The Century Mark

I was going to write about the Distaff Divisions a bit today (I don't dare call it "Ladies Day" here!). I am so unbelievably impressed with the depth of quality of both the 3-year old fillies and the older fillies and mares - and the corresponding dearth of talent in the male divisions - that Friday will be the best day of racing Breeder's Cup weekend. In fact, if I don't make the trip, I may just take Friday off of work!

Then I took a look at my dashboard and realized that this was to be my 100th post. One hundred. I didn't think I'd have enough to say when I first started almost a year ago to last a month. Now I have digressed from time to time - mostly to highlight achievements by my beloved Red Sox and Celtics (frigging Eli Manning and the B's...) and lament the loss of dearly departed friends, but I've tried to stay true to my mission of describing what it's like to own racehorses and get a successful partnership off the ground.

I appreciate the indulgence of those of you that come back from time to time to see what's new. I especially appreciate those of you that have taken the time to comment over the past 100 posts - both positive and negative. Well, all except the PETA yahoos and their SPAM commentary.

I have outlined, sometimes to the point of exasperation for some of you, my travails with my first experience with horse racing in California. That situation still isn't resolved, by the way. The results of the 'vote' was never divulged and no action taken. Shocker, I know. I have talked about getting GRS #1 off the ground, the acquisition of Fizzy Pop and his triumphs and disappointments. My great experiences with Star of the North Bloodstock have been noted here as well as the failure of being able to garner enough interest in Standardbred racing to get a small group together for Running Aces in it's inaugural season. Of course with purses the way they were the first season, I really didn't try that hard either. Maybe next year if the purses rise as promised.

All the while you have read on from coast to coast across North America and even in the UK, Australia and - believe it or not - Israel. There have been some one-timers from countries around the globe, but the US, Canada, UK and Israel have been 'come backers'. Thank you so much for your support.

Speaking of support, how great has the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance been? Well, pretty damn terrific to me. Going forward I need to highlight the standings more in my posts when I wander away from my own corner of racing. They are a great measure of what's happening in the sport and I need to do my part in perpetuating their usefulness. You may notice that our standings look has changed a bit. In addition to Twin Spires, we now have North American Trainer magazine sponsoring the 3-year old colt division. Hopefully we'll be adding more sponsors in the future as well. If any of you racing related big wigs out there want to inquire about sponsoring a division, please let me know and I'll help you get the ball rolling.

I certainly appreciate you all indulging my digressions on behalf of retiring racehorses via Karin Wagner's Neigh Savers. Karen has been instrumental in both finding homes for retired racehorses and supporting organizations that do the same and deserves more support than she gets. She's also increased my readership in California which I thoroughly appreciate.

In blatant NASCAR-esque shoutout, I'd like to thank: Google for providing the forum; those of you that click the ads that run on this page; my own sponsors you see on the right, Bodog and BetPad; and Justin Gallant, who offers up free Past Performances, has done a great job in spreading the word for me through his moderation of the Horses Wild website.

I have to thank my wife, Theri. She puts up with my not only researching horses and writing this blog, but my sometimes endless yammering when I get worked up over something racing related. To her endless credit, her eyes don't glass over and she always has words of wisdom and support. Thank you, sweetheart!

I think that's about all. I apologize for missing anyone and, again, thank you to all the readers. I appreciate it more than you can imagine. This should be my last digression for a while and I'll get back to racing again. Hopefully I can digress again in late October...