Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The only "downer" today - seeing a washed out Yes Master
Today was such an awesome day, between going to the track in the morning and seeing all the horses, including some nice workouts by Cuba, Rose's Tiger and a jog by the new filly, Prairie Melody, but one incident late morning put a bit of a damper on everyone's morning. It was seeing Yes Master, the wonderful horse we owned until two weeks ago, walk past our barn on his way back from the track. He was all washed out and didn't look like the same horse as when Bobby D had him. Walter Blum mentioned that he heard Yes Master huffing and puffing out there on the track and had seen Patrick Reynolds drill him four days in a row. It's such a shame because he is such an honest animal. Who knows... maybe they will not see immediate results and put him in for a cheaper claim. Then maybe we can take him back.
Labels: Barn Notes, Florida, Gulfstream
Fasig Tipton Selects Sale at Calder - my first real horse auction
Today, I attended the 2-year old Select sale at Calder Race Course, put on by Fasig-Tipton. This was an awesome experience that allowed me to see how the auction works, from a great vantage point (I sat in the front row for most of the sale.) Anyway, there were some amazing animals, ranging from a Street Cry that went for 2.1M to a couple of other beauties such as a Speightstown that went for $1.7M. Bobby Dibona liked a few of the animals - mostly ones that ended up going for $600K-$1.7M (hell, at least Bob has good taste) and we almost made a bid for an Unbridled's Song colt who was a half brother to Kona Gold. He went for $100K. We also really liked a NJ-bred named "Thedude". He was a beautiful dark bay out of Not For Love but WAY out of our price range anyway when he sold for $325K.
We decided to not jump in because we hadn't vetted these horses and done enough homework for the week. I met Mike Recio from Adena Springs, who besides being a cool guy, is a wealth of information about horses. He actually had looked most of these animals over during the days leading up to the sale and steered us clear of bidding on a couple who might have some medical issues. Mike also introduced me to several of the other Adena Springs people over a beer after the sale. It was a nice way to unwind and meet some of the other horse people. It sort of reminded me of 6 PM at Siro's, minus the band and the $14 drinks.
All in all, it was a terrific experience that I would recommend to anyone even remotely interested in the horse industry (or if you just like to get an up-close and personal view of these majestic animals). I can't wait for the auctions in Ocala next month, which will be more in line with our budget anyway.
The picture above is of Bob Baffert, just after he threw in the towel on HIP 203, a Cuvee colt that was very nice. From the body language, it seemed as though Bob had assigned a value lower than this for the horse anyway and seemed a bit relieved to NOT get the horse. The other picture is one of the horses at the sale (forget which one, it sold for about $400K though.)
Labels: Auctions, Florida, Sales
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Current roster of horses
I haven't officially named my stable yet, but am considering "Tramps Like Us Stable", since we race half of the year on the Jersey shore and I feel compelled to pay homage to the best rocker of all time, Bruce. Anyway, here's the current list of horses (as of Feb 21, 2008):
1. Tuscan Prince - nice mid level 5 year old gelding. He won his last race at Gulfstream this month.
2. Return The Favor (3 year old colt - yet to race) - My trainer, Bobby Dibona, thinks this could be a special animal. He's training well and should have his first race some time in the next week or two. I'm excited about this horse because as an unraced horse, he could become anything.
3. She's Actingood (this is the young filly making her first start tomorrow, Friday, in the first race at Gulfstream. She's by Posse and had a nice 48 and 2/5 workout last week.)
4. Dr. Mohrbacher - Interesting 4 year old that won his last race as well. He was a bit of a project. We bought him for $20K last year at Del Mar after his third race and he finally won a race for us last week ($25K CLM at Gulfstream). He had been bought for $300K as a 2 year old at the Fasig-Tipton Calder Selects sale.
5. Preciousness (this one will be moving to a farm in Ocala, Florida next week where we intend to breed her to Red Bullet, the horse that won the Preakness in 2000)
6. Cuba (with Danny Levesque) - nice New Jersey-bred horse that we just claimed a few weeks ago. He whistled the day we took him and he should be a really nice one for us this summer at Monmouth Park (where they run some races that are restricted to NJ breds).
7. Prairie Melody (with Danny Levesque) - nice 3 YO grass filly that we claimed today. She should be good on the grass and being only 3, she has a lot of upside.
Here are the horses that I own with Tom Flanagan and Bobby Valente in the name of "Scollay Square Stable".
8. Stalwart Woodsman - won his last race as well. We scratched him out of his race today because we felt he was overmatched against some monsters. It was a good call because he would have been trounced.
9. Rose's Tiger - Very good horse but he has sore feet. We need to get him back on the turf to see how good he really is.
10. Full Secret - good mid-level filly, can run on the grass or dirt.
11. Forensic Edge - inexpensive filly, could blossom.
12. Shore - fairly new horse. Could improve under Bobby Dibona's training quite a bit.
Saying goodbye to old friends and hello to new ones...
I was bummed about losing my top two horses, Precisely That and Yes Master, this month. Both had been ultra consistent performers for me that were cashing checks nearly every time they went to the track. Both were claimed for over double what we had paid, though, so we really can't lament that too much. You do start to get attached to some of these animals though, especially the ones that show so much heart every time they race. As they say, though, one door closes and another opens.... We recently claimed Cuba and Prairie Melody. Cuba is an interesting New Jersey bred horse who won for fun the day we claimed him (for $18K at GP 02-06-08) with an 83 Beyer. He should be really well spotted this summer at the Jersey shore. Prairie Melody is a talented 3 year old filly that Wayne Lukas seemed to be overtraining. (Not sure why, byt he had breezed her 5 times since her last race 4 weeks ago.) Anyway, as luck would have it, her race was rained off the turf today but Lukas didn't scratch her (even though it is obvious from her past performances that she is purely a grass horse). So, we put the claim in and knew she wouldn't win today and break her maiden. Perfect. She did exactly what we wanted and ran a pretty good race, didn't win, and came to our barn healthy. Excellent. Can't wait to get this filly back on the grass.
With these new additions, our stable is back up to 12 horses. I'll publish a different posting that details them all.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Johannesburg filly fetches $500K at OBS Sale
This should bode well for Bobby D's 3-year old filly by Johannesburg
OBSFEB hip 161
two-year-old F
Johannesburg--Border Dispute
$500,000
BR: Crown Bloodstock (Ky)
C: Wavertree Stables, Inc.
B: John McCormack Bloodstock
A chestnut filly by Johannesburg attracted a final bid of $500,000 from John McCormack Bloodstock during Tuesday's OBS February Sale. Consigned by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables, Agent VI, the juvenile worked a bullet furlong in :10.0 at the sale's first under tack show. She is out of Border Dispute (Boundary). McCormack was buying for a group of unnamed Middle Eastern clients.
Saratoga
The Albany Times Union has a nice section dedicated to Saratoga, that includes dining, local activities and links to a lot of horse information such as a BLOG about racing.
Labels: Saratoga
Kentucky Derby Preps
The DRF has a page where all the Derby preps are listed, along with the winner, Beyer figure, recap and chart.
Labels: Derby, Kentucky Derby
Monday, February 11, 2008
Green Monkey retired
They finally admitted the mistake today by retiring The Green Monkey after only 4 mediocre races. Will The Green Monkey go down as the biggest disappointment in the history of the sport? Probably. I can't see how any horse that was bought with such high expectations (the 9.80 second 1 furlong workout as a two-year old is what surely made the Magnier guys go ga ga over him) could ever be viewed as a success with such abject failure on the race track. Even if he goes on to be a successful stallion, I imagine this is going to a big bust.
