Time to Regroup

This blog entry was almost written on Sunday morning and it would have taken a more frustrated tone that day. While I’m always trying to capture the moment with this thing, it just didn’t make sense since we had too many questions unswered at that point. As of today, they are not all answered, but we have a little better sense…and a better feeling about moving forward.

In short, Saturday’s race was a huge dissapointment. I kept worrying all week that we had built it up too much. Hopes were high and we were probably a little overconfident. However, we were long overdue and we felt like he was the best horse in the field. Why question it? If one of your favorite teams is expected to win a game, why sit and worry about potentially losing? Just enjoy the ride. Our ride was going perfectly all the way until about the ¾ pole. Casey Leonard had carved out a perfect trip for In Over My Head. He had been second over and was flipping to the outside as they field turned for home just a length or two off the lead. As Danny and I watched from the apron at Balmoral Park, the thought process was simple. Game over. We might as take a leisurely stroll to the winner circle now because no one was beating Mo.

As it turned out, someone did beat Mo. To be more accurate, six other horses beat him although all were within 2 lengths at the finish line. His last quarter time of 29.0 simply wasn’t him. There was a headwind that night in the stretch, so a repeat of a 26.2 last quarter was very unlikely, but something in the 27’s was easily in his reach if he was right. Something was obviously wrong. Standing outside after the race the horrible thought burrowed into my head: was this the last race of In Over My Head's career?

The nice thing about being at the track is you can get a better feel for what is going on by heading back to the barn after the race. Unfortunately, it didn’t yield a ton of new answers. He wasn’t sick. He didn’t bleed. One positive was that it appeared to all of us that his leg was totally fine….not different than any of his other previous starts. So what happened? We still don’t know for sure. Maybe we shouldn’t have gone three weeks in a row with him after that long layoff. It was something we thought about and decided he would be fine, but maybe it was a bit too much too soon. Also, he had been showing some possible signs of soreness in his front left foot. That would offer some explination as well. Maybe it was a number of things that just added up to a bad night. I gave Mo his chance to let us know after the race and flat out asked him what was going one. His response: silence. No miracle Mr. Ed moment.

We missed out on an opportunity on Saturday and it took a few days to get over that. The flip side is that if that leg is still OK, maybe, just maybe In Over My Head has at least proven that a second career is a real possibility. What caused him to flatten out on Saturday was hopefully an unrelated issue. He’ll get this week off and we will try him back the following Saturday. It still feels like he is ready to pop…ready to put up that game mile that gets a win and we can start thinking about the future again. Until that time, we have to keep it week to week. It is kind of frustrating, but at least we are still in the game. No reason to give up now. Stay tuned and stay positive. I don’t think he’s done just yet.

Let’s Go Mo!