Who Dat? Not the Saints…it’s In Over My Head!

See the race in the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzKtLxZL-Mo

Sports celebrations are all relative. A few times a year, the nation or even world will get a feeling what it is like for a fan base to reach the highest levels of excitement. Last night at about 10:30 pm, a set of bright green beads hit my patio window, which tells me that the Saints fans in the French Quarter were so excited they were able to throw those things about 1,500 miles.

While our fan base is somewhat smaller than that of the Saints, Team In Over My Head was also celebrating this weekend…all 12 or so of us. Actually that number may be growing based on the congratulations we received in person, on the phone and on various internet sites. We may be 25 strong at this point and if Mo keeps doing what he is doing, that number could continue to grow.

It had been about roughly 77 days since In Over My Head last raced and we were very excited to get the season started. He had a wonderful break in both Mineral Point and later in New Jersey. That time allowed him to rest both physically and mentally. Greg told me it was about week three in Mineral Point that he could tell Mo was ready to start training again based on his more aggressive behavior in the barn. It didn’t take him long at all. Nonetheless, we stuck with our plan to give him about two months off (roughly one away from the track and one training down into racing shape). Going into the race on Friday night, he had qualified twice and he had done exactly what we hoped he would in each one. It was finally race time again.

In Over My Head was entered into the Exit 16W series at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The series is based on horses with less than four lifetime wins or less than $100,000 in total earnings as of 11/15/2009. Since Mo won the Windy City on 11/20/2009, we just snuck in. Having that said, the field was not going to be easy. It consists of two legs that go for $20,000 each where participants accumulate points. The horses with the most points after the two legs make the $73,000 final. We had been tracking our competition since the Meadowlands opened in early January and when the draw came out, we knew we would be facing one of the early 2010 stars in a horse called Pacinello. Two weeks before, Pacinello had won a $90,000 race in 1.52.0 and was installed as a 2-1 morning line favorite. Also, we were trying to strategically pick a driver who could stick with us throughout the entire series. We had picked Tim Tetrick, but as luck would have it, it was Tetrick who drove Pacinello in his big victory. We couldn’t go with Andy Miller, a favorite driver of ours last year as he was driving another one of the series favorites named Real Joke. We decided to go for broke and put down Brian Sears, the top driver in the county a number of years running. He also had a top horse in the series, Majestic Jackpot, but Jackpot was in a different division, leaving Sears without a horse to drive in ours. We learned last Wednesday that Sears had chosen our horse over another one of our competitors. We were obviously quite pleased.

When race day arrived on Friday the 5th, there was something missing from race days last year. I was much less nervous. I’m not sure if it was all of the distractions this time of year (mainly coaching), but as I drove to the park and ride to pick up Danny, I was more excited than nervous. There were a couple of reasons that came to mind as to why:

- The Windy City win had taken the monkey off our back so to speak. Throughout the season in 2009, we always thought we had a great horse, but it wasn’t until the Windy City that we finally proved it. Before that time, every race had a knock on it. We won in Springfield, but the time was a non impressive 1.57 (the track was off), we had a strong second in DuQuoin, but again the time of 1.52.4 was just average on a historically lightening fast track, we took second in a leg of the Pennsylvania Sire sires, but had a 2 hole trip to a good, but not great horse, we won the Open at Maywood, but didn’t really beat any big names. And then there were the breaks. All three of them in big races. Then there was the time he was sick and faded badly in the Free For All at Balmoral followed up by an 8th place finish in the American National (he was still kind of sick). If I was an outside observer, I’d say that we certainly have one heck of a lot of excuses…at least until the Windy City when it all changed.
- The Windy City gave our family a ‘Signature Win’. Thinking back (and I’m just doing this from memory), the last time our family had a win in a race of over $100,000 was probably Wayne Eden back in the early 1970s. He was the 2 year old trotter of the year in New Jersey that year. Since then, Grandpa and Greg had some very good horses that won some very good races (Thrifty Kirk, Race Time Carey, Race On Carey, Carey’s Card Shark, Carey’s Express, Richess King and so on), but there was no signature win. Even my smaller ownership in Butenschoen’s partnerships never had that big win. I think Westside Gritty was good enough, but it never panned out. Scoring that Signature Win takes away some of the pressure for success. In a way, it validates this crazy pursuit we call horse racing.
- Financially, there was obviously much less pressure. In Over My Head had paid for his purchase price of $28,000, all of his expenses in 2009 and built a nice reserve for himself and Showtime Shark for 2010 with some to spare. We are officially playing with house money. There were times I never thought we’d get there, but much like those times when your $200 stack of chips grows to $500 at a blackjack table after a hot streak, the game is a little more fun and the drinks flow just a little bit easier.

The ride down to South Beloit was fun for Danny and me. We rehashed last year for the 15th time, talked about our hopes for 2010 as well as our hopes for that evening’s race. A quick summary was simple: it would be very hard to beat Pacinello our first start back. He was sharp and we probably needed a start or two to be at our best. There were a number of other worthy horses in our race that had also been racing. In the end, we agreed that a nice 3rd place finish would be a great way to start the season. After arriving in Beloit and sitting down with Greg, I think we all agreed that a strong 3rd would be a successful night.

After feeling like a changed man who had cast the days of nervous races aside on the ride down, I was snapped back into reality as we approached our race (race #5). Tightening stomach, nervous tapping on the table, lots of standing up and then sitting down. I guess not much ended up changing after all. The Meadowlands does a great job with their show in terms of analysis and spotlighting horses. We were not featured in any spotlight segments, but we did get a nice comment form the Meadowlands top handicapper Dave Brower in the program comments: “Last seen upsetting If I Can Dream in the Windy City, so keep in mind. Hopes obviously high. Is he ready? Yes.” Dave had us picked for 3rd as well. Despite that fact, the bettors must not have agreed. After being set at 9-2 in the program, our odds as the race began were 8-1.

There is a moment as the race starts that you are trying to channel your thoughts through a tiny TV screen into the mind of the driver. “Leave with him…fall back…etc.” but as they took off we all took a different approach. We have Brian Sears driving today, so whatever he wants to do, that’s fine with us. Sears ended up taking In Over My Head off the gate rather cautiously and after a quarter of a mile, we were sitting about 6 lengths off the lead in 4th place. Two of the long shots were flying out front and the race favorite, Pacenello, was sitting in 6th place, waiting for the right time to move and use his blistering closing speed. Sears masterfully tipped Mo off the pylons just past the half mile mark and sat outside briefly, forcing the horse in front of him, Pantastic Dream, to go first over to challenge the leaders. As many expected, the long shot leaders were already starting to show signs of tiring and it was time to get off the rail as to not get stuck behind them as they faded. As Pantastic Dream pulled up alongside of the leader, we were right on his back. Pacinello was on the move too, two lengths behind us. The top of the stretch approached and Sears gave In Over My Head a little tap with the whip. It was time to put the petal down. He fanned him three wide just past the ¾ mile mark and the final stretch drive was on.

By this point, the early frontrunners were toast and were fading badly. Our cover, Pantastic Guy, was just to our inside, but it didn’t take long for In Over My Head to power past him. The real threat was coming from behind us. Tetrick had Pacinello revved up and behind him was Lisagain, a very talented horse who had tipped to the center of the track in a bid to swallow up both Pacinello as well as In Over My Head. As the horses reached mid stretch, Sears was going to work on Mo and he wasn’t responding like a horse that had been on the shelf for two months. He was chewing up racetrack with each powerful stride and his challengers remained behind him, unable to make up much ground on him. With just about a 1/16th of a mile to go, Sears put the lines in his hand and took a peak behind him and saw…nothing. Despite this being his first start back and facing a group of well tuned up horses, In Over My Head and Brian Sears coasted home and crossed the wire first, a full length and a quarter ahead of Pacinello and Lisagain. As they crossed the wire Greg said, “watch this time” and a moment later the official time was posted: 1.50.4. On a February night with the temperatures in the low 30s and coming off of a two month layoff, In Over My Head had just shattered his previous personal best winning time by nearly two full seconds.

To say that the season opened with a bang, would be quite and understatement. Just when we thought we hit a point where In Over My Head ‘maxed out’ or ‘found his bottom’ as they say in racing, we are treated to a new lifetime mark and find ourselves asking the question, just how good is this horse? He will be back in again this Friday and with the victory last week, we have been guaranteed a spot in the series final on February 20th. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a better read as how much he has improved.