The Process of Becoming George

George!

This is the brief story of Tabby Dacat (Eastwood Dacat-Tabby Lane-Even the Score) in pictures.  Heather took most of these, the ultrasound is courtesy of the vets over at Weitz, the halfway mark photo was taken by Lisa Duoos at Dove Hill Farm and the one of Tabby and I by Annie Ringwelski.  Some were on nice cameras and some were via iPhone but the net result are pictures that tell a sweet story and are hopefully the prelude to a happy and successful one.

I hope you enjoy them and George's story - there is certainly more to come!



Tabby Lane (Even the Score-Keeley Chay-Rodeo) surges to the front at Canterbury Park during her racing days.  One of her 10 victories in 40 starts.  She retired with nearly $120,000 in earnings.
 

Tabby and I enjoying her retirement around Christmas 2012.  I totally fell for her, breaking a cardinal rule of racing horses - don't fall in love with them!

Eastwood Dacat (Storm Cat-Western Eternity-Gone West) looking especially regal in his paddock at Bleu Valley Farm in Stillwater Minnesota.  Bred to Tabby to inject speed into her stamina we hope to get a versatile, quick mid-distance runner.
 

George...very, VERY early on!  This was our first glimpse about 6 weeks after the cover.



With about 2 months to go, Tabby was slowing down.  Granted, it was frigidly cold, but she seemed to be getting that "I'm WAY ready for this to be over with" look about her.  You could see George when he would move around which was very cool but also made you feel her discomfort a well!



 

Welcome to the world, George.  He got a bit of an assist from Lisa here!  Mom backed herself into a corner nearly cutting off George's exit route so she stepped in and help him get back on track and out!

Tabs loving on her baby in the first hour.  She took to him right away and has proven herself to be a loving mom.  I could not be more proud of her. My favorite picture of the two of them and one that I feel needs more exposure - it is a beautiful expression of unconditional and instant love and devotion between thoroughbred mare and foal.  I'd really like to see Heather get some real recognition for capturing this moment so exquisitely.

Hopefully a sign of things to come - less than 48 hours old and he's off and running.  At first he was chasing mom if she wandered off, then he discovered running and it was mom doing the chasing!

Mother and son time.

Heather with mom and George - a gorgeous family!
 

ANNOUNCEMENT: Tabby Lane in Foal!

It is with absolute great pleasure that I announce that our very own Tabby Lane (even the Score – Keeley Chay – Rodeo), winner of 10 races (25% of her starts) and over $116,000 is in foal to Eastwood Dacat, a handsome and promising son of Storm Cat that was retired due to injury after showing tremendous potential.

Tabby was pregnancy checked this morning and her ultrasound, above, came back positive.  (Don’t ask me where, I have no idea, but I trust the vet!)  We’ll have a heartbeat check in another 3 weeks or so and then she can go back home until it get close to foaling time – sometime in March, 2014.  Interesting, Tabby herself was foaled on March 17^th, so mare should be expecting foal right around the time she’ll be celebrating her own birthday!  Much thanks to Lisa Duoos and her folks at Dove Hill Farm for facilitating the pregnancy!

So much can happen over the next 11 months and we’ll be working diligently to mitigate any possibly issues and give Tabby’s foal the best chance for success – at birth and later on the racetrack.  Stay tuned!

So Much Going On, So Little to Report

It’s an interesting time of the year right now.  So much is going on yet nothing is going on.  I want to write a blog post about something but no single subject can adequately fill a post.  So let me break up THIS post into four pieces and maybe that will fill up the better part of a page.  I can say that once things start breaking loose, there will be no shortage of things to talk about!

TABBY LANE

Tabby was covered early last week by Eastwood Dacat (Storm Cat – Western Eternity) and now we wait.  She was exhibiting signs of heat even after her first cover so she went back to the shed.  After that she was fine, so now we will wait for a pregnancy check in another week or so.  She handled the experience like a champ for a maiden mare and all the credit goes to Lisa Duoos at Dove Hill Farm and Reproductive Services for her patience and expertise.

ELUSIVE EDITION

Our 2-year old Minnesota bred filly (Late Edition – Mystical Elusion) is doing as well as can be expected in the snow covered Minnesota tundra.  Thankfully the snow is melting away and she should be getting her work in on a larger oval shortly instead of the makeshift oval she has been using – BUT that’s WAY better than nothing and foundation miles are foundation miles.  Also, she’s learning her trade: how to be handled like a racehorse, what’s expected of her in the morning, how to interact with her humans – all important as well.  As a 2-year old, I wouldn’t expect her over to the track for a few more months but we are really anxious to see her stretch her legs and see what we have.

CLAIMING GROUP

I have to say that this is one of the most energetic and fun groups I’ve ever put together.  There is a core of really strong handicappers and racing fans that love exchanging opinions which has made our Yahoo Group a ton of fun.  It doesn’t hurt that many of the horses that we discuss dropping a slip for go on to win.  It’s become a pretty profitable betting angle for the group.

We have dropped slips on three occasions and been outshook each and every time.  While that DOES tell us we are on the right track, it’s still frustrating as all get out.  We have reached out for a private purchase that we hope to be able to consummate this week that will get us a really nice horse that should fit well into the upper claiming/possibly allowance ranks at Canterbury for the summer.  But we will wait and see – it’s way too early to count chickens!  That said, the horse would be coming from a great outfit and I’d be really excited to have him part of our stable.

CANTERBURY RACING CLUB

The management of the Canterbury Racing Club really begins in earnest now that signups are done and we’ll start looking for horses.  It looks like we exceeded last year’s membership by about 17%, so that’s nice and gives us the basis for a nice start with a couple of horses with Clay Brinson out of Hawthorne.  We also got a nice mention in the Paulick Report’s Good News Friday column which was fun to see we well.

As I said, there is a lot going on but, for now, everything is on edge.  Once it all starts to break loose, however, it should be one very busy summer and this keyboard should get beat pretty good!

Tabby Lane Heads to the Breeders

"Um...Where are we going?"

The next part of Tabby Lane’s journey has begun.  On Tuesday she was vanned over to Dove Hill Farm (“No Worries, I’ve Got You Covered” – best tagline for a stud farm EVER) for her pending date with Eastwood Dacat. 

When she left the track last year to head over to Spring Lake Farm to start her retirement she had some trouble getting herself out of the van and she remembered that van!  When I arrived at Spring Lake, friend and proprietor Annie Ringwelski was trying to coax Tabs into the van for the short trip down to New Prague, MN and she was resisting.  Not strenuously, but with more of an “Oh, no, I remember that death trap” attitude.  With patience and firmness from Annie, Tabby got herself into the van and we started down County 13 with her whinnying and, it felt, stomping her hooves, for the first mile, giving us a bit of an adventurous ride before settling down after we stopped for gas.

"Fine...you got me in.  Congratulations."

When we arrived at Dove Hill, owner, friend and fellow MTA board member  Lisa Duoos was waiting for her and, though she made it a bit of an adventure, Tabby made it out of the van just fine.  In fact, the way she stumbled out and caught herself made me laugh.  It reminded me of the time you’re walking down the street and you trip over a crack in the pavement but catch yourself and try and make it look as smooth as possible.  If she blurted out, “I’m okay, I got it, no problem!” I would not have batted an eye.

As Lisa grabbed her lead and checked her out and Tabby struck a bit of a pose and did the same to her new surroundings.

"Let me sniff this place out before you lead me anywhere lady."

She lifted her head high and took some deep breaths to take in all the smells and process that information like horses do.  She let out a whinny to announce her presence and was led down to her beautiful stall that was all ready for her arrival right next to a cycling mare that, it is hoped, will help jump start Tabby’s own cycle – along with some evening light cover and being slowly introduced to Eastwood a bit each day.

After the door closed behind her she circled in her stall: two laps, a whinny and a mouthful of hay.  Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.  It was obvious she was feeling a bit stressed in her new surroundings and that certainly is a normal part of the process of moving from one location to the other.  It didn’t bother me much as I stood there at the door watching her...until…until she stopped in front of me, lowered her head to my level and put us eye to eye through the bars.  That lovely brown eye asking me: what was going to happen next?  Why was she moving?  What about her friends at Spring Lake?  THEN it became heart wrenching and on her next lap I had to walk away and let Lisa guide us on a tour of the lovely 10 acre property.  I didn’t want Tabby picking up on my new found angst.

The barn was gorgeous and the turn out pastures lovely.  We checked out the stallions, from the venerable Shot of Gold to Tabby’s baby daddy Eastwood Dacat to the Arlington Park 7 furlong record holder Lovango and Canterbury Park Hall of Fame owner/breeder Cam Casby’s own Law Enforcement.  Matts Broken Vow and Tiz a Trip complete an impressive line-up at Dove Hill.

I filled out the Farm paperwork and then it was over to say good bye to Tabby.  When I got over there she was nose to nose with the mare next door, saying hello and starting to get along.  Making friends already!

I desperately wanted to call or text Lisa the next day to see how she was doing but didn’t want to be the “nervous dad”.  I let myself get lost in work and tried not to think about it for a couple of days, but then I caved. I finally sent her a text asking how she was doing.

Lisa wrote back that she was quiet in her stall, socializing well and is “amazingly brave” around the stallions.

Making friends and standing up to the big boys.  That’s our girl!  But this is just the first step of her journey to motherhood and there is a long way to go.  I hope that it’s relatively uneventful and smooth.  However it goes, between updates on our racers, we’ll keep you posted on her progress here.