Three in a Row

And not in a good way. Two back Tabby Lane's comment line read: No factor. Last out was a ditto. Today's: Trailed. We've had all our illusions shattered at this point. Two races after claiming Tabby Lane we were thinking Claiming Crown, now we're wondering how low we need to go to get her back on track.

In fairness to her this race wasn't on her preferred surface and certainly not her preferred distance: she was one the turf and only going 5 furlongs. She trailed Summer Nights early fractions of :21.1 and :43.2 and she went on to lower the course mark by a huge .8 seconds to :55.2. According to jockey Dean Butler she tried hard but they never came back to her and her action was definitely different on the turf. The fact remains that she's not living up to the apparently too lofty expectations we set for her.

Bernell and I will need to reassess before we go forward again. At this point her confidence has to be a shambles. She's been trying hard and hasn't been able to get where she wants to be and that has to be debilitating. Before her head takes a complete dump we'll need to build her up again and that's going to require some significant class relief. It could very well be that we caught lightening in a bottle those first few starts and now she's come back to Earth.

To put it in a nutshell, I feel awful. We started on a high note that's difficult to maintain, but these last three races make me feel terrible for our partners. I feel like we've really let them down. The crowd around Tabby today was absolutely inspiring. Partners and their friends and family were gathered. We had one helluva group there. Then we threw in this clunker. I feel terrible for them all, like I've let them down. We'll regroup and move forward, but flushing a dream is tough and it may take a few days, but regroup we will.