Don't you just love horse racing? You're 5/2 in a race with six horses. It looked like two of them were put in there to fill the race. You're gonna run open company with a Virginia certified horse. If you win, you get Virginia certified awards plus New York owners awards because you are a New York bred in an open company race. On top of that it's for straight three-year-olds.
And of course your horse decides not to feel well that day and gets mom to call the teacher and tell them that he won't be coming to school. Not because he didn't do his homework but because he just didn't feel up to it. A day in the life of owning a racehorse.
Ultimately, these aren’t ruent kids but finely tuned 1,200-pound athletes trained to run 35 to 40 mph. All systems, including heart lungs, brain, (which is the desire to run) muscles, tendons have to be firing like eight finally tune cylinders. If not, something is bound to happen. What could happen is whatever was causing the underlying condition illustrated by a slight temperature which was minor at the time the temperature was taken first thing in the morning. Luckily our horses are very carefully and well managed. If that was missed for some reason and the horse runs with a slight temperature, the exertion of the race could cause that slight temperature to blossom into pneumonia, colitis, and even founder, which is technically referred to as laminitis. Because these giant animals are so sensitive any of these conditions, if left undetected and/or untreated it can blossom into full-blown, potentially fatal ailments. That's why we have to be so careful and always be listening and looking for the slightest indication that a horse is not 110%. As you know, they can't talk but there's so many other ways, including taking the temperature, watching how they clean up their feed, noticing the shine or lack there of in their coats and just general attitude. Changes in any of these factors could indicate an underlying condition that prevents them from performing at their best and we need them at their best. This isn't Parx, this ain't no disco. This ain't no fooling around. This is New York and good horses come out of the woodwork to crash your party. It's so frustrating to scratch your horse with a temp. I'm fine with it because we live to fight another day.
You have to be living under a rock not to know that it is Derby season and in the horse industry it's also two-year-old in-training season. I will be heading down to the OBS sale next week. My selection team will be coming in from Kentucky to join me and we will be perusing the various horses that will be offered for sale. My philosophy has always been to be reasonable and set a tight budget because there is already significant downside in this business that many of us know well. I try to find very well bred horses from high performance families at a reasonable price so if we get a consistent horse, it will pay for itself. Even though we're all looking to win the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup classic the first issue at hand is to find a sound horse that knows where the wire is and has the desire, the athleticism and the aptitude to get their first. While others dazzle the public and make headlines buying mid-to-high six-figure horses, I always wish them good luck but I will stick to my strategy of trying to find a diamond in the rough. The majority of horses offered for sale are horses that love to follow the leader and run around with their friends on a beautifully groomed surface. It's the select few that have the genetic intuition to be the herd leaders and finish first. In the wild, these are the horses whose ears prick at the slightest noise. They raise their heads up when they sense danger and lead the herd to safety running 40 to 45 miles an hour until they are satisfied that they have outrun their predators. Lucky for us there are no predators chasing our race horses but we still have to find the herd leaders.
If you are interested in following us through the process of selecting a two-year-old and adding another fabulous athlete to your stable, please contact me this week or click here to fill out the interest form.
For this OBS April sale I am looking to raise $200 - $250,000 to help bring in a herd leader and expand our roster at Dream Maker Racing. If you’ve been following along but haven’t quite bit the bullet yet, we would love to bring you in on this new selection. I will be happy to map out a detailed strategy along with some of our early pics. We are very picky and do not believe in purchasing a quantity of horses. When your horse is training in Mr. Mott's barn, you must have a quality individual. If you would like to follow along, you can get an idea of what we're looking at and how the process works.