Calling an audible

When Tom and I spoke early in the day, it was not our plan to have No Lip on the lead early. After watching the 1st 3 races, Tom had noticed that there was a definite track bias to speed on the rail. So when he called me 20 minutes before the race, we agreed that the instructions to the Jock would be to do what he could to secure the rail early.

While those instructions could have cost us the race by asking the horse to do something he wouldn’t want to do, the strategy was likely a major reason why he won the race today. The bias might make the race look better than what it would otherwise, but given our long drought between trips to the winners circle, I am not going to find any fault with today’s win. If anything, it allows me to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

The win doesn’t assure any future success since he will have to step up his level of competition. However, it will at least buy us time to figure out whether or not he can turn into something “special’.

Last but not least, I will finally be able to at least partially get rid of the sour taste left behind from his first race. Here’s hoping his race today is a better indication of what we can expect.