Fire and Ice

This past weekend was the first of racing for the Arapahoe Park meet, and even with the awful weather, the show must go on.

Indy enjoying some rare sunshine.

We had two in on Sunday. Honestly, it wasn't looking good when it came to the weather. A big and nasty black cloud came through and delivered some very much NOT needed rain about an hour before our first horse ran. Then a miracle happened and it went away!

The first horse we had running was Script  (by Whatsthescript out of a Lemon Drop Kid mare) in a Maiden Special Weight. He has tactical speed, so we figured that he would be close. I was really happy with where he was placed, and then the rider dropped him down on the rail behind horses. At the time I couldn't see it, but I guess he said he had to. I about had a heart attack and was really worried that we wouldn't get through. The rider swung him back out in the lane and Script won by a length. 

The track was sloppy and slow, so he didn't exactly set a track record.I think that my biggest accomplishment of the day was that I got the mud knot in his tail to stay in. No, I didn't tape it. I'm not in the win picture because our groom wasn't back and I had to stay at the barn to get Hirsch ready.

After Script ran, I flew to the test barn to take care of Script and the fiancé went back to the barn to finish getting Hirsch(by Street Sense out of a Stormy Atlantic mare) ready to go. I spent the next half hour rotating between being drug and having to drag Script around the test barn. He's lucky he's so lovable most days because he was a real pain in the ass while I was waiting for him to cool out enough that they could take the urine and blood samples.

I was just getting back to the barn with Script when the fiancé was leaving to head up for Hirsch's race. Script needed to cool out a little more, so I had to stay at the barn for Hirsch's race too. The SO seriously owes me....

Right as Hirsch was about to run, I was finishing putting Script away and then the vet showed up to medicate a horse. By the time I got the live feed up, the horses were already loading. The live feed is always about thirty seconds behind and I heard the announcer say something about Bourbon Sense pulling away to win, so it kind of took the fun out of watching the race.

Hirsch and another horse were out on the lead and then he drew off to win by six lengths. He actually ended up running a faster time than they did in the stake, that we had nominated to and opted out of running in, the same day. No, that doesn't mean that we should have run him in the stake, that he would have won it, because time isn't everything. Unless both races played out exactly the same, which they didn't, you never know what would have happened. What the time and the quality of the race that he ran did tell us is that he can probably be competitive in stakes company here. He's earned a shot at them at least. I am glad that we put him in the allowance, a win like that should be a good confidence boost for him.

I call him Hirsch because he deserves to be nicknamed after a higher class of bourbon. I couldn't call him Bourbon because we already have a horse with that barn name.

A couple of days before the race I had told Dennis, the jockey, that we put him on my favorite horse. I also told him that he would fit and get along well with Hirsch. When Dennis came by later that night, I asked him what he thought of Hirsch. His response was, "You told me and you were RIGHT!" That's my favorite thing about Dennis. I can tell him when he'll fit a horse well or that he'll like one and he won't just blow it off as me being some naive, dumb chick. A lot of riders will. You know, because obviously if you don't have testicles, you don't have brains.

Anyway, Sunday was a good day.

Bourbon looking gorgeous.

Monday was not.

We had Sandhill Lady, a Colorado bred mare, in a state bred stake. Everything that could go wrong did. She was the one that we were most confident about running in the slop because she gets over that kind of surface very well. This is getting to be a long post, so here is a list of everything that went wrong or screwed us on Monday.

1. We drew the #2 hole in an eleven horse field. That's okay if your horse has speed. Sandy does not.

2. Sandy stomped the living shit out of my foot while I was getting her ready.

I'll go get it X-rayed if it isn't feeling/looking better by tomorrow.

3. The one day that we needed it to rain, the sun came out and completely changed the track surface, drying it out too much. Of course it pissed rain after the races were over.

4. She broke slow out of the gates causing the rider having to take a bit of a hold of her so she didn't run up right into the hole that was quickly closing between the #1 and #3. Basically, we were screwed from the first jump out of the gates. Horses weren't able to make up much ground with the way that the track was yesterday.

5. The riders on the horses on the lead were just quietly sitting there. We needed a stupid fast speed duel in the front end to give Sandy any type of shot in the race and it didn't happen.

I'm not saying that we would have won or anything, she finished 7th and got beat a REALLY long ways. It's just that it was pretty much a shitty day for luck. It happens.

Don't turn around, but there is a huge beast getting ready to lick you to death. Also, this was before I pulled her mane, so that shaggy look adds even more to the threat of danger.

I still really like the mare, it wasn't her fault (though I'm still a bit pissed about my foot considering she tried it once more with me and also almost got the fiancé too). She came out of the race all in one piece and that's all that really matters. There will be other races.