Hello, again! I am enthralled to be turning out my very first blog as a dad! Baby Grace Primrose Morley was born at 11:00am on Wednesday, November 30, and she is absolutely beautiful. She looks just like her mother, has my eyes, a great appetite and enjoys waking Maggie and I up in the middle of the night! Maggie is doing wonderful and has taken to motherhood sensationally.
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind and extremely special for Maggie and myself. We want to send thanks to both of our mothers for spending the first week with us at home; it made the transition much easier. It was also important for us to be given a hand while we were doing everything for the first time. Thank you, mums, for teaching us how to do things without making us feel like you were telling us how to be parents, but rather showing us how to do things the right way for Grace’s sake.
A blog post is never complete without a mention of George, who has grown quite fond of Grace and is always within range of her. Originally, when Grace first arrived home, I think George was under the impression that she was a squeaky toy; he was quickly told that was not the case and has been tremendous since.
I had to make a trip down to Louisiana this past weekend, and I must admit it was quite hard to be away from Maggie and Grace. I did, however, arrive to find our Louisiana string in great order and am looking forward to my very first meet in New Orleans. It was a very busy weekend for Team Morley as we had nine horses running between Aqueduct and Fairgrounds. Unfortunately, it was a tough weekend, but Passporttovictory managed to finish a respectable second in the New York Stallion Series Stakes despite a troubled start, and Gonna Be Morgan finished fifth in that same race.
Glorious Empire finished sixth in the Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes on Saturday. Manning made his first start on Saturday and came in eighth. Both were tough beats, nonetheless we will use the experience from the races to move forward and continue to build fitness.
Bode Miller sent three new horses to us, including a Louisiana-bred who will be competing in the stakes races at Fairgrounds this meet. Also look out for a filly by the name of Active Runner; she will be pointing towards the short dirt and turf races as well as the stakes for three-year-old and up fillies and mares.
Brother O’Connell had a tiny hiccup, which prompted me to give him a few months off. He’s had a long, hard year and I wanted to make sure he was given time to rest and recover. I think he’s got potential to be a very prolific five, six, seven-year-old grass horse. He is going to be gelded and will be back next year.
Moving forward, I’ve made some adjustments in training for most of our horses and will be fine-tuning over the next couple of weeks, so you should be seeing some major improvements in the New Year.
Maggie, Grace and I will be traveling to Maryland for Christmas so that Grace can meet her grandparents and spend time with the family over the holidays. As you can imagine, it’s all very much been about baby Grace these past couple of weeks, as it should. After Maryland, we will be driving on down to Louisiana, where Maggie will set up on maternity leave while I travel back and forth between Louisiana and New York during the winter months.
That is about all I have for now, but expect a new blog before 2017!
I want to thank all of our clients for the support and warm wishes. Maggie and I are grateful to have you all in our lives and wish you a Merry Christmas, happy and safe holidays!
