October saw the continuation of the yearling sales and we were lucky to purchase a filly in Ireland at the Goffs Orby Sale as well as another filly at Tattersalls. Both are now safely in Florida and have begun the breaking process along with some of the horses we picked up at the Fasig-Tipton October sale. On the racetrack, I was delighted with James Aloysius’s first start for the barn. He finished second on October 19, beaten in a very close blanket finish by the remarkably consistent Fort Washington.
October into November allowed us to finally see some consistent turf racing. Unfortunately, because of how far along we are in the meet, several of our horses missed opportunities to run and are now off on holiday. Social Whirl and Latest Edition, who made one and three starts this year, respectively, are two of the affected horses.
We had a decent start to November. EZ Roll broke his maiden on November 3 in very impressive fashion going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. He won by 6-lengths and was very professional. In typical Morley two-year-old fashion, he has improved with every start, which is how I like to develop my horses. I was delighted for him to get his Maiden win for Ohonte Way Stables before going off on holiday.
Earlier in the meet at Aqueduct, it was great to see Perrine Time Thoroughbreds and Blue Streak Racing’s Woke Up Quick break his Maiden second time out on the turf. He had previously run very well at Saratoga despite getting shut off in the early stages of a turf sprint. A couple days later on October 6, La Grotte finally got herself in the winner’s circle as well. The daughter of Bolt d’Oro has had a bit of a spotty career so far but returned from a summer layoff to break her Maiden going 7-furlongs at Aqueduct. I ran her back on November 9 going 6 ½ furlongs and, though she tried hard to finish third, it turned out to be a little too short. Still, I was very pleased to see her put back-to-back efforts together.
A couple of juveniles who have run very well without getting the job done: Summer in Adriane got beaten by a dirty nostril in a 6-furlong turf sprint on November 9. Three days later, The Big Torpedo finished a gallant second on debut. These two have been breezing together, so it was good to see them both run extremely credibly. The Big Torpedo will target the New York Stallion Series in December and Summer in Adriane will head to the Fair Grounds to join our turf division down there.
We’re now getting into the teeth of our winter season. John Attfield has gone down to Fair Grounds with six horses and has another seven slated to join him. I’m looking forward to heading down there at the end of the month to see how they’re all progressing.
A few weeks ago in October, my brothers and mother took me to the Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals in Marseilles, France, where we had a tremendously great time watching top class rugby as a family. Maggie and the girls joined me afterwards and we did our Autumn tour of England, stopping by to meet Grace and Willow’s new cousin, Hope, and visiting New Forest to see the famous wild ponies. We stayed with my brother Billy in Dorset and paid a quick visit to the farm we were raised on, Westerdale, with my four brothers and Mum. It was an extremely spoiling time and made for a very enjoyable vacation.
