A New Look, a Look Back, a New Year and Happy Birthday

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that your celebrations were wonderful and that 2012 brings you all you desire.  Also, Happy Birthday to all our Thoroughbred friends.  Officially they all turn another year older today, no matter their actual foaling date.

As a new year starts it pays to look back and see what 2011 brought us.  As you also have noticed, it signals the launch of the new look of this blog.  I felt that it was time to shake things up and give the space a fresh, new look.  I look forward to your thoughts and comments as well as seeing what 2012 will bring to Tabby Lane, her possible stablemates and the racing world both here in Minnesota and the sport at large.

By all accounts Tabby Lane had a good 2011.  She raced 12 times, winning four, placing once and earning just a shade under $33,000, but there were ups and downs and lessons to learn along the way. She won a quarter of her starts and it’s hard to ask for much more than that. She did it while racing safe and sound and for that I count my blessings.

Tabby’s Best Moment – Winning 3 of 4 at Canterbury.  One of the joys of owning a racehorse is the ability to watch it run and, hopefully, win.  Tabby made it to the winner’s circle three times in front of our eyes and the home crowd this year and it simply does not get any better than that.

Tabby’s Worst Moment – Discovering that for whatever the reason, Tabby hates Remington.  For the second year in a row she completely laid an egg after moving to Oklahoma.  In both cases, though this year much more than the previous, she headed into the Fall with a lot of promise and exited it with a lot of nothing.

Tabby’s Financial situation – Tabs was facing a deep hole after she ran her first race at Tampa Bay Downs in 2011.  She was down over $4,000 since the claim.  She finished 2011 at virtually dead even, making up that deficit and then some.  However, it does draw into contrast how even in a successful year for a racehorse – and by any definition Tabby had a successful year – it’s difficult to make money campaigning a racehorse.  You don’t get into this game to get rich so you better love it and have your eyes open going in.

Biggest Surprise – The Great Canterbury Park Shutdown of 2011.  I would have never thought that the politicians in St. Paul would have ever allowed the state to shutdown over the budget and certainly didn’t think that it would last three weeks and jeopardize the entire season.  It did give me great fodder for my maiden season writing for the Daily Racing Form but dealt Minnesota racing a blow that will be difficult to rebound from.

Best Comeback – Mac Robertson, who was trailing the trainer standings deep into the meet ended up winning the title going away by 8 by the time the final race was run.  All season long was a battle between Canterbury Hall of Famer Bernell Rhone and Michael Biehler with Robertson stalking but not dominating the standings as he has in past years.  The newly minted Canterbury Hall of Famer went on a tear the last four weeks of the meet and had the title all but secure by Festival Day.

Non-Race Race – Dean Butler annihilated the field for the top jockey award in 2011.  He started hot, stayed hot and came back strong after the state imposed break to top the standings with 83 wins, distancing Derek Bell, a 2011 inductee into the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame, by 14 wins.

My Story of the Year – Based upon page views, the story on my trip to the auction and feedlot garnered a tremendous amount of traffic.  To give you an idea, a run of the mill story usually grabs 60 pageviews in a day; if it’s picked up by The Paulick Report or Equidaily that may swell to a couple of hundred. This story wasn’t picked up by either but still pulled in over 600 pageviews.

Most Interesting Story – The ongoing saga of expanded gaming at the racetracks.  A corollary is the sudden resignation of expanding gaming opponent Sen. Amy Koch (R) as majority leader and the elevation of Sen. David  Senjem (R), a vocal proponent of racino, to replace her.  This sets the stage for what will, in all likelihood, be the make or break year for racino – and possibly racing’s future – in Minnesota.

Minnesota Festival Day – Festival Day is always a fun day and, as usual, was a coronation of the best horses at low odds.  The 2011 edition featured some real standout performances.  Bella Notte’s swan song (whoops, not really) win was almost the cherry on the cake of her brilliant career.  Heliskier and Keewatin Ice stamped themselves as the juveniles to watch as they turn three and head for the Canterbury 3 year old stakes next season. Tubby Time’s dominating performance in the Turf capped off a wonderful campaign that led to Horse of the Meet honors.

2011 was a year of ups and downs for Minnesota racing and Tabby Lane.  We learned that Tabby dsilikes the surface at Remington so this season will be spent at Tampa and Canterbury before she heads for R&R, skipping the Oklahoma fall season.  In Minnesota, we knew that racing and politics have always been intertwined, but this year the two intersected in a way to close down racing in the state altogether.  Holes were exposed in the regulation and oversight of the sport here that needs to be addressed in the coming biennium to prevent the closure of a private business as a result of government gridlock.

A new year always starts off with hope and promise and 2012 is no exception. I wish you all a year filled with peace, love, happiness and a boatload of success!

Tabby's Back and Stallions for Sale

TABBY’S BACK

Tabby Lane is back on track – literally.  She’s had two works at Tampa Bay Downs since her 4 – 6 vacation after two mediocre starts at Remington Park.  It’s become pretty obvious over the past two Oklahoma seasons that Tabs is not thrilled with the Remington Park surface.  It happens.  Nothing against the good folks at Remington – heck, Fizzy Pop did just fine there – but this is the corollary of the “horses for courses” adage: a horse that doesn’t care for a particular course!

Tabby hasn’t been pushed too hard, if at all, in her first two works back.  We don’t have a race picked out for her yet since it’s so early in the process and we need to see how far back her ankle has come since the rest.  If you recall, it wasn’t in bad shape, but it is vitally important in a racehorse and certainly could affect her performance and, of course, value as in racing level.  No work can compare to the rigors of racing but so far so good.  Again, for emphasis, I want to add that she has no structural damage and her discomfort was marginal at best, but we thought that a rest and evaluation was in order before we proceed – especially since she doesn’t run well in Oklahoma anyhow. We’ll know more in the next few weeks as her works get a bit more rigorous, but it’s nice to be back in action.

MTA STALLION AUCTION ENDS THIS EVENING

Tonight is the finale of the Minnesota ThoroughbredAssociation stallion auction.  The bidding has been pretty good and there are close to 90 stallions to choose from.  You can bid on-line, as well as at a cocktail reception this evening at Canterbury Park from 6:30 - 9:00 PM.  The auction's on-line home is at www.thoroughlybred.com  (just click on the link at the top of their homepage to the MTA Stallion Auction) and available to folks everywhere, not just here in Minnesota.  Some of the stallion seasons available include seasons to Einstein, Monarchos, AP Warrior, Zanjero, Limehouse, Hold Me Back and Spring at Last.  The bidding has been brisk and ends this evening at 9PM Central Time.  Bid early, bid often and, most importantly, bid last!

Time Off for Tabby Lane

The Remington track came up muddy for Tabby Lane’s last race.  Sloppy is okay for her, but heavy, sticky mud is a problem – she hates it.  Before we even got started I had a sinking feeling but I was hoping for the best.

Tabby was positioned right where we wanted her to be down the backside: fourth place about six lengths off the lead.  As they bent through the turn for home, when she was to make her move, she started sliding back.  She was going the wrong way and she was getting there in a hurry.  She didn’t appear to be hurt but she fell further behind.  She seemed to regain her footing in the lane though it was WAY too late at that point.

I watched on my PC via the Remington feed and was beside myself watching the race.  Right out of the gate she was fighting jockey Dean Butler to settle down and I was very concerned.  She seemed to settle a bit on her way down the backside but she wasn’t making up any ground in the mile and 70 yard race.  The class level, $10,000 claiming, seemed to be perfect for her but she wasn’t being competitive.

I gave about 10 minutes after the race before I called our trainer, Bernell Rhone, to get Dean’s take on the race.  She ran fine through the straights, he said, but had difficulty on the turns – like she was experiencing some soreness.  Oh-oh. 

The vet came by the barn a few days later and gave her front end the once over and sure enough; there was soreness in the front ankles.  It wasn’t horrible and there is no damage, but given her performance in the last two races we decided to give her some treatment and time.  Clearly we could have dropped her to $5,000 and pushed on with her, but that’s not fair to anyone – especially Tabby.  So now she’ll be off for a while and come back at Tampa, probably not until after the first of the year.  I’m hopeful that she can come back as strong as ever and maintain her class level but we won’t know that until we get her back in training.  For right now, she’ll some time to be a horse and enjoy the R & R.

Dancing With the Racing Secretary

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks behind the scenes in Tabby-land.  She’s doing fine but trying to get her into a race of our choosing was a bit tough.  The goal was to slide her down a notch to $15,000 claiming but after 5-days straight of the race not filling as an extra on the overnight sheet (sheet of entries for the races plus a list of races added to the condition book as possible races for the following race day’s entries) I was excited to see a $5,000 Starter Allowance.

A starter allowance, as a refresher, is a race for horses that have started for “X” claiming price or lower, usually for the span of a year/18 months.  In the above case it would be for horses that have run for a $5,000 tag and that would be perfect for her.  Theoretically you want to be competitive at 2x the starter price to have a shot at winning and Tabs has won at $10,000 this year already – twice in fact.  However the race only got to 6 possible starters.  It was going to possibly brought back as an extra the next day but then two horses backed out and entered a $10,000 claiming race.  That killed any possibility of the starter coming back as an extra and gave us a choice: run at $10,000 or wait.

Waiting didn’t seem to make much sense.  The race we really wanted, the starter allowance, wasn’t going to be back any time soon.  The claiming price we wanted, $15,000, just spent nearly a week not receiving enough entries.  The only real option was to go at $10,000.  Ultimately, I think, that’s her proper level.  Her PPs show a win at $15,000 but that’s a bit disingenuous since it was a race where the ‘open’ horses were in for $10,000 and any Minnesota breds were in for $15,000.  On the PPs it looks like a $15,000 race when, in reality, it was only a $10,000 race for her.  Each time she’s tried to move past the $10,000 level in the last year she’s been strongly rebuffed, losing at Canterbury by 11+ lengths in a $16,000 race and here at Remington by 10+ lengths in a $20,000 race.  It’s not like she’s the top choice in here either, she’s 9/2 in the morning line, the third choice.  And probably fair at that.

Unfortunately I will not be making the trip to Remington this race (probably adding to her chance to win) since I will be leaving for Massachusetts on Thursday to spend time with family.  I will be intently watching on the Remington Park live feed, however!

Here are the entries for the race.  $10,000 claiming going a mile and 70 yards over the main track Saturday night, Race 7:

1 – TABBY LANE (Rhone/Butler) 9/2

2 – Unhaltered (Rulland/Kimes) 10-1 – After starting her season 3-3 at Will Rogers Downs, she took a few months off and came back way over her head here at Remington.  Dropping in to probably closer to where she belongs, she’ll look to be out front early and set the pace.

3 – Frontier Franny (Rhone/Escobar) 8-1 – Tabby easily defeated her stablemate in their last race at Canterbury.  Since then she has been in 2 $10,000 races here at Remington and has been beaten soundly in each, though in her last she was much closer to the pace before fading heading into the stretch.

4 – Multifaceted (Hartman/Birzer) 2-1 – Your morning line favorite.  She was two in a row, one at Prairie Meadows and one in her last conditioned (non-winners of 3 lifetime) claiming race at $10,000.  She won that one with ease an notched a lifetime best Beyer of 75.  She doesn’t need the lead but should be close to it.  Meeting multiple winners is a pretty tough step up, but she looks to be capable and will be tough to beat.

5 – Xiano (Irwin/Quinonez) 4-1 – She’s been a bit flat since her return from  being laid off most of the year but her Beyers have remained consistent around 62 in all her races since last summer.  Her last looks worse than it was considered she may have been 3^rd by 11 but the winner won by 10 ¾ at this level.  If Multifaceted can’t repeat her last performance, Xiano will be there.

6 – Miss Alfeet Alex (Lozano/Velazquez) 5-1 – Scorched with Tabby in her last at $20,000 and hasn’t shown a lot since her layoff though she’s been running at much higher levels.  Now racing at the lowest level of her career so far, she’s either going to respond or losing has simply become too much of a habit for her.

7 – Sarava’s Sensation (Ashauer/Joubert) 15-1 – She moved up to $10,000 from $5,000 coming over from Prairie Meadows and showed little in both.

8 – Oh So Noticed (Milligan/Murphy) 15-1 – She’s moving up after being beaten by 5 ½ a notch lower.  She’s stretching out and while her pedigree says she should be ok at this level, she didn’t hit the board in her one distance try.

As always, I ask myself how Tabby can win this race.  I would prefer not to see her so close to pace as she was in her last.  I can understand the move two back because Canterbury’s main track was clearly biased toward early speed and she was also clearly the best horse in the race.  Historically she’s been a one run horse and in her last she was simply fried when the time came for her to go.  In this case there should be some early speed and if she’s about 5 back sitting 4^th or so down the backside behind relatively fresh fractions, I will be a very happy camper heading into the turn for home.

Remington Debut Not Exactly as Planned

We pushed Tabby Lane this last start to see exactly what we had after she picked up four wins in her last six starts.  I was thinking $15,000 – as opposed to the $10,000 we claimed her for – but Bernell Rhone, our trainer, thought that maybe a push toward $20,000 may be in order since she had been so sharp recently in the starter allowances she’d been winning.  We have room on the downside from there, she’s still eligible for the starter conditions and if there was ever a time to see where she was at, this was it so up we went.

We had a scratch in the race, cutting the field to seven.  The scratch, Going Okie, was a good one from our perspective.  She was dropping in from $35,000 and stood to be a real threat down the stretch.  There was a nice balance of speed, stalkers and closers in the race which set it up for a fair run.  All evening (we were in the 7^th race) there didn’t appear to be any real bias in the racetrack.  Speed held if it was the best and didn’t if it wasn’t – another good sign.

She came into the paddock at Remington looking good.  I received several texts from folks back home that reinforced my own impression of her (an overview of my day at Remington will follow later this week) as well as my handicapping partner for the evening, Michael Devery’s opinion as well.  At this point I’m feeling pretty good. Sure, she was 12-1 on the board, the second longest choice, but everything was pointing to a good effort.

When the gates opened, Tabby broke extremely alertly from the outside post.  She hustled up to the outside and stalked the leaders.  I was concerned, but not overly considering that she used this similar style in her last outing.  At the half mile pole she advanced to 3 ½ lengths of the two leaders, but by the ¾ mark she was done.  Jockey Dean Butler said when he came back that she was real game early but after six furlongs when the lead horses started pulling away from her and she couldn’t keep up, she quit.  She steadily faded out of the race from through the last quarter mile of the race.  Ultimately she finished 7^th and last, beaten by about 10 ½ lengths.

It wasn’t exactly the outcome I was hoping for.  In fact, it wasn’t even close.  As I mentioned in the race preview, I knew it was tough, but I was hoping she would hit the board – and that didn’t come close to happening.

She came back well after the race, though, and my hope is that this one defeat didn’t take too much heart out of her.  You may recall from last summer that once she started losing she spiraled rapidly.  We’ll come back in three to four weeks at a lower level and we’ll see where her head is at.  Physically she was fine going into the race, but it could be that she was a bit rusty.  She’s used to going about once a month and she was off for five weeks between races this time.  She’ll have no excuses next time.

Meet Debut at Remington Park

Tabby Lane finally got a race to fill at Remington this Friday night.  The condition book had two substitute races in it: a $20,000 claiming race and a $10,000 Starter Allowance.  My preference was the Starter.  I really don’t care about the tag, I just thought that the starter might be an easier spot.  $20,000 is a pretty good jump up in class for our girl from where she has been running, but the starter did not fill so straight claimer we go.

The field is only eight, but it is a pretty good quality field and if we wanted to stretch her a bit, we’re going to get our chance on Friday night in race seven.  The race is over the main track and will go a mile and a sixteenth.

1 – Veillit’ (Hartman/Compton): This filly has been claimed out of her last four races all over California.  If she goes here (she’s entered at Zia Park on Saturday).  She’s got some early speed from the inside and last won at Hollywood in June in an $8,000 claiming race.

2 – Miss Afleet Alex (Lozano/Laviolette): As a betting opportunity, I kind of like this horse here.  Her last two starts over the turf were nothing special, but she doesn’t appear to be a turfer anyway.  She won nicely over the dirt at right about this level before getting trounced in a stake at Prairie Meadows and then trying the turf at Remington.  Now she’ll be back on the dirt and back at a level where she appears to fit.  She’ll come off the pace and be dangerous in here I think.

3 – Tez Sivitri (Rhone/Hamilton): Tabby’s stablemate and upset Minnesota Distaff Classic Champion by over 9 lengths, she ran very well over the Remington Park turf last year at this level and higher.  Her season was pretty uneven this season until the huge win in the distaff.  If that was a signal that she’s back to her old form, she’ll be another one flying late and tough in here.

4 – Why Wonder Why (Engel/Berry): Big winner last out in a $5000 Starter in his Remington debut.  Could be a bit over her head in here, but – like most of the starters in here – her Beyers’ fit just fine. She has some early speed and hopefully will challenge the inside horse as well as EZ Time a bit further out.

5 – Going Okie (Pish/Joubert): Won in her last race of last season a notch above here.  Her comebacker, at the same level, was a bit flat but only finished a length back over the turf.  Back to the dirt and drops a rung.  She’s a Remington only horse and had done well with that strategy so far.

6 – Dixieland Baby (Davidson/McNeil): Has only one win in the last year over the lawn at Hoosier but has been competitive on the dirt.  The one win was an allowance win as well.  Her Remington seasonal bow was less than impressive, though she did stalk the leaders for a while before fading so with improved fitness she could be a bit more competitive while dropping one rung in class.

7 – E Z Time (Engle/Quinonez):  A huge winner after a summer break, winning by just under 11 lengths in a $10,000 claiming race without really being asked while posting a career best 81 Beyer.  A repeat of that front running performance here and it’s all over but the shouting.

8 – TABBY LANE (Rhone/Butler)

Tabby has won 3 of her last 4 and 4 of her last 6.  The last couple of races she wasn’t all out and so we know that there is more in the tank.  The question that will be answered in this race, is just how much is left in that tank.  She’ll be off the pace early, we know that – her stalking trip last out notwithstanding.  She should like the added sixteenth as well.  The class factor, though, is going to be where it gets decided.  If she can handle this group is going to come down to how well she can compete against horses that have been racing at $35,000 as opposed to $10,000/$16,000.  There should be some pace and Dean should have her out of trouble, the rest is going to be up to her.

Tabby on a Roll

Tabby won again.  For the second race in a row, third of the last four and four of the last six, Tabby Lane found the winner’s circle.

I wasn’t worried when the race was pulled of the turf course because of overnight rains but I was concerned when I received a text from the track that the front-running Jody’s Included scratched from the race, potentially leaving speedster So Divine on the front end all alone.  I was hopeful that the Chicago shipper, Dontrguewithrichie, would help the pace along, but I was still concerned.

As the race shaped up, So Divine did get to the front and did have some company from ‘richie, but the fractions were considerably slower than the previous race and speed had been holding over the Canterbury Park surface – all reasons for concern during the race.

Dean Butler had Tabby much closer to this slower early pace in order to give her as good an opportunity as possible to be able to close into it when the time came, never more than 2 ½ lengths off the front.  As they headed into the far turn in the one mile race, Dean slid her to the outside and started to range her up on the leaders, a little earlier than she usually does.  Dean, of course, knew something we all didn’t – how much horse he had underneath him and how little everyone else had.

Tabby got a head in front and then extended from there.  So Divine, possibly still a bit tired from her outstanding effort last out, faded through the field while Bernell Rhone’s other trainee, the old warrior Frontier Franny, finished second and ‘richie settled for third.  Tabby won by 6 ¼ lengths and made it look easy.

With her victory, Tabby hit a couple of milestones.  She is now the winningest horse in this stable’s history, breaking the four win tie she had with the standardbred You Slay Me.  She also moved into a tie for third place with At the Buzzer and SS Victory of all time wins by Even the Score progeny at eight (Tabs had 3 when we claimed her).  Both are still active campaigners, At the Buzzer in Louisiana while SS Victory is in Ohio.  The second place horse, Amabo is retired while the current leader, Tie, has 11 wins after reeling off six in a row earlier this season in $5000 Starter Allowances at various eastern tracks before finishing third on July 23^rd.

It’s going to be a little tougher for Tabby to move up that list because we’re going to challenge her a little bit now.  Today she ships off to Remington Park where she’ll face a tougher competition but also race for higher purse money.  While a contributing factor, the money wasn’t the primary consideration in shipping her with a month left in the Canterbury meet.  There were only a couple of races that met her conditions in the condition book and, at the end of the meet, it is hard to know if they would fill.  If the races did not fill we would be left with two options: ship to Remington then or run where we don’t want to. 

The problem with shipping in that late is that we would get a later preference date.  A preference date is set when a horse arrives on the grounds and can also be a function of the timing of its last race.  The later we get there the worse our date so if the races we want to enter prove popular, horses with better dates get in first.  If we wait a month, don’t get a race, then ship and have to wait another 3 – 4 weeks, that’s a lot of wasted time with a sharp horse.  This wasn’t the easiest choice to make but I felt it was the best one. 

I had told her before the race (yes, I do go and talk to her) that if she won it easy it would be time to move on and make things a little harder for her.  She did and that’s why we’re going instead of staying and trying to be the winningest horse of the summer meet with 3 (she’s tied with 2 others – but the only claiming horse).  I may have lost her the chance to get that title, and possibly claimer of the meet title, but I feel it was the best choice at this point in her career.

I will miss her, though, and hope I get a chance to get to Oklahoma to see her.