The middle of the summer is always a time when the Morley Barn spends a great chunk of the season traveling on the road with horses stabled in Saratoga and Belmont Park. We’ve been going up and down more than usual this year with the Belmont having its second year run in Saratoga, as well as the 4th of July week of racing. Taking part in these events has meant that we’ve basically been here for the vast majority of the summer, and will be here all the way through to Labor Day.
Saratoga’s a very special place, staggeringly competitive, and a real melting pot of horses coming from the Mid-Atlantic, Kentucky, and—as we saw in the Fourstardave—from California as well as New York, with the two-year-old races proving extremely competitive. Every race just means a tiny bit more at Saratoga. To me, it’s the flagship meet of North American racing, and it’s a true privilege being here.
It’s been a productive couple of months with Identity Crisis breaking his maiden for Edge Racing and MyRacehorse on June 19. He had previously been with a different trainer and had some physical issues that we needed to work through, but it was great to get him in the top spot on the board.
It was also great to see Dancinginthepark break his maiden for Tom Sanford on June 27. Sometimes it’s not the super talented, straightforward, easy horses that put a smile on your face. Dancinginthepark is an enormously built, dark bay gelding who’s bred by the Sanfords. He’s struggled with a lot of minor physical ailments over the years, mainly due to his size, and finally broke through the maiden ranks on a day where, sadly, I couldn’t be there. Trey and Tom were both, however, in attendance and I know it gave them a great deal of pleasure watching him win.
One Nine Hundred, who had been marginally disappointing at Pimlico, returned to his winning ways at Saratoga on July 6, reunited with Jose Lezcano. He was super impressive in an Allowance, earning a 93 or 94 Beyer. Plans are to try and go to the Gallant Bob at Philadelphia Park with this very fast son of Dialed In. He gave us a huge amount of excitement on closing day of July 4th week.
West Point Thoroughbreds, Titletown Racing’s, Lucky Hat Racing’s, and Mike Lyden’s Kyla’s Kause had been off for a long time. She suffered a knee injury at the tail end of her two-year-old season and had to have a lengthy rehab at Bruce Jackson’s Fair Hill Rehab Center in Maryland. It was fantastic to get her back to the races and back in such wonderful shape as she absolutely dusted a field in a maiden sprint race on the Saratoga turf on July 30.
We’ve had some horses run really well without winning up here in Saratoga. Some special mentions include Paula’s a Star, Lawyer Mason on debut, and Griffin’s Wharf—all owned by Rainbow’s End Racing. These three horses acquitted themselves without getting into the winner’s circle, which is frustrating when your horses are running very, very well. Still, they showed up and ran respectable races.
At the first Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, we were lucky to have West Paces Racing and Rainbow’s End Racing come together to purchase a beautiful son of Good Magic from the Taylor Made consignment. I’m really excited and enthusiastic about this colt and the future sales coming up.
A few days later, we worked very hard at the New York Bred Sale and are looking forward to heading down to Keeneland for the annual 14-day yearling purchasing extravaganza in September.
It’s a bright and happy time for the Morley family. The girls obviously were on summer holiday, so we tried to pack in as much as we could for them to enjoy. We’ve had some joyful day trips on Lake George so far, which have been really good fun for them and us as a family. We also got to spend time with our great friends Dan and Christina Blacker, who stayed with us for the first sale.
Saratoga’s a special place that brings a lot of people together and it’s a very happy place for all of us. That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ve got lots of great things to blog about towards the end of the meet.
