Reflections

It has been over two weeks now since our Windy City dream evening. In Over My Head has been enjoying his stay at Club Mineral Point, where he basically gets treated as a pet for a month and is constantly cared for by Greg and other visitors. My favorite story came from Danny who said he had a young cousin go up to the horse barn where Mo is kept on Thanksgiving. The kid’s parents wanted a picture of the boy and In Over My Head for a Christmas card. Danny told them that it was unlikely that (i) Mo would come over to them as they stood on the fence line and (ii) even if he did, he wouldn’t say long. He was enjoying running around his new paddock and you can’t expect a horse to smile for a camera. Well, not only did In Over My Head come over to the fence, he stood in perfect pose for five pictures and then they were done, he ran off. I think he is enjoying all the attention.

As In Over My Head gets some time away from race equipment and training miles, we are planning his next set of potential conquests. I remember thinking a couple days after the Windy City victory that it was kind of sad that all the excitement was coming to an end. The great thing is that we have many more opportunities in the future. While there may not be any more Windy City Pace victories, In Over My Head continues to get bigger and stronger. He should be a monster on the track next year provided we continue to try and find races that fit his level of ability. His next set of races will come rather quickly. He is eligible for two series at The Meadowlands in February and March where he should find the competition noticeably lighter than the American National and Windy City Pace. From there he will probably get another break before getting ready for a summer season. Honestly, we aren’t quite sure what that summer season will look like at this point. That will probably be determined this spring.

I think it is safe to say that our collection of Windy City memorabilia is bursting at the seams, but you can never have too much. We have extra copies of our cover story in The Horsemen, which was very cool considering we are usually reading about other people’s horses in magazines. We have many copies of the winner circle picture, printed copies of newspaper articles and online articles. We posted many pictures from the night and I’m sure some will find their way into frames around the house. In Over My Head is going to get a new set of shoes soon and you can bet the farm that we will each get our hands on one of those lucky horseshoes. Also, I am eagerly awaiting Danny’s highlight tape that he is working on putting together (I’ll post it here when he is done).

This posting will mark the official end of In Over My Head’s 2009 blog entries (although I may throw up a couple more ‘unofficial’ posts). About 11 months ago, we traveled to New Jersey and bought a young horse with plenty of speed, but plenty of question marks for $28,000. I had a feeling about him and I think Greg and Danny did too. It was that feeling why I started typing this blog in the first place. We were rewarded early with mostly good races out in the Meadowlands including a 3rd place finish in the $82,500 Junior Trendsetter Final. This summer brought a dizzying amount of highs (Springfield win with 2nd place finishes in Pennsylvania and DuQuoin) and lows (knocked out of two $40,000+ races through horrible luck).
As the season winded down, In Over My Head fell ill at the absolute worst time and there was a very serious worry that he would not even be able to race in the American National or the Windy City Pace. When I watched him fade in the stretch in the Open at Bamoral just two weeks before the American National, I was sure the season was over. It wasn’t him. He NEVER and I mean NEVER fades in the stretch. It does not ever happen unless there is something very wrong. There was something wrong. We treated him and like the warrior he is, Mo fought back. He was game, but still not himself in the American National. Then came the Windy City Pace. He was back to his old self, but we didn’t know it until one minute and fifty-two seconds after the race started. If only horses could talk we would have known ahead of time that his 55-1 odds were at least a little bit too long.

The other thing that seems to sick in my head is that our largest victory occurred at Maywood Park. I have been to Maywood Park far more time than any other track and have a lot of memories there. It really makes it more special. My first win as an owner was there when Tony Morgan protected the one hole with Arizona Attack as he charged to victory in an $8,000 claiming race. In the late 1990s, my brother Kirk was racing a filly named Patricia Per there and we made it down for a couple of races. One night, she won and we charged into the winner circle with ear to ear smiles. My friend Josh and I were down on a slow summer Monday night to watch another one of Greg’s horses, Carey’s Primetime. We enjoyed a fine $9.99 surf and turf dinner before getting a winner circle picture taken in Primetime’s victory. There were plenty of not so good memories too, but we will leave them to the side for now. The one non-race memory that sticks in my mind was actually of In Over My Head. He was in his 2 year old season and had been struggling mightily with making breaks. John Butenschoen was warming him up that night and brushed him much harder than normal to make sure he was OK to race. Danny was down there too that night. We were standing on the rail as he went by and I remember thinking ‘wow…he is absolutely flying!’ For that short stretch of track, I could have sworn that In Over My Head was going as fast as any horse I’ve ever seen. That was until November 20, 2009 when he went over that exact same piece of racetrack in the Windy City. I’ve watched that replay about a hundred times now and I STILL can’t believe that move he made at the end.

In the end, we had 22 races, 6 wins, 4 seconds, 2 thirds and 4 last place finishes. That’s a wild roller coaster. We ended up with $195,000 in purse money, a healthy horse ready for a 4 year old campaign and a lifetime of memories. Not to mention a race by race download of what we were doing and thinking right here in this blog. Sometimes I couldn’t wait to get typing and after bad races, it was a struggle to hit any keystrokes. All in all, it was a lot of fun and will plan to keep chronicling the times of Mr. In Over My Head. I think we have a small following of readers and I’ve had a few people tell me they enjoy reading, so I’ll keep typing. As next year gets closer and closer, the next question is this: will the Windy City victory be the overwhelming shining jewel atop In Over My Head’s racing crown? Will anything even come close? Was it a fluke? I’m not trying to be greedy, but as I watch him storm around his paddock up at the horse barn in Mineral Point, I have a sneaky suspicion that there is more to come with this colt.