All or Nothing

"I know you're tired. Keep going, keep trying. Just a little longer. You can get there. Finish strong."

-my thoughts that were applied as much to myself as the horses this weekend.



 I watched this before Hirsch's race. It just seemed fitting, as cheesy as that may sound. The numbers and odds all said that the chances weren't great, but everything about the horse was telling us different.

Last weekend was the end of the Arapahoe park meet. It was a REALLY good one for us!

Photo credit: Coady Photography 

It started out with Sandy winning the 1 and 1/16th mile Spicy Stake. We had claimed her for $5,000 last year and ever since The Fiancé had been saying that we were going to win The Spicy with her this year. This is very unlike him and it still shocks me that he was so confident. The fact that it actually happened makes it all the more interesting. Positive thoughts can do amazing things, I guess.

Photo credit: Coady Photography

Sandy, who went off at 3rd choice at 5/1, won the race by a nose. Her and the 2nd place horse were 11+ lengths in front of the rest of the field. She ate a lot of dirt and had to weave through some traffic to get there, but she kept digging in and I'm extremely proud of how hard she tried! Russell, her jockey, rode his ass off too. They both gave it their all and it worked!

Big Momma getting some love from her owners Neil and Roger, and jockey, Russel Vicchirilli.

*Side note: Scriptonite ran 4th in a $3,200 claimer on Saturday, which I was happy with considering that he had bruised his foot so bad that he couldn't even hardly walk after the Boise race and hadn't run in 45 days. I thought it was especially good for a horse that was "finished". Apparently, people took it upon themselves to diagnose him so even though they've never so much as touched the horse. They also proceeded to inform the lady that wants Script when he retires of his doomed racing career. No, I'm not mad. It is what it is. If I worried about everyone that loves to stir shit up, I'd never get any rest. I guess it's a compliment, no one would bother with us if we totally sucked. The only thing you can do is laugh it off and keep focused on the things that really matter.

I love this photo, by photographer Carrie Sigglin, of Script getting bathed! Photo credit: Carrie Sigglin Photography

Photo credit: Coady Photography

On Sunday, we had Hirsch in the $100,000 Arapahoe Park Classic. It was a long shot after how bad he ran in Boise (I forgot that I didn't do a post on the Boise trip, he REALLY threw in a clunker), but I wasn't really deterred over that. After he got back to Denver, he flourished. He was good mentally and physically. If we were going to take a shot, now was the time to do it. We certainly didn't have anything to lose, so why not?

We knew Dennis would have to ride another horse in this race, it ran 2nd in the Classic last year, so we got the second leading rider of the meet, Dennis was leading rider (CONGRATS BUDDY!), to come and work Hirsch. Theriot fit Hirsch perfectly and in the two times he got on him before the race, you could tell that the pair was going to be a force to be reckoned with. *Hirsch picks his people and if he doesn't like a rider, you might as well not bother.

Hirsch and Brian Theriot

"My name is Hirsch and you seem kind of okay so I will now allow you to kiss my nose."

The Fiancé said before the race that he doesn't want to go out there not to lose, but to win it (yes, there is a difference). He didn't want the rider to play it safe, he wanted Theriot to be aggressive. We knew that no one expected Hirsch to be able to make the 1 and 1/8 mile distance, but we had adjusted his training for it. We knew that the other riders wouldn't want to risk burning up their horse to chase a horse they would be anticipating to stop. Theriot understood that too. It was all or nothing. Hirsch was either going to run 1st, 2nd, or last. It didn't matter where we ended up, but we were damn sure not going to play it safe.

Photo Credit: Coady Photography 

Hirsch is a very quick horse. I told Theriot to not be afraid to open up three or four lengths on the rest of the field, make them catch him. That's exactly what he did. They made a good run at Hirsch coming down the lane, but he had cat and moused them the whole way and held on to win by a length at 7-1 odds. *He probably should have been 10-1 or higher, but his owner is very popular at the track (I often refer to him as The Godfather of Arapahoe Park because you can't sit down and talk to him for more than ten minutes without someone coming up to respectfully shake his hand and ask what he thinks about one thing or another) and when he told his friends that Hirsch could win the race, they believed him. A few of our other owners had a lot of faith too.

The Fiancé and The Godfather of Arapahoe Park aka Dale enjoying the moment.

This was Hirsch's first stake win. It's the biggest purse we've ever won and our second Black Type win (stakes with a purse of $50,000 or more). Sandy's stake was the third largest purse we had ever won. Yes, it was a very good weekend!

I can't even begin to describe how much I adore everyone in this picture with me!

I'm so extremely grateful for the horses we have and especially for our owners. The fiancé is very particular about who he will train for, he strongly believes in quality over quantity when it comes to horses AND owners. Having awesome owners has made life all that much more peaceful and we really appreciate them!

ARAPAHOE PARK 2015 HIGHLIGHTS

20 starts- 7 wins, 1 second, 2 thirds

35% win percentage, 50% ITM (1st,2nd, or 3rd)

Ranked 5th of 86 trainers with earnings of $172,447

Ranked 11th by wins.

4 stakes wins, 2 allowance wins, and 1 Maiden Special Weight win. (We only ran two horses in a claiming race, so I'm not too upset we didn't win any of those)

Average earnings per start: $8,622.

Bourbon Sense:

4 starts-3 wins

Ranked 1st of 508 horses with $77,400 in earnings.

1st- Allowance 6 furlongs purse: $13,000

1st- Allowance 5 1/2 furlongs purse: $13,000

4th- Front Range Stakes 7 furlongs purse : $40,000

1st- Arapahoe Park Classic 1 1/8 mile purse:$100,000

Colinda Dawn:

2 starts- 2wins

Ranked 5th of 508 horses with $48,000 in earnings

1st- Goeorge Wafer Memorial 1 mile purse: $40,000

1st- Colorado Derby 1 1/16 mile purse: $40,000.

Sandhill Lady:

4 starts- 1 win, 1 3rd

Ranked 16th of 508 horses with $30,151 in earnings.

1st- Spicy Stake 1 1/16th mile purse:46,055

Scriptonite:

3 starts-1win earnings: $6,438

1st- Maiden Special Weight 5 1/2 furlongs purse: $10,000

Snow Bunny:

1start- 1 3rd earnings: $4,000

3rd: Goerge Wafer Memorial 6 furlongs purse: $40,000

*The winner of this race was disqualified for carrying the wrong weight and Bunny was moved up to 2nd. However, the trainer of the winner is trying to get the ruling overturned and she may get moved back down. The Fiancé is siding with the winner on this, the weight being wrong was more a clerical mistake than the trainer's fault, and it isn't right that he should get disqualified. It's okay if Bunny gets moved back down to third. The fiancé has helped the winning trainer out a lot with his appeal and apparently the good karma came back to us this weekend. I'm proud of Ty for standing up for what he thinks is right even though we stood to double our money (we get half of what Bunny makes) if the winner was disqualified.

I'm not bragging or starting to get a big head or anything like that. I understand just as well as anyone that our barn could get cold at any second, which is why I appreciate how well the meet at Arapahoe went for us even more. I am very proud of the horses, The Fiancé, and even myself. We all worked really hard and I'm officially, completely exhausted. Two weeks of racing in Farmington, NM and then we get to go on a vacation for 2-3 weeks before heading to Phoenix. It will be our first significant break from the track since 2009.