Sunday, July 27, 2008

A Spot and Decisions

I try to blog, on average, every third day or so. That gives the millions of readers the opportunity to skip a few days and not miss anything. OK, it's really so the two of you don't have to check back every day. However on Thursday morning I woke up to attackers in my room and after fighting them off I discovered I injured my back and haven't been able to sit at a computer for almost a week. OK...again...maybe I crumpled to my knees when I picked up a tooth paste cap and coughed at the same time and THAT's why I've really been immobile the since Thursday morning. The former is a better story, but sadly the latter is true. It's hell getting old.


In any event, Fizzy finally found a race. On Thursday night he'll be going a mile and a sixteenth over the turf course at Canterbury. He'll be running at the same level as last out - $25,000 claiming or non-winners of two races other than starter, claiming or maiden where he finished a close packed 7th. We're the only entry in from the last race and it again it proves to be a wide open affair. I'll blog more about the race as we get closer, but it's a solid fit in a solid field.


It's getting to be decision time with a couple of our charges. I Am Woman, our pacing filly back East, may sit out the remainder of the 2 year old campaign. She's been training a little sore and while her trainer feels that it's mostly growing pains, we're not going to take any risks with her. The folks over at VIP will be making a decision later this week. I'd much rather err on the side of caution. She has excellent breeding and racing potential so I'd rather let her develop than ruin her too early.


Somerset Wish finished 4th on Friday night in a state bred $7500 claiming event going 5.5 furlongs. She was well placed but was no match for the top two in that race and we're going to have to make a decision on her. David Miller, our managing partner of that group, will have the final say but if I had to guess, I would think that we're leaning toward retiring her. Running at this level isn't very profitable, especially if she can only compete against state breds here at Canterbury. That means we'd have to pay to turn her out all winter and then try and scratch out a living in the low level claiming ranks next summer. I just don't see that happening and I certainly don't see us letting her go to get run into the ground at low level bull rings either. Finally, she's not particularly impressive breeding stock on her mother's side (Somerset Blum - I know, who?) so I don't see us moving forward to breed her either (to be fair, she is a grand-daughter of Unbridled, so not a complete washout).

All these decisions, plus where to race Sam and what do we do with Fizzy as the Canterbury season runs down all will be addressed in the next few weeks as we head into August and the last weeks of the Canterbury meet. It's hard to believe after a winter of waiting that we're down to the final five weeks of live racing. If Fizzy heads back to Florida, I'm sensing a winter trip...just to see how he's doing, of course!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you go to Florida let me know if you can find a good track will ya?

Seriously-should be headed up to the Spa this week (some issues may side track me) but I can't believe you guys are talking about winding down! Just put Forbidden back into training but the opening of TBD is still a lifetime away right now. Still a lot of calender to flip before mid-December-but it will be here anyway. Best of luck Thurs--I'll check in from Saratoga.

Best,
PEM

Theodore L. Grevelis said...

I'm insanely jealous - I love Saratoga, though I haven't been in forever. If Fiz stays ours, we'll see you at Tampa! I'm hoping we can take a few days this winter and come down. We'll have to grab a beer at TBD! Keep me posted on how the horses are doing!

Anonymous said...

Yeah bud we got plenty of room at the track...and the horses are doing "expensive" currently.....best of luck this week-I know all too well the agony of waiting for a race to be written-only to see it not fill.