I Am Woman will try and make it four for four in 2009 tonight as undoubtedly the odds-on favorite in the first race at Balmoral tonight. Post time is 6:30 CT and at that moment my boys and I will be driving on I-15 toward their mom's house in N. Las Vegas. If anyone out there catches the race, if you could drop me an e-mail with the result I'd appreciate it. TrackMaster harness results are no way near as timely as their Thoroughbred brethren are so until I get to the hotel, I will be resultless.
It was quite a day for Minnesota connected horses yesterday. David M. Miller outlines it best in his View From the Quarter Pole blog entry today. Best of luck to Mac Robertson and the Win Willy crew. That is going to be a fun horse to watch the next few weeks. I hope Canterbury can still be an attractive enough destination for Mac and other trainers every summer. David covers that a bit as well.
While Tampa Bay Derby pacesetter Perfect Bull didn't have it to hold Saturday against this ilk, be certain that the Bernell Rhone trained colt will be a factor in the Minnesota Derby. It was exciting to see a Minn-bred in with the big boys and even more so to see him up in front. I hope he came back well so we can enjoy him up here. I remember the day after he arrived in Shakopee from the Assmussen barn in Texas. My wife and I happened to be in the Rhone barn visiting Somerset Sam and Fizzy Pop that morning. Bernell was excited to show him to us and he lived up to his billing. He was a strapping black colt at two and just looked the part of a racehorse. I've been following him ever since and while not successful in the Tampa Bay Derby, I think he has a future in less ambitious stakes racing for a couple of years.
Val over at Foolish Pleasure asks an interesting question about trainer Scott Lake's bankruptcy. I don't know a lot about Lake's situation other than it happened, but boy can I see this spreading if things don't turn around economically soon. Owner's that can't pay their bills translate into trainers that don't get paid. A trainer can only confiscate so much stock or have it signed over to them by cash strapped owners before he or she has a glut of stock. This has the potential to be an ugly problem - I hope it never gets there.
Other Stable News and Notes
Our Miss Belle Express is back at the track this week. She started training over the surface again today and we'll see in a few days if that shin issue is behind us. It appears to be, but until she gets some real work over the racetrack, we won't know for sure. It looks like Fizzy Pop will move up a bit in class next out as the only $25,000 claiming race in this book was run on Friday. There are, however, three $32,000 claiming races a mile or more upcoming with two on the turf. I think he can handle the potential foes OK it's just too bad that the purse money for the $20K, $32K and $50K claimers are all the same. Regardless, we're happy to be running and Fizzy's a fighter. What's nice is that as a Florida bred he is eligible for the bonus win money - if we can just get him under the wire first before he travels north!
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