Early Year Conclusions

Google "Paul Feliciano" and you get this. The guy's dead ten years (DWI accident) but he still comes up, forever associated with the horse. I'll volunteer they were wise, prescient in fact, to replace Paul. That Secretariat raced above in 1:10.3 when he might have raced in 1:09 would be by my experience, typical P. Feliciano. A bit pea hearted, a bit of a mess, a young fellow some how put into a position above his natural abilities. Paul always had a picture of the big horse hung up in his living room. Those two rides, despite several Fairmount Park riding titles, is what he talked about. Paul drank a lot, but never came to the track under the influence. He was of below average intelligence, just a very ordinary dude who carried that pride you see in good jocks.

The other thing that strikes me about this picture is the degree to which Secretariat passed on his genes. I later bred three Pancho Villa (Secretariat-Terlingua) colts, two from the chestnut filly in the last post. My two standing side by side with the horse above, you'd have trouble telling them apart.

Pancho stood at Cedarcrest Farm, Palestine, Tx, Steve Hicks D.V.M., nice fellow and competent. I asked why they gave up on Pancho so quickly in KY because my foals were "lookers". Doc Hicks replied, "they all look good, they just can't run".

That was contrary to my experience. Both my Pancho full brothers were powerfully striding horses with blazing speed. Like other Secretariats ive seen, they gained too much mass and muscle as they went past age three, and therein I suspect lay the problem with the progeny of Secretariat and possibly the whole Princequello line.

In terms of racing success my early training proved abject failure due to three or four isolated events. In another sense though things went as I planned and expected. I got into owing horses because I've spent a life time training athletes. I'm like Mandella in the DVD, I enjoy watching horses develop as athletes. That is what makes my day to this day as opposed to winning or making money.

What I did learn even in this early period with my inexperience and small sample, was that if you could get the horse to the races and keep it racing, it would win. Winning is a by-product of keeping them going. And, the delicate nature of how to keep them going is really the subject of this whole blog.

With these early horses I proved to myself that I could "keep them going" through both racing and intensive training. In about 21 races there was never a scratch, and instead of a surprise, this was expected. I would have been amazed had Jeckimba Bay broken down in a race. By the time that horse was raced I knew exactly how fast he'd go for every furlong of the distance because he'd done the same thing so many innumerable times on the training track. He'd never injured himself training and so I was without any fear that he would injure himself racing. Consider the broad implications of that last statement. I was without "any" fear. Nada.

Just one horse though. Did I project J Bay to racing in general? That was the uncertainty of the early years. Could we repeat Jeckimba Bay?

Training:
The horses have rested three days due to frigid weather. I'll post today's training after it's done.