Fizzy on the Verge

I'm sitting on the edge of a good week. Not the type of week where you win a few stakes races, crate up the trophies and go home kind a week, but for me - a pretty good week.

As posted, Monday began with a seminar on equine conformation. Thanks to that class, I'm trying to figure out how to get to Miami in late February to take TOBA's 2-day pedigree and conformation class. Yesterday could be the beginning of the end of my quest to own a controlling interest in a nicely bred Minnesota bred filly that could bloom into something special. Today I spoke with Bernell Rhone and he advised me that not only is Fizzy Pop (above) in Florida now, but he's doing even better than expected.

Bernell, in my experience with him, is not a bubbly guy. Don't get me wrong, he's a great communicator and can interact with just about everyone, but I've not had the pleasure of hearing him excited about a horse's behavior before. And he was excited about the way Fizzy was acting in his paddock. He made sure that Fiz wasn't turned out for the day before he got there and when he did, he galloped, bucked and played around. Since he's been at the farm, he hasn't missed a meal, a drop of a meal and is the first one in the barn done at dinner time. The ankle looked and felt great and he showed no signs of favoring it at all. We had planned on getting him back into training by Christmas, but if the next visit goes as well as this one (probably this coming weekend), then he'll be at Tampa Bay Downs next week, gearing up for the season. It was very uplifting to hear my trainer say, "Stopping on him when we did was the right thing to do. He looks great!"

Now after a few months rest, Fizzy Pop is getting ready to head back to the track. It's a clean slate after the rest. Maybe this is the rest he needed to make it to the next level? Maybe he'll be more of an allowance horse this year? Maybe we'll even run in some of those Florida bred stales races this spring? Maybe even the open stakes at Canterbury this summer? Maybe this is the year for the Claiming Crown!!??

Hey - as I've said 100 times before, if you're in this business and you don't dream big, you're in the wrong business! We're all about dreams here - maybe Fizzy will be a five year old that will sizzle? Who knows, but after 3.5 months away from racing, it's a clean slate and every improbable scenario from October seems possible again.