Before we get to November, there are a couple of October victories to touch on. Early in the month Villainous showed a lot of guts to come from a long way off the pace and win for Flying P Stable. He was claimed following the race and recently won for his new connections, so we are happy to see him doing well and wish them the best of luck going forward. I was also delighted to get Shane’s Pretty Lady back to her previous form and back in the winner’s circle on October 31. Kendrick Carmouche was aboard to win by four lengths for DutchessViews Farm at Belmont.
November has been a mixed month with the horses continuing to run very well through the early part of the month. It was great to see Tellaperfecttale finally get her head in front and break her Maiden on November 5, the same day Iron Lion in Zion also won a Maiden Special Weight in incredibly impressive form at Belmont to round out the meet. Journeyman and Spettro ran incredibly well in their respective races that same weekend but got nailed late and finished second. Iron Lion in Zion is a colt with a large amount of ability, we’re looking forward to running him in the New York Stallion Series Great White Way in the middle of December.
It was great to get the Aqueduct meet off to a winning start with Rally Squirrel breaking his maiden in impressive fashion on November 13, the same afternoon Tell Your Daddy ran a very decent second in the Artie Schiller behind a surprise winner that left a lot of us scratching our heads. Perhaps the horse handled the ground better than anyone else.
We’ve opened the Fair Grounds division and a dozen horses have made their way down for the winter months. I’m looking forward to a couple of promising two-year-olds making their debuts down there next month, especially a gelding who we think has an above average level of ability, his name is Downtown Connector and he’s owned by West Paces Racing.
We rounded out the turf stakes calendar in New York on November 26 with Ocala Dream running in the Gio Ponti at Aqueduct. I was a little concerned about the ground as it had been raining for eight straight hours prior to the race and the turf was a bit soft. Dylan Davis had the ride and guided Ocala Dream to a fourth-place finish.
We had a wonderful time in California for the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. Unfortunately, Locally Owned did bleed; it was not a significant bleed, but it was bad enough that it stopped him in the latter part of the race. He and Tell Your Daddy have gone to Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center for their winter vacations. Locally Owned’s lungs are going to take a little bit of time to heal, we have ultrasounds confirming it was a very minor bleed, but we need to get him back in shape for next year. As for Tell Your Daddy, with very few opportunities in the coming months we decided that now was the time to give him a winter holiday before he targets a series of Grade One races next year.
November was a really fun month for us as a family. We took Grace and Willow with us to the Breeders’ Cup and got to do some really enjoyable things together away from the racetrack. The day after the Breeders’ Cup was a very special day as the Mitchell children, Blacker children, and Morley children all got together for a really fun day on the beach while the parents recovered from the races.
In other news, it’s only taken me seven years to take my wife on honeymoon, but I finally got around to taking a week off to escape with Maggie to Uruguay—and it was incredible. It was a week of riding through beautiful countryside, enjoying delicious food and wine, and just unwinding from a busy week. If you’re looking for a place to visit, I highly recommend going to Uruguay as it is a stunning country with wonderful infrastructure and incredibly nice people. Big thank you to Edgar, our gaucho, and Marianela, his wife, who looked after us spectacularly, it really made for an extremely spoiling week away.
Pictures: Maggie and I in Uruguay and the girls at Belmont
