good as shot as any in the field to get his picture taken.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Video Links
It looks like we will be able to add a link to race replays from the Fair Grounds. For a replay of Oculuna's win, go to the website (upper left corner).
Saturday, January 2, 2010
# 100 in the books
Finally, after sitting on 99 wins for almost 3 months, we busted through the century mark in a big way this weekend. The debut of Oculuna was a success as she prevailed despite a rough journey to get up at the wire by the slimmest of margins to notch our milestone victory. She had a tough time running a straight line down the stretch (guessing the absence of a left eye has something to do with that), but once she was able to switch to her right lead, she dug in for the wire and got up by just a few inches - very, very exciting for the few of us in attendance at Canterbury to watch the race on a small computer screen after the track's satellite signal went out.
It didn't take long for us to notch victory # 101 - Stumbling Block showed us today what a difference a jockey can make as he reunited with Centeno to score a convincing win. While today's win meant a lot less financially, it was still great to see our all-time $$ earner become our first horse to get his/her picture taken 7 times. The 7-year old veteran campaigner continues to deliver honest efforts every time we walk him over to the races.
2 victories in 2 days to start the new year. At this pace, we have a shot to win the nation's owner title for 2010. I guess I better get busy and start looking at some more horses to buy if we are to make a run at that title.
It didn't take long for us to notch victory # 101 - Stumbling Block showed us today what a difference a jockey can make as he reunited with Centeno to score a convincing win. While today's win meant a lot less financially, it was still great to see our all-time $$ earner become our first horse to get his/her picture taken 7 times. The 7-year old veteran campaigner continues to deliver honest efforts every time we walk him over to the races.
2 victories in 2 days to start the new year. At this pace, we have a shot to win the nation's owner title for 2010. I guess I better get busy and start looking at some more horses to buy if we are to make a run at that title.
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