September Review: Can We Close The Deal?

At the advanced age of RR if you blink you might miss a month. Hard to believe that the summer of '07 is behind us, we're into September and the Kansas City Woodlands Racetrack meet looms just a couple of weeks away.

At the beginning of August my mindset with the horses was to avoid thinking ahead and to make decisions one day at a time. At the beginning of September I'm still in an "avoiding plans" mode. However, due to the state of training of a couple of the horses, things now are more together in my thought process. Presently, as opposed to a month ago, one of our horses is actually ready to race and another is coming along.

Over the last few years the RR stable has been at the point before the Woodlands meet a few times, and yet our last race was in 2003. There's such a big difference between being almost ready to race and actually doing it.

So, as we get into the month of September, our big question is whether we can actually pull it off this year and get our horses racing. For the uninitiated, it's such an obstacle course. Can we get on track, will the weather hold, will the horses maintain their health through the final and most strenuous days of training. I've yet to see a bee at the RR farm this summer, and in this part of the country it is about that hard to find riders. Given the scarcity of jocks that actually work horses in the morning, can our little operation find somebody willing to get on a couple of 12 year olds. It's all a bit of a nail biter. It should be interesting. Here is a going-into-September report on each of our horses:

Groovin' Wind, age 12. Wind commenced tack work in early May and so we're a little past day 120. Preston Burch style training commenced in June and Wind has been breezing pretty much every three days for three months with a little break in early August. The horse has maintained his weight, he's eating, seemingly healthy and attacks his work with great enthusiasm. Through a lot of work there have been zero injuries. Expect 5 or 6 more breezes before the first race that hopefully will be on 9/23. Right now Wind is our horse to watch.

Aylward, age 12. Al has been on the same schedule as Wind but is a couple of weeks behind. Al has major mouth problems that may keep him from racing. Decision to be made on retirement after the next couple of Eureka breezes. Al may race or be wearing his last set of racing plates. A question mark at this point.

Acesmash: Our huge 16' 2.5" six year old non-starter. I'm persevering with this horse 1. because I like him, 2. because he has some talent, and 3. because Eureka and St. Louis are without eligibility limits. So, he can race as a 7 year old. In terms of training, Ace has been working but he's no were near a race. I've determined to bridle him up 150 straight times and see where he is. We're on day 5 at the moment.

Art: The two year old Vision and Verse colt. Problem here is size. The horse at barely over 15'2" in bare feet simply is too small for our large rider to do any serious work. The hope is that with fall weather and more opportunity to lay down (they grow in periods when they're down a lot), that he'll put on another inch. Someone posted that gelding at times causes a growth spurt, and that may be in order. In my bone research I discovered that "growth hormone" in the bones instigates ephysial plate growth, and I'll look on IHerb website for some HGH simulators among legal supplements. Art has some talent, but, unless there's a little more growth he may be a January sale candidate at this point. Someone with a small rider would have a pretty good young horse.