The Keeneland Sale

I've been a little derelict in blogging as I'm absorbing the September Sale catalogues just out. Bottom feeders will appreciate the RR stable search for "hidden gems" even while I'm sorry to report a preliminary exam has turned up very few so far. I'm thinking there might be enough Alphabet Soup and Honour and Glory hips late that one or two might slip, but, a lot of looking ahead.

Problem seems to be that even in the last books most of the hips show very decent mares. These are the sorts of yearlings that they're "hoping" will bring a price and will be bought back to race unless they do. Maybe the cheaper horses being definitely moved are reserved now days for Fasig Tipton October.

As to our stable, as noted earlier I'd planned an early August review of where we are and future plans. This has been done, and I'll post it in the next day or so. Just to catch things up for now, on July 30 we did the last strenuous breeze with the 12 year olds, and then decided to back off a bit last week. They breezed short but riderless Wednesday with plans to commence gallop Thurs., but Thurs. and Fri. got some much needed rain. This changed the out of town plans again. But, we commenced galloping Fri. with plans for some speed bursts on Sat. Those never occurred because, frankly, our rider was too heavy. Yes, during the off time Mr. Nob managed to pack on a few pounds instead of continuing to reduce, so last night we galloped each horse 1.5 miles. Nob reported that they were "weak", and so it continues to surprise how quickly horses lose it unless you gallop regularly. We'll continue to tonight and see how it goes.

Art:
8/2/07 Thurs. Burch Day 1: 10 min. riderless slow gallop in the mud with oldsters. He lost a shoe which scotched the tack work.
8/3/07 Fri. Burch Day 2: 10 min. back and forth riderless gallop with oldsters with some fast bursts.
8/4/07 Sat. Off after yesterdays strenuous galloping. He'd gone several days in a row. 5 min. walk under tack.