Florida Derby

First TC race of the year that drew more than a yawn from me for various reasons. I was impressed by the 2nd place horse Pleasant Prince and his nice action down the stretch, and also by Rule. By the Florida Derby PPs looks as if we're hardly seeing Nafzger style training, or even Rick Dutrow type work thus far in the State of Florida in 2010. But, some (potentially) great horses.

Thus we have unraced stallion named Indy King (photo) from Richwine Farm, Anderson Indiana siring the second place horse in the Fla. Derby. Stud fee $1000, and I did put in all the zeros.

And, there is winner Icebox being driven down the stretch on his left lead and somehow winning. That was a head scratcher. But this bit of highly questionable race riding and training will serve as further test of RR(Injury Prevention) Rule #2 that you never persevere with a horse on the wrong lead, assuming you'd like the horse to race again. So, will Icebox survive to be seen again after this debacle of a race today for that horse? Same sort of thing that did in Georgie Boy a couple of years back. Will see.

Training:
Wed. 3/17: terrible ground conditions. Walked 20 min.

Thurs: 3/18: Visually pasture looks a little better, but when Nob got out there, very uneven. How bad is it? The horse stumbled badly at the walk. Hoofs still sinking deep into the ground and standing water here and there. Too dangerous to even trot our sky watching horse: walked 15 min.
Fri: 3/19: Riderless in running paddock. Horses driven 30 times around intermittently with plenty of rest between 2f spurts through alternating deep and medium mud and standing water puddles. Tack work canceled. The horse had had enough.
Sat. 3/20: Off. 4 inches of snow.