Well the doom and gloom has lifted, the trainer is smiling a little more and that’s due to us having a better week, it’s amazing how things can turn around so quickly but even after Scribbling Sarah and Ithastobegeorge being beaten I was feeling a bit more confident that the team were returning to form. Ithastobegeorge ran fourth again but put in a pretty decent performance as he was trapped down on the rail with nowhere to go for the majority of the race, when he finally got running room at the 1/8th pole he really finished his race strongly and with a better draw would have been tough in that spot. He will wheel back quite quickly as he didn’t have a hard race and will point to an allowance on opening day of Aqueduct going his preferred 7/8. He is a horse I am leaning towards going a two turn mile in the middle of winter rather than the speed favoring 6 furlong trip as he seems to get out paced at 6 furlongs and come running late.
Scribbling Sarah has been the model of improving consistency every time she has gone to the track this year. She has run better with each start and is as honest as the day is long, she is a little battler and being a Freud I would expect her to have a really solid year next year. Once again, two days in a row, we got done by the rail draw which can be a great place to be if you have early speed, however George and Sarah are come from behind types and so they often encounter trouble. Sarah was trapped behind a wall of horses when she wanted to run and finally fanned wide into the middle of the turf track and flew home to be a good third. She will run back this weekend as the turf sprinting comes to a close with Belmont and she seems to have bounced out of this last contest extremely well. I am not one to run my horses back quickly as I like to give them time to recover before trying to bring them to a peak again but with improving fillies who eat well and aren’t hard on themselves in their day to day training then I am less concerned. Scribbling Sarah is a small light type who doesn’t get too tired by her racing.
Finally on Colombus day we knocked the awaited winner in. Craving carats made his debut for the barn as a first time gelding and I was delighted to see Maggie’s favorite horse jump onto the lead and be given an expert front running ride from Irad Ortiz. He managed to get a gentle 48 second first half mile but really began to crank it up from the front and the final 1 min 35 sec for a mile was a very respectable time. Donegal Racing kindly gave me the opportunity to see if I could resurrect this horses career and he has benefited enormously from Maggie’s TLC while the trainer keeps telling her to ride the horse properly. It just goes to show what a woman’s touch can do for a little horses confidence. He has been so happy and bouncy for the two weeks going into the race I guess I haven’t got a leg to stand on now about how she rides him in the mornings!!
Finns Quest made an encouraging first start finishing a solid fifth after 7 months on the bench in allowance company and will have benefited from getting a race under his belt and I was delighted to have Canal Six pick up some black type as a two year old on Saturday running 3rd in the Joseph A Gimma stakes on NY bred showcase day, she did especially well to close to be third on a track that was horribly speed favoring all day.
Maggie and I managed some down time in the city on Monday afternoon with her mother and friends coming up from MD. It’s hard to get away from the barn and so the occasional afternoon off makes you feel really refreshed and ready to go again, some shopping and a delicious dinner were the perfect start to the week. Hopefully we can have another winner before Belmont closes and we start the long winter meet at Aqueduct…
Tom Morley
