This winter has been without a doubt the hardest winter I’ve experienced since I’ve lived in New York, with record setting lows, record setting winds, and record setting inches/feet of snow. The weather has been extremely challenging for anyone and everyone who’s involved in horse racing in the state of New York. We’ve lost a number of racing days due to cancellations, and it doesn’t look like it will be letting up any time soon. We’re really hoping that the turning of March will bring the turning of some better weather.
The recent snowfall of twenty-six inches was measured by Willow, who walked across our lawn up to her waist in snow. I must applaud the New York Racing Association track maintenance because they’ve done a sterling job of working around the weather to ensure that we get our horses out and trained in a safe environment throughout the winter.
I also must thank my own team enormously for the long hours they’ve put in working through extremely tough conditions to ensure that our horses are cared for to the very highest of levels. The fact that the horses look so well in their coats, and the ones that have run have run well means that my team are doing as good a job as they possibly could in maintaining the health and wellbeing of our horses.
As such, it has been a very quiet time in terms of runners for us. But I’ve been very pleased to see One Nine Hundred—having run extremely well at Churchill Downs off his layoff— come back and run a monster race in January at Aqueduct. Any horse that runs under a minute and ten seconds for under six furlongs in January in New York is a very fast horse. To go 1:09.3 and receive a 104 Beyer Speed Figure is a testament to how good this horse is becoming as a four-year-old. I’m excited to see how he will develop as the year goes on, but it was certainly gratifying for owners Steven Rocco, Adelphi Racing, and Reeves Thoroughbreds to see him break through with a huge performance in a very fast time.
Our only other winner so far this year came very recently; Senegal won first off the claim for Stuart Grant and The Elk Stone Group on February 20. This five-year-old son of Solomini had actually been claimed with a view to give him a vacation and bring him back in the middle of summer; however, the day we claimed him, he won enormously. Having got him back to the barn and realizing that he was a horse who was full of confidence, very sound with a tremendous appetite, we decided to soldier on.
Even after being cancelled once due to the conditions, Senegal rewarded our patience by coming back and winning a Starter Allowance under a lovely ride from Jaime Rodriguez. He’s probably marginally better around two turns, and this race was at a one turn mile. So, I’m looking forward to spacing out his races nicely and allowing him time to get over these efforts. It’s always encouraging when a horse who has previously gone one-for-fourteen goes two-for-two. Very often you will see these horses start to improve as they realize how to win races.
We’ve had a couple of other notable performances this year. Interstatelovesong, who has been incredibly unlucky not to win a stake, came back in the Busher Stakes on February 28 and finished third. As I’ve previously mentioned, I think this is a filly with an abundance of talent who is getting bigger and stronger with each and every race. She fills me with confidence as a trainer as she truly seems to enjoy her job.
Turn and Count is still a work in progress. Having been disqualified from the winner’s circle on his first start, he was then very unlucky again not to get the job done in February. He is a very big rangy horse, not the most straightforward, and raced in blinkers on March 1, not running as well as I would have liked.
We’ve only had him for three months but feel we have a horse on our hands who’s improving in our care, and as such, I’m willing to forgive him, tentatively, for these mishaps in the afternoon. It would be very gratifying to see him get into the winner’s circle in the near future for the Humes, Cutair Racing, and Adelphi Racing.
The one thing a huge amount of snowfall has allowed is for Maggie and I to nip off with the girls to further their skiing adventures around the eastern mountain ranges. They’ve been to the Poconos, skiing in upstate New York, Connecticut, and Vermont so far this winter. Oh to be as spoiled as my two girls are. This is something that Maggie and I both adore doing, and it’s incredibly enjoyable to be able to share in the experience with the girls. With this last snowfall, we tied a rope to the back of Maggie’s truck and took Grace skiing around the neighborhood in Locust Valley to the great amusement of most of our neighbors.
A lot of the grass horses are back in training now. I think we’ve got a very solid bunch of horses to go to war with this year. We’ve started off a lot slower than I would’ve liked, but that is due to the fact that we’ve had so many races cancelled, not that the horses haven’t been running well. To say I’m looking forward to the turf season as I look out my window at a foot and a half of snow is probably a little premature, but horses like A Bourbon for Toby and Donegal Momentum, Griffin’s Wharf, and Attfield are all in and doing very well. Hopefully the next time we blog, I will have seen the grass for the first time in what feels like ages. Not that we’ll be racing on it, but it would be really nice to see my lawn again.
