Unreal...

As far as inquiries into partnerships go, this was a great week. Website and blog hits are way up and I had quite a few solid inquiries about GRS #2. For the record, we're looking at getting partners lined up for the fall to claim at either Remington or back at Tampa depending upon opportunities. It was great to feel like things were coming together. Wish broke her maiden, Fizzy followed up his win with a strong come from behind second and now business is potentially on the rise.

And then we ran this week's races...

The holiday weekend held much promise. Fizzy was stepping up in class, but he was working sharp and racing Thursday night. Prior to that race, at Goshen Historic Racetrack in Goshen, NY, our pacing filly I Am Woman was to make her first start in the Landmark Stakes for 2-year old fillies. The weekend would wrap up with Somerset Wish coming back off her maiden win with a try against state bred $15,000 claimers on Sunday afternoon. Even Somerset Sam was back on track, breezing this weekend for the first time since his last race and slight stifle soreness. What a great time to shine!!!

I Am Woman started off by showing us that she doesn't care for half mile racetracks. Her driver, Pat Berry, decided right off of the gate to just get in some work rather than trying to force her through the tight turns at her age in her first real start. She paced a very slow mile at 2:05 and she'll be sent out to qualify again this week to get a quicker mile in her prior to her next stakes start. Disappointment number one.

That evening we went down to Shakopee for Fizzy Pop's race, a mile and a sixteenth on the turf optional claiming/allowance race with tags set at $25,000. Pretty ambitious for our $10,000 purchase, but he has earned the shot, no question. Fizzy came in a bit at the break and hit his neighbor pretty hard. For the second race in a row he also had trouble settling down, though this time he was in a pretty good stalking position leading the second flight of horses down the backside. The half was run in :48 and though he's come back into a slow pace like this before, he didn't do it against this calibre of horse and, try as he might, he was unable to run down the leaders. He finished only 2.25 lengths back, but between him and the wire there were six other horses for an 'also ran' seventh place finish. Silver lining: this was a much tougher group and without a bang at the break and a little more speed, the result could have different. Still THIS one was a major disappointment to me. Though I never said it out loud, if he could have won this race I was hoping to talk with Bernell about running him in the John Bullit Stakes at the end of the month. Disappointment number two.

Wish was my hope to save the weekend. I wasn't afraid of losing her in this spot - I think she was fairly placed and if there is one thing I've learned, you try not to claim a fairly placed horse - and she even had a better than average shot at winning this one. She broke well but coming out of the nine hole, she was wide. In order not to take her wide through the turn, AA Morales angled her into the turn so she caught the rail. On the turn for home, however, she went wide again and then drifted. It turned out to be a relatively flat 6 furlong, fifth place finish and the exclamation point on my holiday weekend. Actually, it was more of the ellipses on my weekend. There was hardly any exclamation to be hard. I hope that she came back OK - she didn't appear to be favoring anything coming back from the race - and we'll live to fight another day. Still, I hit the disppointment trifecta.

There will be other races and we'll do better. Of course now I'm adding a half dozen folks onto the e-mail list and the first report they'll get will hardly be glowing. However, it is what it is and I'm not going to hide anything. We'll move on from here and after a few weeks, folks will see that we share the good and the bad and hopefully take them on a heckuva fun ride that they'll want to be a part of.