Gearing Up

As we get under the 100 day mark until live racing returns to Canterbury Park, horses are getting ready all over the country.  There are potential Canterbury runners in training from Louisiana to Minnesota and Kentucky to Arizona and many places in between.  Currently we have one horse in training and a yearling spending some time growing up.  As I told you about earlier, we sold Tabby Lane and while we retain the designation of 'breeder' to her Doneraile Court foal-to-be, she's off our books with the exception of the stud fee due when the foal stands and nurses.  Last post I mentioned that you can't do it all and we decided to focus on racing.  I'd love to be the independently wealthy type to race and breed, but I'm not so we roll the dice with Ellie and George and whoever else comes down the road.

Tabby Dacat

Young George (Tabby Dacat, officially) is pictured below.  He is a large roan (well, getting there) colt by Eastwood Dacat.  He appears to be relatively correct and is growing nicely, albeit a bit quickly.  We're very excited about our own homebred Minnesota bred.

Tabby Dacat (Eastwood Dacat-Tabby Lane-Even the Score) - We call him George

George and friend...



George will be part of a partnership group when he heads into training late this year, though it's entirely possible that we would put together a group for him earlier since demand seems to be relatively high even though folks know that nothing exciting is going to happen for about a year until he starts training in earnest.

Elusive Edition

Ellie (Elusive Edition) had a very difficult first year.  We ran her four times and she was a complete disaster in her first three.  Her first race could be considered a throw out - she failed to exit the gate in a timely manner and trailed the entire race.  Though she did beat a single horse in that maiden effort.  That initial effort was at 6 furlongs, much like her next two where she again finished 2nd to last. 

Elusive Edition (Late Edition-Mystical Elusion-Menifee) checking out the new surroundings at Turfway

To say that I was depressed over this would be an understatement.  After hurting her shins as a 2-year old and not racing, that first race was a long time coming.  Her efforts leading up to the season in training were good and we had high hopes heading into her 3-year old season.  This was clearly not the start we envisioned.

Her final start of the season was going a mile and 70 yards.  It was a desperation-ish move based on some sound reasoning.  Her jockey, Dean Butler, had mentioned to us that she just couldn't keep up at 6 furlongs and that, maybe, if we sent her longer he could relax her more and that might give her a chance in the race.

She didn't finish second to last in the maiden claiming effort (7th of 10), she did chase the winner around in 2nd place into the lane before she faded.  She most likely wasn't ready to go long and that last effort gave us - well most of us - some hope that with preparation geared to a router instead of a sprinter she may have a chance.

So with that she is back in training with Michelle Allen at Turfway Park.  We sent her away because the winters here have been very hard and really cut into training.  While she's going to be on a short leash this season - more second to last place finishes and we'll find her a new job - we do want to make sure that she has every opportunity to succeed.

New Group(s)

As I mentioned above, we'll be looking at getting George into a group at some point but right now we also are about halfway to 60% full for a new claiming private purchase group to launch this season.  We're keeping this group to 10 members so hopefully we fill in the next month and start shopping.

The Canterbury Racing Club is filling up nicely this season and while it looks like we won't be as big as this past record breaking season (204 members) we will end up well over 100 members.  We may have set the bar a bit high last season with six wins and twelve in the money finishes in 15 starts but it does give us something to shoot at!

We also started a group specifically for Canterbury Racing Club alumni.  There was quite a bit of pent up demand to get the Club to do more: carry over horses from year to year, maybe get a better quality horse and run in higher level races; but the Club was never designed for that.  It was developed as an educational opportunity for people who want to learn about racing without having to worry about paying the bills to do so.

Out of this the CAC Racing was born.  The CAC standing for Canterbury Alumni Club.  Where the Canterbury Club is a not for profit endeavor, CAC Racing will be for profit - at least we are going to try.  The Racing Club is only a $250 buy in and our regular partnerships are a $2000 buy in.  The CAC Racing group falls in between.  There is a $1000 buy in and the group was capped at 50.  As I mentioned, the only requirement is that member had to have once been a member of the Canterbury Racing Club.  I look at it like an intermediate step on the ownership ladder.