End Of The Season Perspective

After thinking about this for a couple of days, I’m not going to do much race discussion. We were very excited that In Over My Head got a chance to face the best in Chicago and as you will see in the video below, he more than held his own. The trip didn’t go the way we wanted it to and if he had been able to shake free a bit sooner, he would have been right there at the wire. He is in post position #1:




After the race, it was a little bittersweet. He raced great, but a 4th place finish doesn’t feel great. It left us wanting more, but in the end, we decided not to deviate from our plan and will be giving him a mini break. After what he has been through to get to this point, he certainly deserves it.

I’m going to put that last race aside now and think more about what happened in 2011 in order to show proper perspective as to just how far we have come. I was thinking and thinking about how to do that, when Danny sent me an email that jolted me back to a year ago. It was a very sad way reminder of what the mood was like in late 2010.

Here is a portion of our exchange that took place just after we found out that In Over My Head, who had been off for 10 months at that time and was down in Florida attempting to train down to racing shape, was struggling to even do 3 minute training miles. His injured leg was not holding up well. We thought the worst was behind us and once we sent him to Florida everything would just work out from there. We were wrong and he was on a truck back to Illinois shortly after this exchange for more rest and more treatment. Luckily, we had Danny to be the positive voice in the group at the time:

“Times are tough...Greg and I didn’t have much to talk about this morning. Each day it gets mostly easier. The one thing he said that hit home was that we probably won't ever have a horse as good as him again, which is a painful, but very possibly true statement. You are right, though, all you can do is keep grinding away…”

We will never have a horse as good as him again. We were being forced to accept the fact his career was nearly over and that was a BRUTALLY truthful statement. For a couple of guys who make a run at a horse once every year or two, to get one like In Over My Head is very rare. Heck, it’s rare to find a free for all horse when you spend tons of money buying them every year. We had climbed the ladder as owners and just when we were starting to enjoy the view from the top, we were about to climb back down.

And on Saturday we were a little miffed at a 4th place finish because the trip didn’t go well??? After Mo had made his way all the way up to the Invitational and was racing against the best in Chicago? A horse that couldn’t break a 3 minute training mile 12 months early who was facing a forced retirement??? Ahhh…on second thought, that 4th place finish can roll off our back like water off a duck.

Given the fact this will be my last entry of the year, I’m going to look back a bit. What did we learn about In Over My Head since he came back to the track? Here are some things I came up with.

• Mo still has it. He won twice, showed some high speed last quarters, raced against top level foes and showed he belonged at that high level again.
• He is a people horse (much like a people person). That guy is a social animal and loves to have friends and visitors. I think Penny is definitely his favorite, but he will put on a show to anyone who wants to come and say hello.
• He races better when he has fans at the track. Danny and Kacy win the award for most races attended (5 of the 7). Other trackside supports include Laura’s grandparents, Laura’s parents, Kim and Jamie and Danny’s friend Aaron. Thanks to all who came to cheer him on.
• He may have a deeper vocabulary than originally thought. When I asked him after the race Saturday if he wanted to keep racing, he clearly nodded his head! No joke! We had plenty of witnesses and I’m kicking myself for not trying to get that on video. Maybe we’ll try again next year.
• He’s due for some good trips, which will lead to more high place finishes.
• He’s still the greatest horse who ever lived…well at least as far as we are concerned. And while we are obviously as biased as possible, Mo has made a few new fans this year who all seem to enjoy his story.

I have noticed that readership of this little blog space has jumped since he made it back to the track and I really hope you all enjoy our little story. Please feel free to share it with anyone who is interested in horses and racing. Like I said above, Mo loves his fans! This whole thing was started as simply a blow by blow account of what it is like to own a racehorse and it has taken on a mind of its own…all thanks to the best greatest horse who ever lived of course.

Also, since this is the last post of the year, we wanted to send a couple thank you to the people who make this comeback possible:

- The Butenschoen’s (John, Jackie and Tyler) – For being Mo’s trainer from the beginning and never giving up hope he could make it back
- Penny Perrin – For taking care of Mo and being his best buddy
- Dr. Tony Petrowitz – I still don’t know how you did it, but without you, Mo doesn’t have a second racing career.
- Marcus Miller – For all your drives, not only the winning ones, but all those qualifiers and training miles back when we weren’t sure if he’d even make it back.
- Casey Leonard – For playing a big part in helping Mo make it back by taking care of him at your facility and driving him twice during the comeback
- John Delong – For stepping in and taking the reigns this last Saturday

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Team In Over My Head. Thank you for following along this year. Please check back in early January when I’ll give some updates on future plans. He likely won’t be off for too long, so we will have more races to talk about soon and we can once again cheer him on.

Let’s Go Mo!

An Invite to the Invitational

I’ve generally been on a one entry per race schedule when it comes to putting up blog posts, but our current situation merits an extra entry. I’m going to keep it short and sweet. In summary, we got bumped up to first class this week. However in racing, first class isn’t necessarily the best thing! The class we raced in last week filled up with other horses, so our only option was to race in the Invitational (the highest level). After a slight initial dose of disappointment, we have all embraced the change and are extremely excited about the challenge.

Since it is the last race, here is a quick trip down memory lane for the later part of 2011:

• A little over ninety days ago, we were about ready to retire Mo. He had almost left us with no choice…then in a shocking training mile, he left us with no choice but to keep pushing on.
• The first three races started with pure excitement and ended with more questions than ever. 7th, 5th, 7th…was the dream of a comeback just that? A dream?
• True to form, Mo reminded us who he really is. Back to back wins in impressive fashion. We were on cloud 9 and feeling rather invincible.
• Last week, a bit of a return to reality. A nice solid race, which many In Over My Head followers know generally throws us for a loop. Mo isn’t about good solid races. He’s all or nothing! OK, he’s not always that way, but sometimes it sure seems like it.
• Now, we try and enter into the same field where we thought we’d be a favorite, but instead get bumped to the highest level against a daunting group of horses. A field that we would be confident we could beat a couple years back, but now…who knows? Well To Do Guru has only been beaten twice in his last seven starts: once by a horse in this field and once by a horse that went in 1.48.4. It doesn’t get much better than that.

How should we approach this race on Saturday? What should our expectations be? Should we be hoping for a win? Top 3? Top 5?

As some of you may know, I’ve been a basketball coach at Memorial high school for the past 8 years. The melding of basketball and horse racing is really fun to me and when I was thinking about expectations, one thing immediately came into my head. Instead of trying to explain to you what we should expect on Saturday, I’m going turn it over to the coach of one of the greatest underdog stories ever. After being the favorite the last couple of weeks, In Over My Head is right back where he belongs…as the underdog. The fine handicappers at Balmoral Park picked him for dead last and added the clever little comment: “In Over My Head….That appears to be the case.” Well handicapping guru, they said the same people thing about old Hickory High! Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDJS9rFGCHE

It doesn’t matter what happens on Saturday. We shouldn’t even be here! We are already winners! And for one last time in 2011, the year of the comeback:

LET’S GO MO!!!

Just Short of a Win Streak...

Everything appeared to be setting up perfectly.

At the head of the stretch on Saturday night, In Over My Head had almost pulled even with the leader after coming first over. As we all sat watching on our respective TV or computer screens, we were probably thinking the same thing: roughly 27 seconds from now, Mo will be on a 3 race winning streak.

Unfortunately for us, recent history did not repeat itself this time. For awhile, it looked like In Over My Head would power past everyone, but as they hit the wire he ended up finishing 3rd. It wasn’t a bad third by any means; the two horses that beat him were tough racehorses with around $250,000 in career earnings. However, there is a feeling of invincibility that builds after a couple of impressive wins and I was definitely feeling it before the race. After sitting there for a couple of minutes after the race, all I could think was, “what happened?”

What happened could have been any number of things. He moved up in class. This was certainly a tougher bunch. He had to leave a little bit this week instead of just floating off the gate and waiting to make his move. He again came first up, which is a tough trip normally, but the strong headwind on Saturday made it tougher this week. He is generally better off one week of rest than two like he had this time. That is what it is…can’t race him every week. Lastly, maybe it just wasn’t his night for any number of reasons. I always make the point to remind people that horses are not robots. Some days they are just better than other days. It is exactly the same as a human who likes to run 5ks on the weekend. Some weekends you feel like a million bucks…some other weekends you battle to get one foot in front of the other and there isn’t always a clear cut reason why.

Regardless of what happened, he still raced well and we are excited for this Saturday which will be his last race of the season. He will be back in the same class with a similar bunch of horses. We expect him to be sharp and it would be sooooooooo cool to end our little mini season with a win.

The other positive takeaway from Saturday is it really feels we are getting back to normal now. Danny made a good point. In Over My Head has never won 3 in a row and usually doesn’t even go three real good races in a row. He is the preverbal roller coaster, which in reality is part of what makes him so special to us. Mo’s always keeping us on our toes! I wish I would have thought of that before I placed my bets on Saturday, but as they say, you win some and you lose some.

After he two recent wins, I was thinking that maybe In Over My Head was a little different this time around. Maybe he would become an ultra consistent horse that was a bit more predictable. As it turns out, we have another data point that shows New Mo is just like Old Mo and that suits us just fine.

Lets go Mo!