A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Turf

The Fiz settled into Bernell's barn nicely. After a day or two of adjustment. While he looked good and none the worse for wear, he was a little out of sorts. My guess is this being his third barn in about 45 days, his routine was a mess. Horses love routine and familiarity. He adjusted nicely and after he recovered from the race in which we claimed him, he spent some time galloping and staying in shape while Bernell hunted for a grass race for him. Two things happened on the way to that grass race: no room at the inn and a workout.

There are so many grass horses at the $16,000 level at Tampa that it was tough to find him a spot. He was way down on the preference list and we could have waited until the end of the meet and still not got him in. This wouldn't have been the end of the world. In fact, a brief rest before Canterbury may have been in order. Until the workout.

Fizzy Pop was sent out to breeze 4 furlongs to air things out a bit. It had been two weeks since the race and with little prospect on the horizon for entering one, so it was decided that he should stretch the legs a bit. On March 28 he let loose a bullet workout of :49 flat on the dirt course. He was first of 23 to go four that day and he recovered very quickly. Apparently Fiz was letting us know that he was ready to go - now.

As many of you know, if you have a horse rounding into form and is ready to run - you run. To wait for what you perceive to be the most perfect spot runs the risk of watching your horse's form tail off. They can only stay sharp for so long before you need to start the cycle over again. Fizzy will be racing for us for the first time on April 1 going a mile and 40 yards on the dirt in a $16,000 claiming race at Tampa.

This race shapes up to be a tough one. There are some nice horses dropping in and some that have edged our boy earlier in the year. Some would call this an 'ambitious' placement, and it may be, but I truly think that if Dean Butler, our jockey, can keep him out of trouble we have a shot at finishing in the money here. Admittedly it's going to be a tough one to win, but he has a shot or we wouldn't run him in it.

Here's hoping that Fiz runs a nice race, comes back sound and doesn't make an April Fool out of us!!