In Over My Head? A story of racehorse ownership.

The Season Starts on Wednesday!

2012-03-05T19:13:00.002-08:00

We are still a couple weeks away from a real race, but In Over My Head will qualify on Wednesday morning at Balmoral Park. A qualifying race doesn't have the monumental feel it did after he was coming off his long injury layoff, but it does mark the start of 2012 and we are quite excited about it.

I'll post again after the race, but just wanted to get a quick post up with the good update.

Let's go Mo!

Inching Closer to the Start of the Season

2012-02-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

Day by day we get closer to the start of In Over My Head’s racing season. We have officially reached the point where each day is starting to feel like 2. Next week each day will feel like 3…you can extrapolate the days from there. Last week was a great week of training, but this week was a bit tougher due to some winter weather coming back later in the week. We remain at the mercy of Mother Nature as we aren’t going to push Mo to train on a bad track. The good news is he is doing exceptionally well right now. He is feeling strong and is doing everything that is asked of him. We’ve heard a few more comments about what a great horse he is around the barn and how smart he is. Hearing those kinds of comments never gets old. It makes us more proud of him than ever (if that is even possible).

So what will this season bring? I was really thinking about that on Friday night before heading over to Danny’s to bet some races (or in my case, donate almost all of my bets to the race pool). Are the painful setbacks finally behind us? Can we just expect a ‘normal’ season with the regular ups and downs of a healthy horse? Is there a chance he could come back and reach a new level we haven’t even seen yet? As all of those questions floated around in my head I turned on the TV to kill about 10 minutes before leaving. The TV had been left on HBO and the movie playing when I turned it on was…Seabiscuit! In the past I’ve made references to Mo being our Seabiscuit and all I can say is if he has a season that in any way approaches what the ‘Biscuit’ did after he returned from his suspensory injury…well…we are in for one heck of a fun year.

In other horse racing news, I’d like to recommend a new show to blog readers. “Luck” is a new series on HBO that is four episodes into its first season. You may not like all angles, but it is good overall and there is one horse in particular who reminds me of Mo. I won’t give it away, but if you watch it is pretty easy to figure out which one he is.

Another short post, but we are just a few weeks from the start of our season. Stay tuned and Let’s Go Mo!

Not a Lot Going On...But a Quick Update

2012-02-13T18:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I wish I had a little bit more to share with my loyal blog readers, but in a way no news is good news. In Over My Head had a great week of training last week due March-like weather. This week wasn’t quite as good, which is bound to happen with a Chicago area winter. Gary Rath is handling the training duties at the time with the Butenschoen’s down in Florida (lucky). It is kind of a fun reunion because the last time Gary worked with Mo was before his Windy City Pace victory. He thinks that Mo looks great and is training well, which means a lot given his past history with him.

In other news, I wanted to link an article about one of our past competitors (in the final race of last year). Last week, Well To Do Guru was named the Illinois Horse of the Year. Take a moment to read the linked article. Great story about a great horse and great people who take care of him. Hopefully we will get a few chances to race against him this year and even win a couple!

http://www.barntowire.com/2012/BPnotes120208.html

For the next few weeks, I’ll check in when I can and try to come up with a story or two. It is certainly harder to come up with high quality stuff during the off season, but we aren’t that far away from racing again. The target remains early to mid March.

Let's Go Mo!

2012 Schedule Released

2012-01-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

I’ve always liked the comparison of owning a race horse(s) to owning a sports franchise. As a matter of fact, think that is how I first described horse ownership in this blog when we purchased our most important on field talent In Over My Head. It was just over 3 years ago that Greg and I had the highest bid at the Meadowlands winter sale for what seemed like an eternity before the gavel crashed down and the auctioneer belted out a classic “SOLD!”. Trust me, it was just like you’d see in the movies (with the rather large exception that we had to go into the sales office and make an actual check afterward…).

One place where a horse franchise differs from a regular franchise is your ability to set your own schedule. It is something that I personally enjoy and allows me to spend lots of time playing with dates and numbers in spreadsheets (I love spreadsheets) and it is also something that can be a total waste of time for any number of reasons. Unlike a team who will play on a certain day regardless of what happens to the team members, a horse racing schedule is 100% dependant on the horse. And with no ‘backup’ to step in and take his or her place large chunks of a schedule can be changed or totally canceled based on injury, sickness etc.

We’ve had a few opportunities to make a race schedule for Mo. Some have gone almost exactly to plan and some went over like the Hindenburg. Here is a quick trip down memory lane:

2009:
o Plan: Race him at the Meadowlands in January and February, give him a break, pay him into some mid level stakes races and finish the year going after a couple of ‘slot machine’ level stakes events back in Chicago.
o Result: He raced well at the Meadowlands and it was hard to quit, but we stuck to our guns and gave him a nice break. He had mixed results in the mid level stakes events (won in Springifeld, 2nd in DuQuion and a leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Series) and hit triple 7s by winning the Windy City Pace at the end of the year.
o Scheduling Grade: I think that was a clear “A”

2010:
o Plan: Start the season at the Meadowlands, race through the spring, take a break, then focus on high level races out east with a target at a few stakes races.
o Result: It started well. 2 wins in 2 starts before suffering a potential career ending injury.
o Scheduling Grade: That injury was bad and nearly ended it all. While not our fault, we get an “F”

2011:
o Plan: We didn’t do too much planning. The only schedule we had was to somehow make it back to the races and find the winners circle again.
o Result: We thought it was over 3 or 4 times, but somehow we made it back. It wasn’t pretty early (7th, 5th, 7th), but old Mo returned and finished the year going win, win, third and a fourth.
o Grade: Feels like another ‘A’ to me

This brings us to 2012 and another chance at a more traditional schedule (as opposed to last year). We have high hopes for a great year as we think he really proved he still has ‘it’, but we aren’t getting too ahead of ourselves. Step one is to start the process of training Mo into racing shape and that process will began late last week. We expect it will take about 6 weeks to get there, which puts his return to the track sometime in early March. After some good discussions, we’ve also decided to keep him in Chicago for the start of the season and will test the waters out east if and when he shows that he’s ready.

In summary, the season could end up looking like this:

- Now until early March – get into race shape
- March through May/ June – Race in Chicago
- May/ June – August – Potentially head out to the Big M to chase bigger purses and see if he can handle some tougher competition.
- September – November/ December – Race back in Chicago

The good thing is we should have lots of opportunities to see him race in Chicago and could even take a trip out east to watch him there. We are also kicking around the idea of making him eligible to a couple of big events for two reason: (1) it would be fun and (2) if he is racing like his old self, it would be extra fun to give him the chance to take on some of the best and see what he can do. The issue is those races are expensive, extremely difficult and you must make payments in the spring even though the races aren’t until summer/ fall. There is definitely an element of risk associated with doing that…especially with a horse like In Over My Head. Having that said, it has worked quite well for us in the past (see the Windy City Pace) and we can always choose to not race him in any event if we don’t think he is up for it when the time comes. We will see. We have until February 15th to decide and will have to talk to the Butenschoens about it first.

So there you have it, the 2012 In Over My Head schedule. As we have all learned, nothing horse racing related is written in stone (more like carved into a block of ice sitting outside on a summer day), but it is a lot of fun to think about the near future…especially with Mo. We are hoping 2012 will be a year with a lot of camaraderie and a lot of fun at the track. Keep checking in for updates.

Let’s go Mo!

An Update and a Story

2012-01-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

An Update and a Story

Hello In Over My Head fans! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Mo certainly did. He received an all expenses paid trip to a resort that had big rooms and swimming pool…otherwise known as the training facility of the Leonard family. He’s been swimming away and given the nice winter weather (at least up until yesterday) he’s been able to get some jog miles in as well. Given the fact he's stayed rather active, it shouldn’t take too long to get him back to the races. The plan is to start maybe start training as early as next week. In a perfect world, he’d be ready to go in about 3 weeks. However, given the fact it is winter, it could take twice as long. We will just play it by ear and get him back healthy. We are extremely excited for a (cross your fingers) full healthy year with Mo.

Since there isn’t too much to talk about on the current racing front, I thought I’d go back and share a story from this summer. This story is 100% true and speaks of one of the strange coincidences that have often surrounded our story with In Over My Head. Enjoy!

The Spider

Do you remember the book Charlotte’s Web? It was one of those first novels kids tend to read in their grade school years about a pig and a spider. The pig started as a playfull little squirt, who grew into something more useful to the farmer: bacon. Based on the friendship they had built over the years, Charlotte, a spider living in the corner of the pigs barn, began weaving messages into her web to try and save the life of the pig. “Some Pig” was one that I remember. The pig’s life was spared due to his new celebrity, but in excellent children’s book irony, it was Charlotte who ended up passing away from old age (per a quick Google search, the average lifespan of a spider is 1 to 2 years).

Well, apparently Mo has is own little ‘Charlotte’ and she lives in my garage. Let me be very clear about something: I don’t like spiders. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I have a fear of spiders, but if someone gave me $50 to watch the 1990s movie ‘Arachnophobia’, I’d tell them to keep their money. Let me take you back to July of this year: Mo’s comeback timetable was continuing to get extended and we didn’t know when, if ever, he would finally make it back. I came out of the house into the garage and in the window, right next to my driver’s side door, was a new spider web…with a rather large spider living there. My normal inclination when I see a spider is simple: kill. However, I was in a state of mind that day that led me to make the following assessment: I’m going to let this spider live because maybe that will create enough good animal kingdom karma to let Mo make it back to the track.

It wasn’t until later that I made connection between my new garage spider friend (who is there to freak me out every single morning when I get in my car to go to work...I named her Spidey) and the Charlotte’s Web reference. As July became August and then September, I half expected to walk out one day and see ‘Go Mo’ weaved into the web. It never happened. But on the Sunday before Mo was going to go in for his ‘make it or break it’ qualifier on September 21st, something weird did happen.

Laura and I had just returned from the mall with a brand new ellepitcal machine in the back of the Trailblazer. After backing into the garage half way and dragging the box out of the back, Laura looked up at the window and said, ‘wow…look at that spider, it’s huge!’ It made me realize that Laura had probably never seen the spider before because it is blocked by the Trailblazer and on the off times that she drove it, the spider was likely tucked up in the corner of the wall and the ceiling (she’s up there about half the time). I then told Laura the story of the spider and how I decided not to knock down the web as a peace offering to Mother Nature in hopes it would somehow help Mo’s chances to make it back from injury. She laughed (probably thought I was nuts) and I hopped back into the truck to pull it out of the garage so I could work on the new exercise equipment.

I was in the truck for a total of about 20 seconds and never touched the radio. Whatever channel it was on before I got in was just random chance. However, the song that played gave me goosebumps and put a big smile on my face. I sat in the drivers seat for an extra couple seconds to listen as Laura looked at me wondering what I was doing. When I got out she asked why I sat there so long.

“Good song was on” I said.
“What song?”
“Over My Head by the Frey” (Mo's unofficial theme song)
“Woa...that’s weird…”

Coincidence? Maybe. Some people might say probably. Others would say of course it is a coincidence, do you think that Mother Nature somehow contacted XM radio's 'The Blend' channel and had them play Over My Head during that 20 seconds I got in the car just after I told my wife about the spider story?

I'd say that's exactly what happened! OK, maybe not, but I thought it was just a pretty interesting story that I'd share with everyone. Hopefully it at least made you go hmmmmmmm....

That's all for now. More updates (and maybe more stories) to come.

Let's Go Mo!

End Of The Season Perspective

2011-12-25T18:56:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-16T05:29:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-12-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

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!

This Is Starting to Feel Very Familiar

2011-11-30T19:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the wonders of technology, I am again starting with In Over My Head’s race video. As I said last time, it does the best job explaining what happened. Also, the volume should be a little better this time

(He leaves from the #4 spot, is wearing #5 and again can easily be spotted with Marcus’s bright pink bike).

Another week and another first over victory, this time into a rainstorm on a sloppy track, with a last quarter of 26.1. We all uttered a collective ‘wow’ after that one.

After a rather auspicious start (a 5th place finish and two 7th’s), Mo has taken the last two races to pound a very important point back into our heads: he’s pretty darn good. For the umpteenth time in his career, he has followed this simple little formula: the formation of doubt + a chance to race = a clear reminder that we never should have started to doubt him in the first place.

Saturday’s race was very interesting and so much fun for us to watch and be a part of. However, it was ALMOST about 100 times more interesting…and could have been quite stressful for one Danny Carey. Danny, Mo’s unofficial owner with Greg and I/ occasional warm up driver/ operator of his Facebook page/ creator of his 3 year old highlight video, had a plan. A plan to make a very important moment in the lives of Kacy and himself a public event to be presided over by none other than In Over My Head. As some of you could probably guess, he had considered traveling down to Balmoral with Kacy with a sparkly piece of jewelry in his pocket. Once Mo took care of the field and made his way to the winners circle, Danny would then get down on one knee and propose to Kacy. Now I’ve been pretty nervous before races, but I think it is a pretty good assumption that Danny would have had butterflies in his stomach that transcend horse racing. In the end, Danny decided to pick a spot a little less public to ask for Kacy’s hand in marriage and they were already engaged by the time they hit the winners circle on Saturday night. From what I understand, Mo was rather disappointed he wasn’t able to be there for the moment, but said he really likes the ring and thinks that Danny and Kacy are a perfect couple. Not surprisingly, I agree with Mo 100%. Congrats to you two!!!

(also of note, instead of a proposal, you got to see Danny doing the Rodgers belt celebration…or the discount double check…at the end of the video above)

As for some other parts of the In Over My Head team, Greg and I had other obligations that kept us from heading down to Balmoral this week. The thing is, we never really planned for Mo to be racing this late in the year, but as they say in horse racing you don’t have a hard schedule, just a plan that will probably have to be modified. Greg was able to watch the race at home and I watched it on a computer in the back of JoJo’s Pizza in Milwaukee with Laura and her parents. Thank goodness for Wi-fi. We were there for Jamie Michalski’s birthday party (the same Jamie who is married to Larua’s brother Ryan who’s first horse race was the Windy City Pace). Jamie is a big St. Louis Cardinal’s fan and after the race, she decided that In Over My Head’s return to racing success is kind of similar to when the Cards turned things around late this summer when they were 10 or so games out of playoff contention. Given the fact they just won the World Series all I can say is that may be the best comparison I’ve ever heard!

And for you stat junkies out there, that makes 6 wins in 9 starts for Marcus and Mo. I can’t really explain why, but those two just get along quite well. I don’t think Marcus reads this little blog, but if so, thanks again for piloting In Over My Head to victory.

This win has produced another interesting question: what the heck do we do now? After nearly 3 months of thinking ‘we just have to make it to next week’, Mo has now gone out and won two straight in rather impressive fashion. He’s healthy again, he’s feeling good and appears to be as fast as he ever was. For a long time, we have hoped he could return to his old form (or something close to it) and just like that, we’re here. After talking to John this week, we’ve all decided that it is time to start thinking a little bit longer term. Not too much, but with winter approaching (or being here depending on your tolerance for cold weather), we can at least think about the next couple months and that plan is pretty simple. Mo will get to race a couple more times against a tougher bunch of horses (he has to step up on class after the 2 wins) and we’ll see how he fares. After that, it will be time for a mini break since we don’t really want to race too much in the dead of winter. So good news In Over My Head fans, you get a couple more chances to hear about his races starting a week from Saturday. I’m sure I’ll check in between now and then and in the meantime…

Let’s Go Mo!

A Win Two Years In The Making

2011-11-21T18:44:00.000-08:00

Not all of these blog entries have been fun to write in the past weeks, months (years), but this one is really fun and I wasn’t sure how to start it. Then it hit me…just let In Over My Head give the intro:

(Mo starts in post position #3. From there he falls into 5th place for the first half of the race. His driver, Marcus Miller, has a bright pink race bike that will help you follow him throughout the race)

That may say enough, but I’ll keep going anyway.

When explaining our horse racing adventures to other people I often like to use analogies. They seem to do the best job driving home what just happened and what it means to us. Sports analogies are usually the easiest comparisons to make. For this most recent win, I was really struggling to find the right one. Take a second to think about it: name a player that achieved some wonderful things, only go to away for awhile, then to come back and rekindle the flame of his former self. From there, find the moment when the player you followed for so long did something that reminded you that he still has it. It happens so rarely that when it does, it literally gives fans goosebumps.

My first thought was Michael Jordan. While his return hit some speed bumps (the non Jordan-like days when he was wearing #45) before finding those ‘wow’ moments again, his circumstances for leaving were just too different. It didn’t seem to fit our story.

What about Brett Favre? The old gunslinger had quite a run with us Wisconsin folks and certainly rekindled the old flame in…gasp…Minnesota! No, that won’t do at all. That would be like In Over My Head coming back and getting a win with a new owner, trainer, driver, etc. That is a disgusting thought.

Back to a basketball analogy, this clip kind of captures it. Great player dealing with injury, with an emotional comeback for an incredibly loyal fan base. Try this on for size:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQpWgcUaeh4

As cool as that little clip was, it really didn’t do. Bird was only knocked out for part of a game. It just didn’t fit.

So, to finally find a way to how to share our latest Mo story, inspiration was found in…a horse story. Some of you may be thinking, how can you use a horse story to describe a horse story? Well, the reason is this horse is known by millions of people (no offense to In Over My Head and the 25 readers of this blog). To be honest, I thought I knew the story of this particular horse very well from reading a book and watching a movie about him numerous times. However, when I came across this clip, it literally gave me chills. I had missed a very important detail that wasn’t really described in the book or the movie…specifically the type of injury this famous horse had suffered:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OErHcm5QWsI

There is another interesting detail about Seabiscuit’s comeback that isn’t talked about in that clip. While it was well known that the focus of his comeback attempt was to try and win the ‘Hundred Grander’, it took awhile for him to get back to his old form. It wasn’t until his third race back that he again found the winner’s circle. Which brings us back to last Saturday night…..

A lot was riding on In Over My Head’s race last Saturday. The draw came out on Wednesday, which is the usual time to start the pre race chatter. After one look at the field, all of us independently came to the same conclusion. It didn’t matter who he was facing. If he was in fact going to get back to his old self, he would have to beat this field. That’s all there was to it.

As luck would have it, our standard crew of Danny, Kacy, Laura, her Grandparents and myself were joined by Laura’s parents. There were numerous ‘signs’ this week we all had noticed that tipped us off we could be in for a special night, but the Michalski luck was a very late addition. Not that I’m a big believer in luck, but I’m just going to state facts: The first race that Laura ever attended was when Mo won down in Springfield. Her brother Ryan and his wife Jamie’s first trip to the races was the Windy City Pace. So, with another set of Michalski’s in tow you would think it would add to the confidence level. I can’t speak for anyone else, but all it did was make me more nervous.

Since Mo did all the talking in the first part of the entry, there is no reason to describe the race. The only real important thing to note is the trip he had. As I’m sure you noticed, In Over My Head was the first horse to come off the rail and start the outer flow. In racing that’s called going ‘first over’ and is certainly a more challenging route for a horse to take. As the race played out on Saturday, Marcus didn’t really have much of a choice. Had he stayed on the rail, they would have gotten shuffled back and had no chance to win. To make matters worse, there was a 20 mph headwind in the stretch that Marcus and Mo would drive right into the teeth of. While Greg was down in Beloit watching the race on TV, Danny was hanging by the building outside Balmoral watching both live action and the TV feed and I was wandering aimlessly around on the apron we all had the same thought when Mo came first up: this is it. After all this time we are about to find out how good he is. As he charged down the stretch Mo left little doubt. He’s as good as ever.

When Mo crossed that finish line first, it was as if a dam broke that had been holding back 21 months of emotions. Right after he got hurt, we all would theorize how we would act when he got his first post injury victory. Then he started to hit some setbacks...and then those setbacks got progressively worse. A few times we highly doubted that he would ever race again much less win again. The formerly fun ‘how would we act’ discussion faded away. What was the point? Things were so bleak that thoughts of a future win was just a depressing exercise in unreachable hopes and dreams. However, we didn’t give up. We kept trying to find a way and gave Mo the time he needed to do it. When he finally won again on Saturday night, the winner circle was probably even a little more emotional than the night of his biggest career achievement (winning the Windy City Pace). After all, this win had been nearly 2 years in the making.

But why? Why so much emotion for a simple horse race? I don’t even get it myself sometimes. However, the question was probably answered best by someone else after we went back to see Mo in the barn post race. Danny and I were just hanging out with him, petting him, discussing the race, asking him why he didn’t win by a larger distance and Andria (Laura’s Mom) said it was like he was one of our kids. In the Seabiscuit clip, they talked about how owner Charles Howard took Seabiscuit back to his place for a nice long rest after his injury. Greg did the same thing. He took care of Mo every day when he was recovering. The same can be said for Penny and Tyler and everyone else who has been involved for these many months. The fact is, he is a kid to all of us, which aptly explains the connection.

The 3 hour dive back to Madison had to be one of the most enjoyable in memory. Danny and I talked endlessly about the race and came to the realization that Marcus Miller, who has driven Mo off and on since he was 2 years old, is an incredible 5 for 8 with him. Of the three non wins, one was his first lifetime start, one was his first start back off a 20+ month layoff and the other was when Mo got hit in the face with a whip (not Marcus’s) and made a break! That just doesn’t happen. We got to talk to Greg on the phone for another fun retelling of the race. It seems like the drive home went by in 3 minutes instead of 3 hours.

In order to properly appreciate the comparison I made above, I must state the obvious: In Over My Head is not Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit is widely regarded as one of the greatest race horses of all times. He broke numerous records over his career and had a movie made after him for God’s sake! The reason that the comparison rings perfectly true is that In Over My Head is OUR Seabiscuit. When I say our, I mean everyone that is invested in him. He matters to so many people and it was yet again evident after the win last night. While we don’t have a focused plan to being Mo back to a big stakes race that is equivalent of the Santa Anita Derby, we do hope that this is just the start. If he stays sound, he’ll make his way back out east eventually start taking on some of the toughest horses out there. Horses he used to beat. I realize this comeback remains very fragile and you never want to get too boastful after one good experience, but there is has to be more to come. I can’t say how it will pan out, or what the final time line will look like, but it certainly feels like the story of In Over My Head has another peak to it. Another chance for him to line up against the best and, likely at long odds, make them all taste defeat. Defeat from a horse that probably shouldn’t be there anyway, but made it back because he is surrounded by so many people that care about him. I think he realizes that and wants to pay us back with exciting races. Either way, we are all in it together until the end…an end we all hope is still a long ways away.

I usually end entries with ‘Let’s Go Mo!’ but after that win on Saturday, on behalf of all of us, we’d like to say thanks Mo. Thanks for continuing to battle through injuries and give us memories we will not soon forget. Now if we could only get you a computer that is compatible with hooves, you can maybe start to read your own blog…

Time to Regroup

2011-11-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

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!

Race Day

2011-11-05T08:01:00.001-07:00

Today is yet another first in the story of In Over My Head’s comeback: he is picked to win. The oddsmakers set him off as the 7-2 morning line favorite and Mike Paradise has also picked him to be the winner tonight. We will see how much money the betting public puts down on him tonight, but it is kind of fun to be viewed by others as the one to beat.

This was close to the case last week as well, but the race didn’t go at all as we had hoped. A simple summary: didn’t get off the gate great, shuffled to last, finally found some open racetrack in the stretch and flew home faster than anyone else in the race. All too similar to the week before. He finished 5th and got us his first check in a long time (a cool $375…less driver and trainer fees!), but we were disappointed. Luckily for us, he came out of the race very well, which allowed us to get him back in this week. There is no better way to get a disappointing race off your mind than to just enter in another race.

Tonight, we will gather the same group we had two weeks ago to head down to the track: Danny, Kacy, Laura, her grandparents and myself. One change for the evening is that Danny will be warming Mo up…something that hasn’t happened since his Windy City Pace win nearly 2 years ago. Maybe that will be the little bit of extra luck we need to make that elusive trip back to the winners circle.

Very few things are more unpredictable than horse racing and sometimes nights when you are the favorite can end up being the most disappointing. However, once in awhile things just break in your favor and why not tonight?

Let’s go Mo!

We Did It

2011-10-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night, In Over My Head reached a new milestone in his racing career. It wasn’t a new fastest time, a big win or anything along those lines. The new milestone for his career was that, once again, he HAS a career. For the first time in a long time, we know that Mo is still the horse that he once was. What we don’t know is how long that will last, but that’s OK. After seeing him flying home in the stretch on Saturday night, I think we can all say it was worth the wait.

It was a long wait. We had 20 months to ponder what that first race back would be like. What would we feel like the week before? The morning of the race? When we arrive at the track? Right before the race? I can’t speak for others involved, but it was by far the most nervous I’ve ever been before a horse race. More on that later. The day itself was great. Danny, Kacy, Laura and I drove down from Madison to Chicago and stopped to pick up Laura’s grandparents on the way, which was very special given the fact they really enjoy horse racing, but haven’t been to the track in 8 years. We got dinner up in the clubhouse and bet some races. It wasn’t until Tyler took Mo out for his first warmup that it really set in…it was almost race time.

The next 30 minutes or so were just so tense. Thinking back at it now actually makes me laugh. It isn’t life or death, it just a horse race! Sometimes I wonder why we get so worked up, but I think it is just because for better or for worse, we are emotionally invested. We have a small stable, so each race is magnified somewhat. This is something that has been in our family for many years, so there is a desire to continue the success. And lastly, Mo is just special. He’s like a member of the family. I know that is violating rule #1 of horse ownership, but who cares. We’re all in with Mo and I think a lot of the tension simply came from a general concern for him. He LOVES to race and while he was finally back to the track, the whole thing remained very fragile. Anyway, with the exception of Danny making a practice sprint to the winner’s circle, I can’t think of a time when we really laughed, which for us is VERY abnormal. As the minutes to post ticked down, all we could do was look on and hope. It was just Marcus and Mo out on the track. And when the announcer said “the starter calls the field” everything kind of went blank.

Looking back, our group was a disjointed mess to watch the race. We had Laura inside with her Grandparents so they could sit down (but positioned close to the winners circle just in case), Danny was on the phone with Greg because he couldn’t make it down, Kacy and I were on the rail for awhile, but then I started to wander around on the apron because there was just no way to stand still. The horses came to the starting line and off they went. The plan was to watch the race from outside, but look in at the TV’s through the window so we could see better given the fact it is hard to see the backstretch on a mile track. The first real cohesive thought I remember having was that I didn’t need to look at the TV’s because Marcus’s bright pink race bike sticks out so much I could see exactly where Mo was the whole time! The second thought was when they announced the opening quarter of 28.4, which was a bad sign. The pace was slow and our best chance was for the leaders to beat themselves up a bit so it would set up for a closer. From there, it was rather uneventful until the field turned for home. That was when we would find out if New Mo was going to resemble Old Mo.

Many horses have certain traits that show up in every race and In Over My Head is no different. When he turns for home and he’s raring to go, he’ll have his head cranked to the inside almost as if he’s sizing up who is in front of him and who he has to get past before the finish line. The second trait is when he digs in the stretch he gets his head going side to side as if he’s getting every single last bit of push from each step. Generally speaking, when those traits show up after a long lay-off, that is a good sign. From my viewing spot halfway down the stretch it was becoming apparent that New Mo was looking pretty similar to another Mo that I know. The last thing he did, and what really separated him from his competition, was his ability to find another gear in that last eight of a mile. I’ve always said, that’s where he makes his money. Unfortunately, he was just too far off the lead going into the stretch on Saturday, but he made up a ton of ground in that last eight of a mile. I don’t have any scientific formula to prove this out, but I have a feeling if the race was longer, Mo would have caught them all. In the end, he finished 7th, but was just 3+ lengths from the winner. His 26.2 last quarter was the fastest of anyone in the race and as Danny pointed out, it was the second fastest in his career. Not bad for a first time back after 20 months. Old Mo, meet New Mo…I think you two have a lot in common.

The feeling after the race wasn’t exuberance; I mean it isn’t like he won. However, after Marcus turned him and was headed back to the barn, he let us know Mo was feeling good and wasn’t favoring his bad leg at all. He was more or less totally sound. That’s when we became all smiles. There was a feeling of relief given the fact he raced well, finished huge and came out healthy. There was also a feeling of accomplishment that we got him to where he is today. The running joke was that we were the happiest bunch after a 7th place finish in a mid level conditioned race in the history of Balmoral Park racetrack. I guess that’s what happens after fighting so hard to make it back. We all deserved to smile a little bit.

We all met up at Mo’s stall after Penny gave him his post race bath and he was back to his old ways pretty quick. Usually the only time you get to see Mo calm is after a race when he’s worn out, but that wasn’t really the case on Saturday. He was ready to show his fans that he is still boss and if you don’t believe that, he’ll give you a nice bite mark to make sure you remember. Luckily we were quick enough to avoid his playful attacks.

So what happens next? Well, we don’t really know for sure. We are still looking at this thing on a week to week basis. Next week, we will enter him back into the same race. What we do know is that we did it. We saved Mo’s career and I can’t overstate how awesome that is. After all this time and all this effort by so many people, In Over My Head is back doing what he loves: racing. And we are doing what we love: watching him race. He’s a special case and I can’t totally explain why. He just matters to a lot of different people. Everyone who has helped along the way is responsible for getting him back to the track. We are like one team now. Team In Over My Head, which may be the goofiest team name in the history of team names. That’s OK, this whole story is goofy and as I finish this entry, it is kind of hard be believe that I’m still writing. This should have been over about 3 or 4 times already, but round and round we continue to go…where it stops, nobody knows. We’ll all just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Let’s go Mo!

The Two Dollar Bill

2011-10-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

Flash back to Friday, November 26th, 2010 at Crocus restaurant on the south side of Milwaukee. We were enjoying a nice traditional Polish meal with Laura and her extended family. Laura and I were seated at a table of folks that included her Uncle Justin and Aunt Lori. We were having a great time talking about this and that when Justin asked, ‘how are the horses doing?”

To any horse owner, that can be either a really good question or a difficult question. At this point, it was kind of difficult. In Over My Head was still a long ways away from doing anything other than jogging. Seanie was starting to train down some, but an actual race was off on the distant horizon. Despite the lack of any real good news, I gave Justin the run down on what was going on. At the end, he reached into his wallet and said ‘guess what I have?’ My first thought was maybe enough to pay our most recent vet bill. All jokes aside, Justin pulled out a $2 bill. Rather rare in today’s standard circulation of money, but Justin knew that the lowest and most well known horse bet is $2. Even though we were an unknown months away from a race at that point, Justin gave me the $2 bill and we agreed that I would put it down as a win bet on the first night that In Over My Head raced…even though there were no guaranty that day would ever come.

That $2 bill has sat on my desk at home in our bedroom, next to an engagement picture of Laura and I. Every morning when I’d grab my keys and wallet, I’d take a look at it and wonder when the time would finally come that we could use it...

Flash back to reality: Mo is entered to race on Saturday. I’ll go ahead and repeat that for effect…Mo is entered to race on Saturday. He is in a conditioned race against a rather tough bunch and he drew an outside post (#8). He had a good qualifier last week, but in looking at how this race has gone in recent weeks, Mo is going to have to go maybe as much as 2 seconds faster or more to win the race. I’m not sure how many people will be betting their hard earned money on him, but I can guaranty that he will have at least $2 down on him to win…compliments of Uncle Justin.

Stay tuned for more updates…this is shaping up to be the most exciting racing week we’ve had in a long, long time!

Winner

2011-10-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

After thinking about this for quite awhile, there is really only one way to start this blog entry.

In Over My Head won today.

There was no purse money, no crowd, just a handful of people both on and off the track who were anxiously awaiting the results of the qualifier. Predictions were probably pretty mixed after last week’s disappointing finish. It was another one of those ‘make or break’ events for Mo. If it had gone poorly, we would have had to seriously start thinking about the end again. However, each time that has occurred in the past few weeks, Mo has hit it out of the park. Today was no different.

What was a little bit different this week was that Mo was up against some accomplished horses including I Kill Time (winner of $170,000+ in just 16 lifetime starts) and Native Hotspur (winner of over $450,000 in her 4 year career). Now, each horse in a qualifier has different motivations…some may be looking to hit a certain speed or just go easy, but nonetheless, these two had talent. At the end, however, it was Mo responding to Marcus’s urging as he darted past the finish line, a full 4 lengths ahead of the second place finisher for the win in 1.54.3. First to cross the line, which means Mo is back where he belongs.

When the news came out, we all felt like winners. Marcus (obviously, he drove him), Tyler, John, Penny, Dr. Tony, the Leonards…all the people who take care of him on a day to day basis and of course his very proud ownership team and anyone else who just refused to give up on Mo. There have been PLENTY of opportunities, but everyone took their turn picking others up when they were down. Initial indications were that he came out of the qualfier well, which means that In Over My Head’s the next step in his rehab is that rehab is over. It’s RACE TIME BABY! The loose plan is that he will be in a week from Saturday at Balmoral in a conditioned race. If Mo has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected. However, things are looking good for a loooooooong awaited trip back to the track for a real race.

Now, there is at least a little disappointment about one thing today: Mo didn’t get his picture taken in the winner’s circle and from what I understand, he was a bit disappointed. Unfortunately, he was not aware that you don’t get win pictures for qualifiers (how can you blame him…it’s been awhile). Well, luckily, I was able to obtain a picture of Marcus and Mo just as they came off the track from someone that was down there and have posted it below…hopefully Mo can get his Ipad fired up tonight in his stall and see the great pic:

I know what you are thinking…how can this be real? Marcus isn’t that much taller than Mo, right? The answer is simple, Marcus is simply standing a little closer to the camera, so it has the appearance that he is taller. A lot of smiles in that picture. Not surprising…I would have been smiling too. And I will tell you this, we have a real glimmer of hope that Mo will be back in the winner’s circle for real. Maybe not off his first or second start, but he’ll find his way there, I just know it. The smiles that day will be even bigger…reflective of an exciting end of a long tough journey back home.

A Week of Missteps

2011-10-08T08:07:00.001-07:00

This week made me think back. Not back to In Over My Head’s best days, but back to his more frustrating days. Here is one of my not so favorite flashbacks:

http://inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2009/10/keystone-classic-colossal-letdown.html

I have to say that after reading that post, it conjures up more good memories than bad simply because we were pretty down at that time, but things got better not long after.

Back to the present day.

After the excitement of his 9/21 qualifier that was somewhat doused last week’s rainout we got knocked back a bit more this week. Literally and figuratively. Coming out of the final turn at Balmoral on Wednesday, Mo was sitting behind the leader who suddenly made a break, which caused Mo to jump off stride as well. As good as he has been, Mo was never the type of horse who could handle another horse making a break in front of him. Marcus Miller had to check him up and he did end up pacing to the wire. However, because of what happened, we have to go back and qualify again next week. Looks like our dream of getting In Over My Head back to the races has to be put off a bit longer.

At this point, I’m hoping that history does repeat itself as far as Mo is concerned. In the past, virtually ever time something bad happened in a race, it was followed up with a good race. So, for the next few days, that is exactly what we will be using to stay positive. After last week, I said what is one more week after waiting 20 months…well, we will stick with that mantra yet again.

Let’s go Mo!

Wednesday Rainout

2011-10-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to report this week with In Over My Head. We had planned to qualify on Wednesday down at Balmoral, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Shortly before it was his time to hit the track, the track was hit with an extended heavy rain. The decision was made to not risk Mo on a sloppy, slick track at this point so we will just wait a little longer. What's another week after waiting 20 months, right?

Luckily, the day wasn't a total loss. Once the rain cleared and the track got a bit better, Mo got a good trianing mile in and he was excellent. More reason for hope.

The plan now is to try again on Wednesday. Early weather report looks good and since the predictions of weather are never wrong, we are feeling pretty good.

Stay tuned for more updates. I noticed that my hit count was up last week and I think it was due to a link on barntowire.com. Thanks to all of those interested in In Over My Head's comeback attempt!

Great Success

2011-09-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to make a quick post...no long stories or strange occurances this time (we will save that for next week). In Over My Head completed a successful qualifying mile on Wednesday with Marcus Miller in the bike. He went pretty easy to the 3/4 can came home strong. Unlike last time, he paced through the finish line with plenty left in the tank. All in all, a great report.

Plan is to make one more qualifier next week to get him into race shape and if that goes well...dare I say...it will be RACE TIME! However, like I said in the last post, we are looking one week at a time. This week was good and we can hope for the same next week.

To see his result, you can click below and search for his name:

http://racing.ustrotting.com/

At Long Last...It is Time to Qualify

2011-09-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

We’ve been thinking a lot about In Over My Head the last couple of days due to the expectation that he is going to qualify tomorrow at Balmoral Park. We were excited when the time finally came to get into usta.com to see the entries. My plan for this little blog was to pull up the entries, see his name and assume something profound would just come to me and I’d start writing. However, the opposite happened.

Danny actually scooped me on this one (it is always a race to see who can find the official entries first) and let me know via a text message that he was in fact listed in a qualifier. I raced back to my desk to see it for my own eyes and when I did, I was totally speechless. It was boarderline emotional to see him listed down in that qualifying race. It had been 579 days since he last raced and there was “In Over My Head”. I just stared at it for awhile. In some ways, it was more special than when we saw his name in the entries of his biggest races. It didn't matter that it was just a regular qualifying race on a Wednesday morning at Balmoral.

You can see it for yourself. Click on the link and just type in "In Over My Head"

http://racing.ustrotting.com/

Outside of this really cool sense of accomplishment for In Over My Head and everyone involved that has worked so hard to get him back, there is another feeling that has set in: fear. I am totally freaked out. It has just become very real…we are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO close to have him back racing again and we all know that it also could end tomorrow.

By the time you read this, the race will probably be over. Marcus Miller is driving him and hopefully he will come back to the barn with good news that he felt great and finished the mile strong. He was a little bit sore afterward, but nothing too bad and seemingly nothing the Butenschoen’s and Dr. Tony can’t work with. Or…he could come back and say it went poorly and that is obviously hurting…maybe too much to go on with him. Which one will it be? We really have no idea. We just have to listen to Mo. He’ll let us know if he can keep going. And if the answer is ‘yes’, we’ll have at least one more week of anxiously awaiting entries, more talk of how he still has it and more hope he can regain his old form. One week at a time...I sure hope we get at least one more week. Let’s go Mo!

The Return of Optimism

2011-09-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize for pulling a disappearing act for the past few weeks. I wasn’t trying to dodge the blog (and my loyal 8-10 readers), but this is one of those things that just has to happen naturally. The writing and stories aren’t exactly that of a skilled technical writer (which is painfully obvious when I go back and read some past entries), but a fun way to capture a rather interesting experience. As you can probably tell by the title, things at In Over My Head Headquarters have not been great recently. As a matter of fact, we had all began to accept the sad fact that it was over. Mo would have to be retired. I had already begun to outline in my head how to write the final chapter to this whole story. That was until Sunday night.

You may remember a couple of entries ago, we had gotten to the point where a final schedule to racing had been set. Any material deviation from that schedule would more or less mean the end of Mo’s racing career. On August 10th, Tyler took him down to Balmoral for a training mile. He was to go in about 2:05 and set himself up for a qualifying mile shortly thereafter. In short, it didn’t go well. We gave him some time and waited for Tony to come up to take a look at him. We were all being hit very hard with reality: Mo wanted to be his old self again…it was obvious to Tyler or anyone else who sat behind him, but his body was getting in the way. We could have quit then, but decided to give him another week to 10 days off, swim him and bring him in for one more training mile. John came in town jogged him. He agreed that one more chance to a fast training mile wasn’t going to hurt anything. The plan was to do it at Maywood Park, the site of his greatest achievement, on Thursday September 1st. We would go down and watch him train in what very well would be his last mile.

For a number of reasons, it turned out the Thursday did not work for us. That timed with the fact that Dr. Tony thought it would be best to go on a mile track (something John always wanted to do anyway) ended up moving his training mile to this past Sunday at Balmoral. I was up in Fox Lake with Laura and her family that night and did everything I could not to think about. We were out with some friends the night before and one asked how Mo was doing. My answer was that tomorrow is make or break. If he can’t finish the mile, we have to retire him. It was a very sad thing to say, but we had all come to grips with it. Greg had told me a few days before he was having a good feeling. I gave up trying. When he struggled on the 10th, it was a crushing blow that is kind of extinguished all the optimism I had left.

When Tyler and I finally connected at about 10:30, the news was not at all what I expected. Mo was solid on his first trip. Buzzed a last quarter in 29 seconds. No issues. Marcus Miller took him the second trip. To the half in 1:01 to the three quarters in 1:31 and came his last quarter in 27 seconds. He said it so calmly.

“Wait a second…what did he go in?”
“Went in 1:58”
“And a last quarter in what?”
“27 seconds”

He then went onto tell me that Mo was definitely sore afterward and despite the good mile, we would just have to wait and see how he comes out of it. At least I think that what he said because I couldn’t really pay attention. All I could do was envision Mo charging down that home stretch and ripping off a 27 second last quarter all by himself. The old boy still has it, I thought. Despite the fact it could still be his last mile, I had a smile from ear to ear. If that was it, he went out with at least a little bit of a bang. It was amazing how good that made me feel that our beloved race horse who loves nothing more in life but to race was able to go out and fly to the wire one last time.

With some surprisingly good news in hand to mix in with bad news, I was kind of a jerk and strung Danny along when giving him the update. “Well…some good and some bad….” I said before giving him the run down. “Wait a second…what did he go in?” That seemed to be the repeating line of the night. To be clear, Mo hadn’t really accomplished anything that anyone outside of our little group would care about. So he trained a good mile. So what? Well, after a year and a half of setbacks it was just an awesome feeling that he busted through a hurdle. At that point, it was just going to be a waiting game to see how he came out of it. My prediction was he’d be sore, have filling in his leg until later in the week and we’d have to make a decision as to what to do next (if anything). Well, I was wrong again.

Today, Dr. Tony was back up at Marengo and Mo was feeling good enough to go out and jog…and he jogged 4 miles showing no signs at all of any soreness whatsoever. Tyler said it was the best he’s been since he got him months ago. Greg told me that just about an hour ago and I nearly fell out of my chair.

The thought going into last weekend was that if Mo had one more miracle in him, now was the time. He was literally down to his last chance. To be clear, Mo isn’t out of the woods yet. I mean, he hasn’t even got to a qualifier, much less an actual race, but this is an exciting turn of events. As I mentioned earlier, I had not only began to think about the final entry to this blog, but I had accepted it. On Monday morning, while out for a run, I got to thinking how nice it would be to end by emphasizing that final training mile. I would try and paint the picture of Mo in full stride with the wind blowing back his mane as he battled through some pain to hit the wire in front of his invisible competitors. As I got to Chief Kuno Trail and started to turn for home about a half mile out, my Ipod flipped to a new song. There were 430 songs in that list on random and when his unofficial theme song came on (Over My Head from The Frey), I stopped thinking. I took that mental story outline, crumpled it up and threw it into my mental garbage can. This thing isn’t over quite yet. We’re already on borrowed time and maybe only have one more week before something bad happens again, but so what. We finally got some good news and it was a heck of a lot of fun. If somehow, someway, Mo can make it back to the winner’s circle just one more time after everything we’ve been through…well, words can’t describe just how special that would be. Danny and I decided we’d carry him back to the barn like a football team carries their coach off the field. Might almost be time to get your cameras ready.

Strange Happenings Are Back

2011-08-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

I’m a big fan of the movie The Matrix. I found the two sequals to were focused on the ever deepening story and special effects, but the original that was just close enough to real life (at least in the beginning of the movie) to make it feel more real. One part of the movie that sicks with me is when Neo sees a cat cross a doorway not once, but twice. He blew it off as déjà-vu, but in the land of human vs. machine, it is not déjà-vu. It is a glitch in the Matrix that can mean impending danger. Why bring up an obscure scene from a 90s movie in a horse blog you ask? Just to point out that often times things go on around us that we don’t notice. It may or not mean something. Call it a coincidence, a fluke, maybe some sort of impending fate or maybe nothing at all, but sometimes things happen that simply make you go hmmmmmm…

Now, this used to happen all the time two years ago with Mo. It seemed like every race something would happen that made us scratch our heads or pause and wonder if something bigger than us was pulling the strings on the puppets around us. I’d refer you back to some specific blog post, but I just realized how long this thing has become. Sixty-eight posts over three years. Where the hell did I find the time to write all of this??? Don’t ask my boss that question. At some point I’ll sit down read this thing start to finish, but I might as well wait until our run with Mo is over (hopefully 4 or so years from now).

Anyway, we went down to watch Seanie race on Wednesday night. It was his 3rd lifetime start in a non- winners of 2 race going for $11,000. We were tense as usually, but not off the charts. We had a nice crew down at Beloit including Greg, Danny, his friend Aaron, my friend Schlitz and myself. Now, for the record, we haven’t had any of those ‘hmmmmm’ moments in quite awhile. I honestly can’t remember the last one (guess I can go back and read the blog!), but things were different last night. Consider the following:

• The Meadows racetrack was on a TV near us and we could head the great Roger Huston’s race calls. It reminded Danny and I about the time we went down there to see Mo race his 3 year old year. We had a great time. Mo finished 2nd that day after brushing to the front and not quite being able to get up to the eventual winner, Upfront Hoosierboy.

• Our driver that night was Doug Snyder, a regular driver at the Meadows. He was great that night…not so much later on in the year as we still joke about.

• In the race before Seanie’s Wednesday night, Greg pointed out that none other than Doug Snyder was driving. Kind of strange as he only had TWO drives at Pocono ALL YEAR and both were that night. His other 192 drives were all at the Meadows.

• About 5 minutes before the start of our race, Danny gave me a look like he was half spooked. “Listen to the song,” he said. I couldn’t hear it. It was the background song that Pocono Downs feed had going on in between races. He turned it up: “Over My Head” by the Frey. It is a song that will forever make us think of In Over My Head (obviously). That was a little more than a hmmmm moment for me. Not ‘make the hair on your arms stand up’ either, but somewhere in between. Popular song, I though, but rather interesting timing.

• So the race starts and Seanie leaves out of the 5 hole for the top (as you could probably guess by now, Mo had the 5 hole that day at the Meadows and went right to the top). He sits behind the leader the whole race and couldn’t get to him in the stretch, finishing 2nd by about 2 lengths and besting the 3rd place horse by even more than that. Mo finished 2nd by about 2 lengths and bested the 3rd place horse by more than that as well.

• Now the times weren’t a spot on match: Seanie was in 1.53.3 and Mo was in 1.52.4 that day, but since the Pocono track was about a second off last night due to sloppy conditions, that’s pretty damn close.

Now doesn’t all that strike you as at least a little strange? I think it does, but have absolutely no idea what it means. Does it mean that Seanie is going to take a similar arc to success as Mo? Does it mean that all these subtle references to Mo mean he will be back soon? Is it just a way to remember him and that great year he had? Those questions can only be answered in time, but there has to be something there. This whole blog started on a hunch…a feeling that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but for whatever reason I felt totally compelled to start tracking a story that at the time had yielded nothing more than a 5th place finish in a nw2 by a horse we had just dropped $28,000 on. Since then we have experienced completely unexpected highs (like what we never even imagined highs) and utterly devastating lows (like it was almost time to close up shop lows). And during all those times, these strange little occurrences kept happening. Maybe we were looking so hard for them that we kind of created something out of nothing. On the other hand maybe we just became a little more aware because of the excitement and camaraderie that we felt following our four legged friends.

So I’m going to end this post with another hunch. This thing isn’t over. Far from it. I’m telling you I woke up Thursday morning absolutely jacked about the race. It was just a second place finish…we picked up about $2,500…so what??? Well, just call it another hunch. I don’t know exactly what form it will take, but I think we are heading back up. Seanie will continue to get better and keep the fire burning until the Champ returns. That’s when this thing can really take off….it will be like déjà-vu all over again.

Had to add this special addition to my own post since I finished it yesterday…I was thinking a lot about Mo this afternoon after talking to Tyler Butenschoen on the way home.. I was just feeling so much confidence that things were going to be OK….that he WILL be back like he was before and that our ride is about to take off again. So I get home and decide to go for a run. About 3 miles into it, I come up to a rather long hill, which was a little bit intimidating. At about the same time, my Ipod finished up one song and started another. The song?

“Over My Head” by the Frey.

I can’t make this stuff up. Let’s go Mo!

It's Go Time

2011-08-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

I thought for awhile about the proper analogy to use for this entry when describing the current state of affairs with Mo. A final inning baseball comparison? No, too overdone. A last second drive in football? Nah, more of the same. Then I realized something else: hopefully this isn’t any kind of ‘last hope’ at all, but the beginning of a second career. So how about this one:

“I don’t know if it will make any difference…but I figured it was time for me to start playing ball again.”

Can you name that fictional character and movie? It was none other than Jimmy Chitwood in one of the greatest underdog stores ever told in Hoosiers. Now why would I use a basketball movie as an analogy for In Over My Head. First, I had a hard time finding usable quotes from Seabiscuit (maybe because I don’t speak horse). Second, I love basketball and lastly, In Over My Head has always been an underdog story. If he comes back, his story will only be that much better. And if you are a fan of Hoosiers, you will remember that it was after Jimmy came back to the team that Hickory High went on that incredible run that ended with a state title. Now that is an arc of success we would love to see Mo follow.

So you have to be wondering, what’s new with Mo? I really haven’t wrote too much about him and the reason is he really kind of flattened out over the last few weeks. He needed some additional treatment; he couldn’t train at all and has only been swimming. Showtime Shark has stolen the spotlight of the blog that was made for Mo in the first place, but that was really out of necessity. Things are about to change.

As of yesterday, we have been more or less green lighted by our vets to lace up the sneakers and get going. We have been patient, but have been told additional patience will do no more good for him. His leg is as good as it is going to get. It’s time to roll. At this point one of two things will happen: we will be racing in probably four weeks or we will be quitting with him for good. The days of ‘let’s just give him another few weeks off’ are over.

This is kind of a nervewrecking place to be. The basketball analogy comes back into play when looking at the next few weeks. We are entering our conference post season tourney and the only way we have to make it to the Big Dance is to win em all. How do we ‘win’ you might ask? Well, train well this week, and next week, then qualify once or twice, then 2 races, all in Chicago. If he can survive that gauntlet, he will make the Big Dance, which in our case is sending him to John out east at Pocono Downs to race for bigger purses once again. If we come out of any of those weeks and his leg shows major signs of injury again, we’re done. It is a sad thought, but it is as simple as that.

On the eve of Seanie’s third career start, a start he could possibly win, our attention is again back on our former champion who needs a little good fortune so he can get back to doing what he loves: Getting in behind that gate, besting his competition using his superior speed and guts and crossing that finish line first. He is one hell of a good looking horse and one that deserves a few more trips to the winners circle to get his picture taken. Cross your fingers Mo fans, those trips may not be too far away.

We Are Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-07-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, I’ll go ahead and address some things right away in this post. A few questions a reader might be asking as you read this post.

Aren’t you over-reacting a little bit?

Yes

We are only taking about a maiden race. It isn’t like Seanie was racing in the Meadowlands Pace!

I fully understand

One good race doesn’t necessarily mean that you are back.

I disagree

So what am I talking about you may be asking…before I get to Seanie’s second lifetime race, I have a little something special to share with you. It just so happened that there was a video camera in the car when Greg, Danny and I drove back from watching the race last night. I think it really captures our excitement so I posted it on youtube. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op-4iqRCDV4

I’m not really sure what to think about Danny’s song at the end, but it sure was nice of him.

So what are we back to you may be asking (or more than likely you’ve figured it out already)…we are back to the winners circle! Seanie made his second lifetime start last night at Pocono Downs lit up the board by winning at 16-1 by a head. Now, through the wonders of screen capturing technology, I give you Showtime Shark’s first win (he is the #8 horse and spends the first half of the race in 2nd to last):

Man that is fun to watch. I think all three of us have had a smile on our face all day today. It has been 522 days since the last time a horse Greg and I own has graced the winner’s circle. It was In Over My Head’s win on February 12, 2009. That is a looooong time ago. Now, we can finally focus on the present. We have Seanie who is showing some nice promise and Mo’s first start back is inching closer. The timing of Seanie’s win was good as Mo had a bit of a slow down in his training, but it is not anything serious. It will just be a couple more weeks. Until then, keep going Seanie…we need some more races to enjoy!

A Purse Check and Mo Update

2011-07-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we have to start this blog entry with one important announcement: We have received our first purse check in a loooong time. Young Seanie made his first start out at Yonkers on Tuesday and picked a check for 5th place. $700. It may not seem like a lot of money, but it is hopefully just the start of good things to come. He was raced very conservatively, as is common with first time starters and we all expect him to be even better next time out. It will be fun watching him mature and continue to show us what he can do.

As for Mo, he just keeps getting closer and closer to getting back to the track. Actually, he did make his first trip to the racetrack in a long time on Wednesday night. His training miles are fast enough at this point that it is better for him to train at Balmoral (or Maywood) than on John’s track in Marengo. So, he got to enjoy the trailer ride down to Balmoral on Wednesday and trained before the races started. The mile wasn’t the best as the track was a little off at the time, but he’ll be doing the same thing next week. After that, it may be time to qualify him. Honestly, it makes me both excited and nervous as hell just typing that. I can’t believe how close were are, but everyone involved feels the same way at this point, that he will make it back. What happens at that point opens up a whole new set up questions (will he be as good as before…how long will his leg hold up…will he reinjure it…maybe it won’t bother him much at all and not be a problem). We can deal with those questions when the time comes. All I know is our boy is on a path that puts him just a few short weeks away from racing again.

Kind of a short entry, but just wanted to check in. More to come…hopefully a lot more!

Look At Me!!!

2011-06-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well faithful blog readers, it looks like we have a little jealously forming. Apparently, younger brother wants some attention. After seeing page upon page with stories of Mo, pictures from Marengo, stories of his training, poor young Seanie was starting to feel left out. We’ll, like any good younger brother (as most readers know, Mo and Seanie aren’t actually brothers, but since they share the same ownership, they fall into a similar ‘family’) he decided to do something about. What did he do? Well, he got himself ready to race in very short order.

Today, Seanie was scheduled to make his first qualifying start since last summer. Not only did he perform well, he did it in about 2 to 3 second faster than everyone thought and did it on his own. Take a look at the chart yourself.

Now is also a good time to remind everyone that Seanie’s real name is Showtime Shark, however, it is safe to say that his nickname will be used quite often. If you want to know why, here is a link back to the entry when we bought him:

http://inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-addition-to-our-stable.html

Anyway, I know it is just a qualifier, but for the first time in about a year we can go on USTA’s entry page and actually see one of our horses listed. That, my friends, is what I call progress. Another qualifier next week and then Seanie should be ready to race for real.

So, to try and keep things fair, I will only make a brief mention of Mo this entry. He trained in 2:20 this weekend and continues to progress well.

Today, however, we celebrate Showtime Shark . In the ‘it’s a small world’ bit of information of the day, the #5 horse in Seanie’s qualifier Jus Being Joe (who finished 4th) is a half brother to (same mom as) I Am A Fool. I Am A Fool is In Over My Head’s sire. I may not be the only one to find that somewhat strange. Just a coincidence I guess…maybe the first of many. Rumor has it Seanie sent Mo a text message after the qualifier that said, “Ha, ha…beat your dad’s bro my first time out and I wasn’t even trying.” Gotta love a sibling rivalry.

Big Day For Mo

2011-06-05T19:18:00.001-07:00

For the first time in a long time, I can see it. I can actually see the shore. We’ve been floating around at sea for many, many months and while there is still plenty of paddling to do, that beautiful beach known to horse owners as an actual pari-mutual start dead ahead. We knew Showtime Shark was getting close. He trained in 2:15 this weekend and is probably just 3 weeks away from qualfiing. The bigger question mark remained In Over My Head. He had flattened out the last couple of weeks. Much of that was just all of us being cautious, but at some point everyone knew we would have to speed him up and see what happened.

Laura, Danny, Kacy and I made the trip down to Marengo together on Saturday morning to watch Mo train. Greg was originally going to join us, but ended up having to be at work. When the alarm hit at 6:15 I was thinking it was a little early for a Saturday, but since we were going to see Mo, it was just fine. Danny had been down to train him the week before, but Laura and I hadn’t seen him since our trip to Florida in January (which is when we had to quit with him due to a flare-up of his injury). As soon as we got there, he treated Danny and I with a familiar attempt to nip us…same old Mo. He looked great. Gone was the horse equivilant of a beer belly he picked up during his time off. He looked like his old self. Big, strong and muscular. After walking around for a bit Danny came up and let me know what was in store for Mo that day: two training trips, one in 2:40 and the 2nd in 2:25. John (who sets all the training schedules) had decided it was time to try and test him a little bit.

The first trip for Mo was easy. As Danny described it, he was a sports car who was crusing around in 2nd gear, just waiting to be asked to go faster. After some time to catch his breath and get a nice bath from Penny, he was ready to go back. As they took him out of the barn, I was getting that familiar feeling that happens before a race. Some nerves, some tension. Not nearly as intense as a race, but a mile in 2:25 is a big deal for Mo. As I said to Tyler as we walked out to the track, it was really his biggest day in a year and four months. Danny warmed him up and turned to go. I had the 2011 version of an old stopwatch (my Iphone) and hit the timer as Danny went past. After the half, Tyler asked how he was doing: 1:14 seconds. Heading to a 2:28 mile, but Danny asked for a little bit more. As they came around the final turn, Mo was rolling along easy. They crossed past us and I hit the timer. Unofficial time: 2:23.9. Mo had set a new benchmark in his comeback.

Coming off the track, my eyes were locked on his right from leg, but he didn’t show any signs of soreness. Just another day at the office. We looked at Danny who said something along the lines of: yeah, he’s good. We walked him back to the barn and by the time he got to his stall, I think he was ready for another trip. He was back nipping at Danny and I in no time…just not Penny. She’s the only one who isn’t greeted with his teeth.

It was just a great trip down to the farm. Great to see everyone down there who I hadn’t seen in awhile and great to see Mo (of course). It was a little hot and Laura and Kacy were great sports about hanging around the barn for 2 and a half hours (maybe not every girls’ dream Saturday morning, but Danny and I are pretty lucky). While it was just a couple of training miles, it was a huge day for him. He really isn’t THAT far from heading into the track to train on a faster surface. A few more weeks probably, but if Saturday was an indication, he’s getting close. Much closer to the shore than he was the week before. While we need to keep thinking one week at a time, we can see it now. Cross your fingers In Over My Head fans…it may not be too much longer before we can be cheering him on at the track and not just the farm.

One Wedding and Some Good Training Reports

2011-05-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hello blog readers. So, I know this is suppose to be about horse racing, but I first must report that Laura and I tied the knot on Saturday, May 7th! It kept me away from posting here for awhile, but it was well worth it! For those who love racing, you’ll be happy to know we played the Kentucky Derby radio call live at our reception and gave prizes away to the winners (each person got a horse name on their seating assignment). Laura’s father also made a special mention of Mo winning the Windy City Pace during his speech after dinner at the reception. So, although In Over My Head was physically in cold and rainy Marrengo that day, he was with us in spirit down in Key West!

A couple of weeks after the wedding, Laura and I were out with Danny and we realized that per State of Wisconsin marital law, Laura is now an owner in two race horses. Welcome aboard! I’m sure Mo and Seeknee are excited to have her as owner.

As for the horses, they continue to train down slowly, but surely. Although we are 455 days removed from our last race, we could be within about 45 days of Seeknee seeing the track and maybe 75 days for Mo. Obviously, things can change, but I like looking forward much more than backward. Here are some fun updates on our guys:

- In Over My Head – Has been in 2:36 at John’s track in Marrengo with Tyler at the helm. They had been going two training trips a week, but he came up a bit sore after his second last week, so we’ll back off a bit. No rush. Great news is that he’s loving being on the track and is quite a handful when out with other horses. As you can probably guess based on his past racing experience, he wants to pass everything in sight. Easy big guy, they’ll be plenty of time for that later this summer. For now, we’ll keep training him down at a measured pace and just keep a close eye on him. He’s in good hands with Tyler, Penny, Dr. Tony and everyone else who is working at John’s. Danny and I are heading down June 5th. We’ll get more pictures.

- Showtime Shark – I think I speak for Greg, Danny and I when I say we can’t wait to see what Mr. Seeknee can do on the racetrack. All reports from Julie Miller on him have been very positive (not including his occasional bonehead behavior around the barn). On the track, he’s all go and seems to really enjoy the competition of racing (or at least training) against other horses. John used to say the same thing about him when he was a 2 year old. His injury has healed and he has shown no soreness at all. Yesterday, they went two trips with him with the second in 2:20. He’s on track to be ready to qualify in 4-6 weeks. We haven’t seen Showtime in person since last winter in Florida, so when he gets racing this summer, we’ll definitely make the trip out east. We think he’ll like the mile track, so we’ll angle him to towards the Meadowlands.

I love good training reports…but they are dwarfed by good racing reports. Hopefully by the end of the summer I can be writing about races for both our horses!

Mo(hawk)

2011-05-02T19:25:00.001-07:00

As a group, we haven’t seen In Over My Head in awhile. After spending much of last year with Greg up in Mineral Point, he got sent down to Florida to get back into racing shape. Laura and I went down to visit in late December, but shortly thereafter, he aggravated his suspensory injury and had to be shipped back to Illinois. It wasn’t until this weekend that he was visited by his ownership team when Greg and Danny headed down to Marrengo to see him. Mo had just moved over to the Butenschoen’s place after spending the last few months with the Leonards.

A quick side note, from what I hear the Leonards gave Mo great care when he was with them and if you happen to be reading this, we’d like to thank you for stepping in and helping all of us out. We very much appreciate it.

In Over My Head has always carried himself with a bit of an attitude. Not that he’s a jerk at all, he’s just pretty sure who’s the boss: him. As long as you go in with that attitude, no one is going to have any problems. Well, as Greg and Danny found out this weekend, he has also found a new way to express himself. Thanks to Danny’s fine camera work, we give you...Mo with a Mohawk:

As it turns out, Mo has decided that he wants to rock this mohawk on his comeback tour. Who are we to tell him no?

Danny got to take him out for a nice 5 mile jog and he is ready to start training down. We just have to wait until the weather stops being so rainy so the track can dry out. No rush, we've been waiting for well over a year. What's another couple of weeks?

In other news Laura and I are off to get married. Kentucky Derby day will also be our wedding day! So, I won't have any blog updates for a couple of weeks. HOWEVER, when we get back, there is a chance we could have both Mo and Seeknee no more than a few week away from a qualifier. You never know what will happen, but this is the closest we've been to a real race in a long, long time!

Slow and Steady

2011-04-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

“Slow and steady wins the race!” Marge Simpson (yes, I mean the cartoon character)

I can’t say I agree with Marge on that one, especially when it comes to horse racing. Marge would not make a very good horse owner, although she would be thriving in our current situation. Slow and steady…hopefully will get us back to the races.

We actually have some small good news to report. In Over My Head continues to work his way back down into race shape. He has officially trained past the point he was at in Florida before he had a flare up of his suspensory injury. We’d like to thank the Leonards who have provided him a roof over his head, a pool to swim in and a track to jog on until Tyler Butenschoen gets back from Florida to open up the farm. Today, he will go his second training mile with a target time of around 2:50. Still a long ways to go, yet a long ways from where he started. We are kind of in the middle. If (and that is one enormous ‘if’) he can progress at this pace, he could be racing by mid to late June.

An interesting story form the world of harness racing. The owner of Hypnotic Blue Chip (arguably the top open pacer in world) has challenged St. Elmo’s Hero to a match race. ‘Hero’ is a late bloomer on a 24 race win streak. It would be quite a fun thing to watch, but it seems like Hero’s owners aren’t interested. Maybe Mo can come back to his old form someday and we can take the challenge! Link to the story is below:

http://xwebapp.ustrotting.com/absolutenm/templates/?a=41812&z=1

In Showtime Shark news, he is finally out of the stall and back jogging. His freak injury (if you remember, he kicked a stall with his back right leg, breaking his coffin bone) has healed and he is sound again. The vets tell us he should have no long term negative effects form the injury. He just needs to stop being a knucklehead when not on the track. Timeline for Mr. Seeknee’s return is roughly August. Imagine, we have a chance to have both of these horses racing by late summer. We’ll see…one week at a time.

Swimming the Winter Away

2011-03-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

It has certainly been awhile. I was a little surprised last week when I got my sitemeter results and found that despite the fact no new material has been posted here in over 2 months, 20 people still found their way to the blog home of In Over My Head. When I saw that, I thought it was time for a new update. It isn’t great (or even good), but it is what it is.

- Last post I referenced a possible flare up of his suspensory injury. Unfortunately, that did materialize and we had to pull him from the Florida training facility and send him back to Illinois for more treatment.

- The new treatment went well from what we were told and after some additional stall rest, he was been moved to a new facility for the next phase in his recovery.

- That phase is…swimming! Yes, Mo is taking a more buoyant approach to training and has been swimming in a special pool (for horses) at the Leonards farm in Illinois (near Butenschoen’s).

- Once the weather stabilizes and the track at Butenschoen’s gets over the winter thaw, he’ll go back to jogging and training down.

- If he makes it thought that phase, we’ll figure out what is next. Based on the setbacks he has faced, we aren’t thinking that far down the road yet. Just taking it one step at a time.

At this point, we have really come to accept Mo’s fate. He hasn’t raced in over a year. He’s still months away and to be brutally honest, there is a very real possibility he will never race again. All we can be is hopeful. We never envisioned this bad of an injury would befall him in the first place. Right now, it is hard to envision a successful return to the track, but you never know. For now, he’ll just keep swimming. There are certainly worse ways to spend the winter.

Speaking of injury setbacks, Showtime Shark (aka Seeknee) is still nursing his broken coffin bone. We got a report a couple weeks ago that the healing is going well and there should not be any long term negative effects form the injury. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the soonest he could be back to the track is looking like September. Patience is a virtue.

So for now, we can focus on Laura and my wedding on May 7th in Key West, FL. We are getting married on Derby Day (kind of by accident). We may not be lucky with horses at the moment, but we are certainly lucky to have each other…and maybe someday we can once again be lucky with both!

Happy Holiday's (and looking forward to next year)

2010-12-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

Tis the season for lots of things. Presents, family gatherings, Christmas parties (and hangovers) and holiday cards. Some are simple…a card with a signature. Some have pictures (Greg’s family card included a picture of In Over My Head, which was awesome) and some have page long updates of what the family has been up to all year. I always enjoy reading those to keep up with friends and relatives, especially those I don’t get to see a lot. What I really appreciate are the brutally honest ones that let everyone know that the year has not gone particularly well. I think we could have written one of those talking about our horses this year. Just for fun, I’m going to give it a shot.

I hope that this letter finds you well. We are limping toward the end of what has turned out to be a rather challenging year in 2010. We started out with high expectations and ended with a couple of busted up horses and a pile of vet bills.

In Over My Head began the year giving us hope that 2010 would be a very special year. A year in which we could watch our champion horse in many big races and that champion would allow us to grow our stable. He won his first two races against solid competition out at the Meadowlands and was the favorite in the final of a mini series. Unfortunately, he finished 8th and after two agonizing weeks of analysis, we found out he had a torn suspensory ligament, which is a career threatening injury. After enough stall rest to allow him to be mobile again, we brought him back to the Midwest to rest.

In early summer, our hopes turned to Showtime Shark (aka, See-knee), a talented 2 year old who had trained town effortlessly and was ready to qualify and get to the track. We figured he would allow us to forget about the sad story of In Over My Head at least for awhile. Well, it didn’t quite work out that way. He was impeded in his first qualifier, but stayed flat and finished well. He was then impeded again in his 2nd qualifier and had to make a sharp turn around the breaker. While somehow managing to come home in 27.0 despite the detour, he jammed himself up pretty good. Between that and some general growing pains, we had to quit with him before he made his first start.

Late fall brought new hope for us, as In Over My Head was finally able to leave the paddock and get back onto the track down in Florida. Despite being rather overweight, he loved to be back on the track. With John B. down in Florida, we sent Showtime Shark over to the Julie Miller stable after a few months off. He came back sound and without soreness, which was very encouraging. He was trained down to 2:23 and we were just a few weeks away from his first start and making a run at the Junior Trendsetter at the Meadowlands. Not so fast. He was dead lame one morning when they went to get him out of his stall and it turns out he broke his back right coffin bone by kicking the stall too hard. You might think that broken bones from kicking stalls is rather rare. You’d be right, so we have that going for us. He’ll be out until about August.

Lastly, we had what we hope is only a scare last week when In Over My Head’s once injured leg started to swell up again. Could be nothing, could be something. We’ll find out soon enough.

Merry Christmas to you and your family

Team In Over My Head

Well, there you have it. Our brutally honest Christmas card for 2010. This doesn’t even take into account other challenges outside of racing that have arisen, some small and some large. I’ve often heard people say that in life, you have to go through the hard times to really appreciate the good times. 2010 was no doubt hard. I remember thinking in early 2010 when In Over My Head came out winning that it was almost too good to be true. Well, apparently it was. Despite all of this, it has only brought us closer together. Even though we currently have two horses, and only one is about half healthy, I have a feeling good things are on the horizon. We continue to find ways to laugh and joke about the recent hurdles and if we can laugh now, just think how much fun we will have when happy days are here again.

Fun With Math: Would Mo Have Won This Year's Windy City Pace?

2010-11-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

Another exciting edition of the Windy City Pace took place last Friday at Maywood Park. The heavy favorite, On More Laugh, was knocked off in a near photo finish. Like last year, the #2 horse was bet down nearly as far as the favorite. Last year, that horse was Sheer Desire. This year, it was Razzle Dazzle. Also like last year, neither one of those favorites crossed the wire first. The upset wasn’t quite as dramatic as Aracache Hanover, a 4-1 horse who drew the rail, showed plenty of guts holding off On More Laugh for his Canadian driver (Doug McNair) and trainer (Doug’s father Gregg McNair). Congrats to the connections of Aracache Hanover. It was a lot of fun watching their excitement in the winners circle from our spot up in the clubhouse…now, it wasn’t nearly as fun as BEING IN the winner circle, but I feel like we understand just how special that experience is after our win last year.

There was another interesting part of the race that really reminded Danny and I of last year’s Windy City. The number 5 horse, Stonebridge Tonic, worked out a second over trip behind Razzle Dazzle and headed into the stretch in an eerily similar position to In Over My Head last year. Despite a nice finish, Stonebridge Tonic just didn’t have the same kick that In Over My Head did at the end. When looking at the lines, they don’t look that different. Mo’s last quarter in 2009 was 28.1, while Tonic’s was 28.2. However, a quick look at the replays tells a very different story. Take a look at the links below. Watch In Over My Head close in the stretch like he was shot out of a cannon and then watch Stonebridge Tonic.

2009 Windy City:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dspRHcIMsnA

2010 Windy City:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZiZ0lvmYWk

Watching those two video’s begged an interesting question: With the same trip Stonebridge Tonic got, would In Over My Head have won this year’s Windy City Pace?

The answer is below, but get ready, we have lots of fun with math. Put your thinking cap on.

To start with we need to establish some assumptions:

- The distance of the stretch at Maywood Park = 594 feet, which = 0.1125 miles
- In 2009, In Over My Head was charted as back 4 and ¾ lengths behind the leader, If I Can Dream, coming into the stretch (ie, with 594 feet to go).
- A ‘length’ in harness racing in an official race chart = approximately 10 feet (the approximate length of a horse and the race bike).
- We are going to assume that If I Can Dream traveled his last quarter mile in equal fashion, meaning that his 29.0 second last quarter equated to a 13.05 second time in the ‘stretch’. This assumption is somewhat up for discussion, but I will test this later.

Coming into the stretch, In Over My Head was trailing If I Can Dream by approximately 47.5 feet (4 and ¾ lengths at 10 feet per length). At the wire, he had beaten If I Can Dream by a head, which is equivalent to about 3 feet, meaning he made up approximately 50.5 feet in the last 594 feet of racetrack. This means Mo traveled that last distance 8.5% faster. Applying that percentage to If I Can Dream’s 13.05 second ‘stretch’ equates to Mo’s stretch time of 11.94 seconds.

Using those numbers, Mo traveled the last 594 feet at 49.75 feet per second, while IICD was moving at 45.51 feet per second. That is 4.23 feet per second times 13.05 seconds (again, that is IICD’s stretch time) means that Mo made up 55 feet. Considering he was down nearly 48 feet going into the stretch and won by about 3 feet, we have a pretty good case that those numbers are correct. If not perfect, they are close. The reality is that IICD probably came home slightly faster in the stretch than he did in the beginning of the last quarter. A champion horse like him would gut out some additional speed when being pushed at the end. If that was the case, it would shrink that 55 feet by a foot or two and the numbers would match up perfectly.

With that, let’s take a look at this year’s race.

Aracache Hanover’s last quarter last night was 28.2. Given that Mo’s was 28.1 you would think he would have no chance to make up that kind of ground, but go back to those replays. Mo’s final dash to the finish line may have been enough to get him here. Let’s go back to the numbers.

Again assuming a consistent last quarter for Aracache Hanover, his stretch time was 12.78 seconds (noticeably faster than If I Can Dream’s 13.05). That is 46.48 feet per second.

Stonebridge Tonic (the horse who had the 2nd over trip that we are replacing with Mo) was just 3 and 1/2 lengths behind Aracache Hanover as then came into the stretch, or approximately 35 feet. Using Mo’s stretch time of 49.75 feet per means he was covering an extra 3.27 feet each second. Take that over the last 12.78 seconds and Mo would have made up 41.8 feet in the stretch. Remember he was behind by 35 feet, which means that:

In Over My Head would have WON by 6.8 feet, or nearly three quarters of a length!

I understand that can be disputed, but it is WELL within reason to think that Mo would have at the very least been in the photo finish if he had Stonebridge Tonic’s trip. I’m not trying to prove he is better or worse than any of the horses in this year’s race, but just making the point that his last 594 feet in the 2009 Windy City Pace was insanely fast.

Here are some other interesting stats about the race and that stretch drive of Mo.

The 2009 Windy City Pace was completed in 1 minute and 52.4 seconds. That equates to an average speed of 32.03 miles per hour.

The fastest harness race ever was completed in 1 minutes and 47.4 seconds. That equates to an average speed of 33.5 mph.

In his stretch drive, In Over My Head was traveling at 33.93 mph. Not bad on a half mile track coming out of a turn on a cool November evening.

As Mo continues his slim fast diet down in Florida with John Butenschoen, I only hope that he can return to his old form. I can’t wait to see him unleash that final kick in those short half mile stretches at Yonkers, Maywood and other short tracks. If you ever get a chance to watch Mo race in the future, just remember that is isn’t over until they cross that finish line.

Windy City Memory

2010-11-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

Life is pretty busy right now. Work has picked up, we started practice at the high school where I coach basketball, wedding planning continues and the holiday’s are just around the corner. Regardless, I find some time everyday to check on the ins and outs of harness racing. Two states where we race (Illinois and New Jersey) are in battles over new legislation that would allow either slots at the racetracks or in the case of the Meadowlands, allow racing at all. My take on that is simple. If you are a state that allows gambling, there is no reason you should try and stop a slots at the track bill. If you don’t believe in ANY gambling, I can respect that as well…it is a totally different argument. However, in states where gambling exists, slots at tracks generates more gambling revenue, costs the taxpayers nothing and supports and entire sub-industry of horse racing that creates thousands of jobs, often in rural areas. It also encourages out of state investment and what state wouldn’t want out of staters pumping money into their industries? The ONLY reason to stop something like that is if you are in bed with the casinos or just totally against gambling of any kind. That’s it. It is a damn shame to watch the sputtering political process. Let’s forget about those issues just for a second and flashback a year.

Last year everything was very different. While there were other things going on, the focus was more directed toward one thing: The Windy City Pace.

Greg, Danny and I were cautiously optimistic about In Over My Head’s chances in the week leading up to the Windy City. We liked his post position (#3) and were confident veteran driver Dale Hiteman could carve out a good trip for him. With a purse of $225,000, fifth place would lead to a payday of $11,250 and take Mo over the $100,000 mark for the year. Not too shabby. I distinctly remember taking little pieces of paper with horses names on them and sliding them around my desk trying to simulate possible scenarios of how the race could break down. I was pretty sure that Mo would get shuffled back and be out of the money coming into the stretch. However, we knew his closing kick was fast…especially on a half mile track since he can go from 80% speed to 100% speed in a heartbeat on that short home stretch. I thought it would be enough to get in for 5th…MAYBE even 4th. The stretch goal was third. That would have been incredible.

Well, we were right about one thing. He did use his rocket fire finishing kick that night, but after Hiteman worked out a second over trip, he wasn’t fighting for fifth. He was closing on the leaders and when he crossed the wire just a nose in front of Sheer Desire, he had delivered us a once in a lifetime memory.

The full story that I wrote the day after can be found here. It still gives me goose bumps:

http://inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2009/11/o-my-godi-think-he-just-won-it.html

There are so many parts to the story of that are fun to remember, but one that has been coming to me in recent days takes us all the way back to when In Over My Head was just two. I went down to Maywood one night to watch him race in a simple little non winners of 2 conditioned race. I was only a small owner at that time through John Butenschoen’s partnership. Greg and I didn’t buy him together until about three months later at an auction. As fate would have it, Danny planned to head down that night too as one of Greg’s horses was also racing that night. What better way to spend a night than heading down to Maywood with Danny and talking horses for the 4 + hour car ride? At that time, Mo (who wasn’t known as Mo yet), was struggling with making a lot of breaks. As it turned out, he was just having some growing and maturity issues, but we didn’t know that at the time. In one of his warmup trips, John brushed him past the grandstand at full speed. He wanted to test him a bit before the race given his recent problems. I vividly remember standing on the rail that night with no one around but Danny and I. In Over My Head looked awesome and in that short stretch of racetrack displayed incredible speed. “Damn he’s fast” I thought at the time.

About 14 months later, on Windy City Pace night in 2009, he was even faster over that exact same stretch of racetrack. He needed every ounce of that speed to win the race. The only thing faster that night was our group charging down to the winner’s circle. I’m pretty sure we would have even left Mo in the dust.

That night, Greg, Danny, Kacy, Laura, my brother Kirk, Laura’s brother Ryan and wife Jamie got to take in the experience of having our 55-1 long shot win. It was so much fun, we decided to go back this year. Even though we don’t have a horse racing, what better way to remember that night than to be at the track? I wish everyone racing in this year’s Windy City Pace the best of luck. Can lightening strike twice? I don’t know…that would mean One More Laugh (a horse the quality of If I Can Dream) would have to get upset.

In that magical #3 post position is a horse named Voomerang. His stats are strikingly similar to In Over My Head’s last year. I’m sure he’ll be a long shot. I’m also sure I’ll put a couple buck down on him to win.

The Comeback Begins

2010-11-07T15:57:00.001-08:00

Welcome back to the old blog. We aren't done here...not by a long shot (pun intended). As we speak, In Over My Head is enjoying a warm late fall evening at the beautiful Southern Oaks Trainng Center just north of Orlando, FL. As you can see in the picture, it is a wonderful place for a horse to spend the winter months. From what I understand, Mo didn't want to get on the trailer to head down (maybe he knew it was a 24 hour trip), but I'm sure when he go there he realized we sent him to a great place.

Before he left, Mo got a chance to hit the track down at Butenschoen's in Marengo, IL with Tyler in the training bike. To say he was a kid in a candy store would be quite an understatement. Apparently, he was throwing his head, turning around and doing a lot of 'talking'. I'm not exactlay sure what he sounds like when he's talking, but had I known he was going to put on a show I would have skipped out of work to watch those jog miles.

Now that we are back, I plan to put together more posts again (and longer ones than this), but I just wanted to check in and let the couple of loyal readers we have that Mo is OK...actually he is far better than OK, he's back jogging again and I'm sure he couldn't be happier.

A Thought Provoking Picture

2010-09-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

A picture, as they say, is sometimes worth a thousand words. The picture to the left may not be worth that many, but I keep looking at it and thinking about the symbolism. I took this picture of In Over My Head last Sunday at his current home in Mineral Point. Laura and I went up with Greg for one of his daily feedings. While we stood there watching him, he paused and looked out of his barn door. Since I’m always looking for good pictures of Mo, I thought it might make a good phone background. The more I look at it the more intriguing it is.

(a quick side note, the plan was to take the picture from my phone and copy it here, but due to some kind of glitch, it has been 'erased' even though it still shows up as my background....which is why you get to see a picture of a picture!)

Behind him, is darkness, which represents the past seven months of his life. Major injury, weeks of stall rest and visits by vets, pain in his leg followed by minimal activity, more vets, and some remaining pain. After additional slow rehab work, he finally gets to the point he is now. Kind of in purgatory. Life certainly isn’t bad up at his Mineral Point home. He gets excellent care and attention (Greg goes up to feed him three times a day), he gets a big stall to himself every night and gets turned out every day. Has his own paddock with an open barn area as well (as seen in the picture). Certainly many horses have it worse, but this isn’t the best life for Mo. After all, he is a racehorse. He lives to race. Taking away racing would be like taking away football from Brett Favre (he obviously struggles with walking away). My favorite part of the picture is what is in front of him. In Over My Head is looking to a brighter future both actually (in the picture) and figuratively. His leg has finally healed, which will allow him to move forward into that bright future.

As of today, he is less than two months away from taking his next big step back to the track. We are planning on sending him down to Florida to train with John Butenschoen this winter. If all goes well, he’ll be back racing in April. To those that have read this blog for awhile, you may remember that we told In Over My Head on the night of the Windy City pace that if he won, we’d send him to Florida for the winter. Well, we are going to end up making good on that promise after all. By sending him to Florida, we can say he is getting the best possible path back into racing. We all hope beyond hope that he makes it back to the track and is the monster that he used to be. He deserves the best, which is why he is getting the ‘Cadillac Package’.

It is kind of an interesting time to look back. Had Mo stayed healthy, we would all probably be heading down to Delaware, Ohio, home of the Little Brown Jug. The Jug is the most special of the major three year old events (in my opinion at least). It is raced at a fair track, in front of a huge crowd (they usually draw 30,000+) and it is raced in heats. Heat racing was the norm for many, many years in racing. In summary, you have to win twice in one day to be crowned ‘champion’. It is a true test of a horse’s heart and guts. While In Over My Head would not be able to race in the Jug, we did plan on racing him in the Winbak Open pace. The purse isn’t huge (about $45k), but the chance to race on Jug day was something we were extremely excited about when Mo was healthy and we started to make stakes payments in mid February. Looking at the field, he would have fit just fine. He has already raced against 3 of the 5 participants. He got beat a nose by Nob Hill High in DuQuoin, went 1 for 2 against Annieswesterncard and could have held his own against Booze Crusin had he not been sick that night last fall in the open at Balmoral. I guess we will just have to try again next year.

In other news, Showtime Shark is probably a couple of weeks from getting back jogging again. We still aren’t too sure what his short term future holds, mostly because of the uncertainly surrounding the Meadowlands racetrack, which is currently in the middle of a turf battle for the future of gambling dollars with Atlantic City. The State of New Jersey is trying to figure out what location to support going forward. I’m obviously biased, but on one hand, you have the premier track in all of racing and in the other you have an afterthought grouping of casinos. You have brand awareness in the Meadowlands and a punch line in Atlantic City. Horse owners, trainers and breeders spend millions and million of dollars in New Jersey for horses because of the Meadowland’s brand, but casino gambling has become more and more a business of convenience given the fact there are casinos in nearly every state. Only Las Vegas remains a gambling destination. Long story short, if New Jersey wants to keep people like me spending money on horses, vets, trainers and when we come to visit hotel, restaurants, rental cars, etc, go with the Meadowladns. This falls into the realm of ‘no brainer’ as far as I’m concerned. Again, I know I’m biased. So, long story short, if there is a Junior Trendsetter next year, we will enter Showtime and probably travel to New Jersey to see him. I hope it works out.

Lastly, please join me in an Internet based round of applause for ‘Dashing’ Danny Carey. Danny just finished his first full year as a driver on the Wisconsin Fair Circuit and finished in the top three of drivers while also driving the Trotter of the Year. Nice work Danny! Maybe someday when we all run into the winner’s circle after an In Over My Head win we can congratulate him as our winning driver.

Mo Carrots for Mo

2010-09-01T19:04:00.001-07:00

Although our time was short, Laura and I got a chance to stop up and see In Over My Head this week. We made a quick stop at the local Mineral Point grocery store and bought a bag of carrots before we headed up to the horse barn. He was standing outside eating some grass right on the fence when we arrived. Laura was excited to be able to feed him some carrots, but she didn’t have a ton of experience and I will admit that a horse can be a little bit intimidating when you aren’t used to it. Mo, who has a tendency to be a little nippy, was pretty relaxed that day. However, he wasn’t relaxed enough for Laura who ended up going 0 for 2 in attempting to give Mo a little treat. Both times she pulled her hand back as he got close and dropped the carrot on the ground. Overall, it was a decent first effort and I picked up all of the dropped carrots and fed them to Mo. I wish I would have taken a couple of pictures. Maybe next time.

Speaking of 0 for 2, Showtime Shark (aka See-knee), is no longer one nut short of a pair. He is two short. Last week, we decided to have the rather wild youngster gelded. It is far from an uncommon practice for racehorses, but you can’t help but feel a little bad for him when the procedure is first done. We found him a great farm to be turned out to about an hour from Pocono Downs. The people are extremely nice and we are confident he is getting excellent care as he just grows up a little bit. We fully think that come mid October, he will be ready to start training again and will be on his way to starting a very good career.

Back to In Over My Head for a bit. Our plan is to get his leg scanned one more time, but we are virtually certain that he is fully healed at this point. Either way, he will have another month and a half at Greg’s place before we would do anything with him, but he is getting VERY CLOSE to being able to start jogging again. The thought of that is beyond exciting for us. It has been a long six and a half months since his injury, but we can at least see the next step (and a very important one) in his overall rehab coming into focus. All of the thoughts of what can maybe happen next season on the racetrack are starting to creep back into our heads with him. You try and beat them back for fear of getting too excited, but it is very hard to do. All we can do is hope and pray that his body holds up when he comes back. If it does, we may be the happiest group owners that harness racing has ever seen.

Next, Fox Valley Nala, a 2 year old Illinois bred filly got her first lifetime win a couple of weeks ago. Marcus Miller drove her to perfection as he got her a two hole trip and patiently waited to make his move in the open stretch. She ended up winning by a nose. She has had an up and down season, but it sure was nice to see one of my horses back in the winner’s circle.

And last but not least, a big thumbs up to Danny, who is making a name for himself on the Wisconsin fair circuit as a driver this year. He is learning the ups and downs of being a driver, but has had a couple of weekends where he got horses good trips with great results (two wins and a second in three drives being a highlight). Keep it up Danny…maybe you can drive Mo in the coming years!

A Nice and Needed Visit

2010-07-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

I think there is a simple equation when it comes to blogs. Lots of posts = more viewers. Few posts = few viewers. If you stop writing no one will come back and check the blog. While I don’t want to lose everyone, I have to be honest….I’ve had at least a mild case of writers block lately. When things were going well, there was a strong wind in my writing sail. Heck, even when things went horrible, I felt compelled to write about them. Now, I feel like Tommy Callahan (big Tom Callahan’s son), sitting in my little boat in the middle of a lake somewhere near Sandusky, Ohio. Lots of time to sail, but no wind.

The problem is…well…there isn’t a lot write talk about. We were hitching our wagon (or our sulky I should say) to Showtime Shark this year. The 2 year old colt was training down very well and had actually got to the point of having two quality qualifiers. He was ripping off 56 second last half training miles at Pocono by himself. He’s fast…but his body isn’t keeping up to the rigors of training. He was kind of a late developing horse and he just needs more time to mature. We came to that realization last week and it was kind of a tough blow to the psyche (at least for me) as it more or less solidified the fact there will be no racing for Greg and my (and Danny’s) colts in 2010. Mo got three races in (and won two). Showtime won’t get any. It is a bit of a bummer no matter how you slice it.

Danny and I were discussing all of this the other night after our softball game and he had a good idea: go see In Over My Head. It had been a number of weeks since my last trip to Mineral Point to see him. Danny thought it would cheer me up. So, I snuck away for a bit of a long lunch today. I first stopped by to see Greg, then Grandma and Grandpa and it was great to catch up with everyone. When I got to the horse barn he wasn’t out side. It was kind of a hot, sunny day and he was back in the shed that opens to his paddock. After some coaxing, he came out to meet me on the fence and I gave him a few carrots. Laura couldn’t make it, but she wanted me to give Mo carrots ‘from her’ which I did. We had a nice talk (I did most of the talking) as we walked along the fence line and I tried to keep the flies off his face. After awhile he headed back to the shed so he could be in the shade. He is a very social horse. Incredibly kind and easy to deal with for a stud colt. And he still looks like a champ. He is the Champ.

I’ve been thinking a lot about In Over My Head lately. Last weekend I went to visit Brien DuRoche a good friend from back in high school who lives up in Minneapolis. He asked a lot of questions about In Over My Head and I rambled on for way too long I’m sure, but jogged my brain to recount all of the little nuances and strange happenings that have surrounded our time with Mo. The number of strange occurrences was kind of overwhelming…even I had forgotten about them over the past weeks and months (maybe I should read my own blog). It was fun to think back and was as if there was something bigger than us at work with this story, which quite frankly is what made it a good story.

As I drove away from Mineral Point and headed back to Madison I felt better. It was nice to see everyone today even if it was a short trip…and I got to feed Mo some carrots. I pulled onto the highway and turned up the radio, but the song that was on wasn’t any good. Apparently I had left the radio on a channel that I don’t listen to very often. I changed it to a more familiar station and was put back in my chair with what I heard. That familiar song that wasn’t written at all with Mo in mind. For us, however, it fits him like a glove for obvious reasons. I turned up the volume as The Frey belted out “Everyone knows I’m in over my head.” I can’t make this stuff up! I realize it is probably just a coincidence, but right when I get on the highway? On the day I went to visit after Danny said, “you should go pay Mo a visit.” Say what you will, I think it’s at least somewhat weird that of all the songs I could have come across, it is his unofficial theme song.

In the short term, I really don’t have a ton to write about, but I’ll do my best. There is a new wind back in my sails. We may be down, but we aren’t out. There is more to come with team In Over My Head (this now officially includes his sidekick Showtime Shark). When we look down the road, we can still only see a few more months of downtime. It looks pretty flat, straight and boring to be honest. However, I think something more is on the horizon…a lot more and I can’t wait to be able to write about it.

Also, the pictures that I’ve put in this were taken by Danny a couple of weeks ago of In Over My Head up at his place in Mineral Point. I thought you might enjoy a few more of the Champ.

FINALLY It's Race Day

2010-07-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Race Day. After 130 long days, Fox Valley Nala (the unofficial daughter of In Over My Head since I only bought a partial ownership after Mo won us a suitcase full of cash in the Windy City Pace) is making her first lifetime start at Maywood Park in a $7,000 ICF 2 year old filly event tonight. We almost got a chance to see a double header, as Showtime Shark was scheduled to make his first lifetime start today as well, but he is a little bit dinged up (nothing major thankfully), so we had to scratch him for today. The youngster has had a bit of a rough go of it early. In two qualifiers, he has been impeded BOTH times. In both situations, he managed to stay pacing (including last week when he had to sweep about 8 wide around the breaker). Impressive composure for the rookie. We really have high hopes for him. He’s smart and fast…usually a good combination.

While we may not be able to watch Showtime together tonight, Greg, Danny and I are heading down to the old South Beloit betting parlor to take in the races and win lots of money (or donate to the purse account). Race day used to mean a longer trek. As a kid when staying with Grandma and Grandpa, we’d meet Greg in mid afternoon and load up the car with sandwiches and coolers of Coke before heading down to Sportsmen’s Park. It was such a cool experience. Rolling into the track in the big city of Chicago with Grandpa and Greg made you feel like a big deal, especially on the occasions when the horse would win and we’d get to head down to the winner circle. Now, with all of the off track betting, those trips are always necessary. Even though we won’t end up at the track itself tonight, it is still Race Day. I’m just glad it is finally here…it’s been too damn long.

And this wouldn’t be an update without some news on the Champ. He is enjoying his time up in Mineral Point, but from what I’m told, he’d rather be in training than running around in a paddock. He’s very full of himself and while he’s living the easy life right now, the easy life isn’t what makes In Over My Head tick. His leg continues to heal wonderfully. When I was up last time I got a chance to feel it myself. I’m not a vet, but it basically felt exactly the same as his healthy leg…I’m pretty sure that’s good news!

Over the last few weeks, I have really been drawn to Shark Gesture. As far as I’m concerned, he is, at this point in his career, as good as any free for aller in the past 10 years. I’m not saying he could go on a crazy win streak against the likes of Mr. Big, Artistic Fella, Art Official, Real Desire, Four Starzzz Shark, Holborn Hanover and so on, but in his current form he could race with and beat ANYONE on any given night. So, I pick up the mail yesterday and guess who is on the front cover of Hoof Beats: Shark Gesture. I start to read the article and come to realize that during his four year old season, he tore his suspensory. I had no idea that happened to him. After a year or so of trying a 2nd career in the breeding shed, they brought him back to the track and he became an even greater racehorse than he already was. I tell you what, it is stories like that that help keep me positive. Now, I’m not saying Mo will come back and be Shark Gesture, all we want is for him to come back the way he was and if Shark Gesture is any kind of proxy, he can. Unfortunately for In Over My Head, he doesn’t get to spend his time away from the track going on ‘dates’ with a bunch of mares. Sorry buddy, if you come back strong, we promise to find you some pretty ladies to breed with.

The Champ is Home

2010-06-13T18:51:00.001-07:00

Rehab isn't really a fun time for a horse or its owners, but each step is exciting in its own way. Last week, In Over My Head left Marrengo and headed back to Mineral Point for a few months of easy living and daily turnouts. A big paddock full of grass and a nice big stall at Greg's horsebarn awaited him. He was last in Point after the Windy City victory and before he headed out to the Meadowlands and he seemed to know where he was right away.

Danny and Greg have been taking care of him for the past week before I was able to make it down there today. It was great to see Big Mo. He was very full of himself and enjoys the attention. Watching him gallop around outside was both exciting and scary thinking about the stress being put on his leg, but it has been nearly 4 full months and we have followed the instructions of the vets to a T. And they all say the most important T stands for time. He just needs time. The best thing about this part of his rehab is that he can just kind of be a horse again. He isn't stuck in his stall all day with the only exercise being hand walking and equisizer work. He gets to run and play. We will get another scan of his leg in about a month, but for all intents and purposes, he's healed. Now it is time to slowly strengthen the leg again over the next couple of months. We all said the same thing after seeing him again. He will get back to the track and when he does, there isn't a horse in the nation that will have an easy time beating him.

In other news, Showtime Shark is just a few days away from his first qualifier. He has been training down well and we are cautiously optimistic that he will be able to mix it up with some other 2 year olds this year.

The other ownership interest, Fox Valley Nala, is in a very similar spot to Showtime. She's trained down well and is set to qualify on Thursday. We will learn a lot more about them in the coming weeks so hopefully I'll have more to write about again! Keep checking in.

Is it Nearly Showtime?

2010-05-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel we have found ourselves in is one that every small horse owner will be in on occasion. Bills keep coming every month. Training bills, vet bills, stake payments, but there are no races. No purse checks, just bills. In Over My Head will be on the shelf for quite awhile, so our attention has turned to the youngster. Our two year old, Showtime Shark (aka See-knee) is training down well and should be ready to make his first lifetime start in a little over a month. To date, he has shown some speed and willingness to race. Two good things, but you just don’t know for sure until he gets to the track. It is like that draft choice your favorite NFL team picks up in the 1st round and he is really having a good training camp. Training camp isn’t the real deal, but it sure is nice to get a good report.

As a background, the story of Seeknee can be found here by clicking on the link below. It is kind of a fun read. I had forgotten all of the interesting side stories about that horse. Also, for the record, he is no longer a ridgeling…gravity took its course and he is officially a colt now!

http://inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-addition-to-our-stable.html

Now that our boy Mo is out for awhile, I think this blog will morph into the story of Showtime…at least for awhile. I’ll also give some updates on Fox Valley Nala, a 2 year old filly that I’m am a smaller owner in. The thing is, both of these horses tie back to In Over My Head anyway. Greg and I bought Showtime down in Lexington mainly because of the success Mo was having. I purchased 25% of Nala after we won the Windy City. Actually, I don’t quite own 25% of Nala as I have gifted small percentages to some friends who also were in on the partnership that owned Mo when he was just 2 years old and also gave a percent to Laura. So she is now a horse owner too! Good timing now that we are engaged.

Lastly, I’ll provide updates on Danny, who is now getting some drives in qualifiers down at Maywood. He is now up to three qualifiers and if this keeps up, he could get his provisional license. Very exciting. Congrats Danny. Hopefully, the State of Illinois will realize the importance of horse racing in the state and approve the Slots at the Tracks bill that is currently waiting to be called to vote.

A New Hope

2010-04-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been sixty-four days since In Over My Head’s last race and for the first time in a long time, I can say I’m excited again about his future. As you may have read in my very long story in the last post, he suffered a rather serious injury to his suspensory ligament. He had no immediate future and his prospects of getting back to the track were very uncertain. He received excellent care from Dr. Hogan out in New Jersey, as well as day to day care from John (I actually don’t have John’s last name I’m embarrassed to say). From there, he shipped back to John Butenschoen’s farm in Marrengo and has been under the watch of Dr. Petrovich and care of Tyler Butenschoen and Penny Perrin. There have been a lot of people looking out for Mo and as it turns out, they have done a wonderful job.

When arriving back in Marrengo about a month ago, Dr. Petrovich took a new scan of In Over My Head’s injured leg. He was very optimistic about his process to that point. Well, late this week he was scanned again and we got a piece of news we really needed. Doc told Greg that the progress has been remarkable and that Mo should be ready to start jogging in just four months! I was floored. I can’t tell you how great it was to hear that news.

Now, the reality is that we won’t start him back that fast and everyone agrees there is really no reason to get him ready to go as winter sets in. So, our new goal (and it is obviously a very loose goal, but at least we have a goal) is that he will start back again sometime around April 1st, 2011. And, he will get to spend the winter in: beautiful Florida! Kind of a strange thing to think about considering it is spring now, but just being able to think about plans for Mo is exciting. Oddly enough, it is mapping my fictional story thus far…all we can hope for is that he is as successful when he gets back as I predicted.

More than ever, I am convinced we have a one of a kind horse and we are living in the middle of a unique and special story. All signs are pointing to him coming back from this injury and getting back to where he was. And he was racing in 1.50.4 in his second start after 3 months off in the middle of February. Where would he have been if he was real tight on a hot summer day? Certainly sub 1.50, right? I don’t know what lies ahead. He may have more bumps in the road to recover. I realize that is a very real possibility. He may come back to monster. He may get hurt again. No one really knows, but even though he is currently going crazy on stall rest with limited walking and cash flows are flowing out instead of in for the time being, I think we are all so glad we never sold him. He is a great story. He is our story and I know for a fact this story is far from over.

The Latest Chapter to Our Story

2010-03-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure if there are many readers of this blog remaining, but if you take some time to read this rather long post, I think you will all understand why I was gone for awhile. When I first started writing this thing, I always said that I would write regardless of whether the news was good or bad. This post will explain our most recent situation, which unfortunately falls on the bad side.

As you will read, our beloved horse suffered a pretty serious injury and I wasn’t quite sure how to put that into words. It took time to come up with a way to tell the story. What you will find is kind of unique and maybe a bit confusing. The ‘story’ was written in the third person from the future. 2014 to be exact. I had to tell our current story in the context of something happier, so this is the direction I went. The quotes you will see are all made up by me, although, they do capture what we were thinking and actually talking about.

As of today, I wanted to let everyone know that In Over My Head is doing well in his recovery. Actually better than we originally hoped, but it will take time. He is a winner and there is no doubt in my mind he will return. We think about him all the time even though he isn’t racing right now.

Lastly, I worked on this story for nearly a month an a half and the day I gave it to Laura and Danny to read and proofread, a package arrived at my door. It was a beautiful crystal plate that had an inscription of the Exit 16W series, Greg and my name along with In Over My Head: 1.51.2. It was Mo’s last win before getting hurt. I was told from a nice guy at the Meadowlands that there wasn’t any trophy for winning a leg of the series so I‘m not quite sure where it came from. Like I said, the timing was pretty strange (on the same day I finished this story), but there are a lot of strange happenings that surround this horse. Anyway, if the person who sent is happens to read this blog, I just want to say thank you. It made our day. It was a beautiful reminder of what Mo is capable of.

Here is our story:

A LONG HARD ROAD TO AN INCREIDBLE RECORD

The summer sun beat down on them as they stood on the rail overlooking the track. The feeling Greg and Shawn had was the same one they had felt many times over the past few years before the pride of their racing stable took to the track. Oddly enough, the tension was even higher today than it was a few weeks earlier, when another one of their horses, Rattle n’ Hum, competed in the $1 million Meadowlands Pace. He finished a respectable fifth. Danny was also there the night of the Meadowlands Pace, but he wasn’t standing with them today. He had other things to tend to. There was a lot of money on the line the night of ‘The Pace’, but that wasn’t the case today. Something bigger than money was at stake today. As the two owners turned around to look at the grouping behind them, including Becky, Laura and numerous other family and friends, they looked at each other and smiled. Four years earlier, no one would have even thought this day would be possible.

Flashback – Early 2010

It was early 2010 when the small group of horse enthusiasts realized that they quite possibly had stumbled upon racing gold. Months earlier, their aptly named horse shocked the racing world by capturing the Windy City Pace. To the outside observer, it was almost a fluky win. The owner of the favorite, If I Can Dream, would later remark that he couldn’t believe that his supremely bred superstar could be beaten by a ‘two nickel horse’ like In Over My Head. Believe it. What In Over My Head (or ‘Mo’ as the owners referred to him as) lacked in gaudy pedigree he more than made up for in heart, guts and a will to win stronger than any other horse he would ever face. Despite the huge win, the Windy City was only one race. The real eye opening performances came the next winter.

Mo had qualified twice at The Meadowlands (finishing 3rd and 1st) in January of 2010 before making his first start of the season against a rather challenging field in the first leg of the Exit 16W series at The Meadowlands. Not unlike many races from In Over My Head’s past, he went off at nearly 10-1 odds. His results didn’t match his odds. He was truly bigger, faster and stronger after taking a couple of months off. After catching a second over trip, he powered home to an open length victory in 1.50.4, besting his previous lifetime mark by nearly two full seconds. In the second leg of the series, he took a somewhat different path to victory, skimming the pylons and using a 26.0 last quarter to claim another win. While it was early in the season, Mo was beginning to have the look of a horse that would be tough for anyone to beat.

The season was scheduled to make its official blast-off in the $88,000 final. The winner’s chunk of that purse ($44,000) would go a long way in paying off the new and more aggressive stakes schedule for Mo, who was literally getting better with every start. He was doing things easily and loving every minute of it. Had he developed into a top open pacer? Probably not, but one could argue he was only a step or two below the superstars who competed in the most prestigious events. There would still be plenty of opportunities for a horse like that to make bushels of money in races all over the Midwest and East. That also provided the owners with opportunities to travel to see him race, which was something they all loved to do very much.

Shawn Swenson, one of the owners, summed up the feeling in early 2010: “That season was painfully short (just two qualifiers and three races), but we at least realized what was going on. We kept telling each other to just enjoy the ride. It was like when your basketball team makes the NCAA tournament as a 12 seed and just keeps winning. It is almost like you are playing on borrowed time. The only thing was, Mo was legit. He was a Cinderella story in the Windy City. Now he was the favorite. It was an incredible role reversal. We never said it outwardly to each other, but we all thought the Exit 16W series was literally the tip of the iceberg. We knew that he was ready to take on almost anybody that year.”

It was the week leading up the Exit 16W Final when things started to get really interesting. The “no name” horse with Wisconsin owners had finally turned some heads. Everyone knew he would be the favorite in the final and some big time owners wanted him for their own stable. In a matter of just four days, owner Greg Carey had received two legit offers to purchase and another one was apparently on the way. The offers were quite large and were enough to make them pause and give serious consideration to parting ways with their beloved superstar. There were a lot of discussions amongst Greg, Shawn, Danny Carey (Greg’s son) and other people who knew the horse.

“I was completely bummed out about the idea of Mo being sold,” admitted Danny. “Since I didn’t have any financial interest in the horse, all I had was…well…the horse. The thought of not being able to watch him race as ours was just depressing. Having that said, I understood the situation and they (Greg and Shawn) had to consider it.”

In the end, they chose not to sell. “No regrets whatsoever,” was Greg’s take after the fact. “We analyzed the situation the same way we did when we bought him. Factored in our costs and profit to that point as well as what we thought he could make in the future. In the end, I think we both wanted to grow our little stable and that would have to come from our own success. Who has a better chance for success than In Over My Head? Nobody. We considered those things as well as the fact we just really didn’t want to get rid of him. There was a strong attachment there by all of us. No doubt about that.”

In an effort to justify leaving a rather large amount of money on the table, the owners loosely considered racing him in the Exit 16W series and then re-contacting the buyers to see if there was still interest. That way, they could enjoy the race they were excited about before having to make any drastic decisions.

“For better or worse, we were really confident that it was his race to lose and we didn’t want to give up that purse money and excitement,” said Swenson. “The reality is that if he had won, we wouldn’t have sold him anyway. We were just trying to justify our decision in the moment a little bit. We all talked about the potential downside too. I even had a conversation with my Dad about it. He wasn’t picking sides, just making sure that we considered all angles of the situation. I remember him saying ‘I know this isn’t fun to think about, but if he gets hurt tomorrow and he can’t ever race again, are you guys OK with your decision?’ Our answer as a resounding yes.”

That answer would be put to the test.

The Race – February 20, 2010

Everything was setting up perfectly. Greg and Danny had made the trip to the Meadowlands after a long day of being stuck in the Detroit airport. They were joined by Ed Bardowski, another horse owner who has had some stock with John Butenshcoen over the years. Shawn had made it back to his house and was watching the race on the big screen (he had purchased TVG the day before so that could happen) with Laura, his brother Kirk and their friend Liz. Mo was the favorite in the program and the favorite as the horses approached the wire. Sears was in the bike. All that was left was one minute and fifty seconds of formality and this whole season could officially take-off.

The start, however, was rather perilous. The group left en masse and In Over My Head was stuck four wide around the first turn. Even after that, there wasn’t any hole to fall into. He would have to gut it out on the outside. Things did look to be on the up and up after Lisagain emerged as the horse going first over and Mo happily took his cover. While the first half wasn’t pretty, he did have a second over trip. In the final turn, however, it began to be clear that something was not normal.

“He was gapping cover noticeably,” Swenson noticed from his perch in the living room in Madison. “He is such a relaxed horse that he will at times get a little too relaxed. John (Butenschoen) has told me that numerous times. However, the driver will get his attention and he’ll be right back where he needs to be within a couple of steps. That wasn’t the case though. He was losing contact with Lisagain. It was clear something was wrong.”

Greg and Danny, watching from the rail at the Meadowlands didn’t have the same perspective. “I didn’t realize that until we watched the replay,” Greg said. “When we saw him tip out coming into the stretch, Danny and I figured it was just a matter of time before he was passing everyone one by one. He was a long ways back due to the trip and we weren’t sure he would get to Pacinello (the eventual winner), but just assumed he’d be close.”

With what turned out to be nothing more than just raw guts, In Over My Head did make a move at the leaders as he entered the stretch, but it didn’t last long.

“Sears was really going to work on him and that was when I got worried,” Danny stated. “You don’t have to work him that hard. He does it on his own. The fact that Sears had to work him really worried me.”

Halfway through the stretch, it was clear that Mo wasn’t going to make it anywhere close to the leaders. Sears, being the consummate professional that he is, realized that before anyone else did and just let the horse take him across the wire. The result: Eighth. Timed in 1.52.1 with a last quarter of 28.0. Not bad for a horse that by the end of the race was basically running on three legs.

The Aftermath – Late February and early March of 2010

Is he sick? Did he bleed? He had never been on lasix. Both situations were easily treatable and would result in limited time off, just a matter of weeks. Greg and Danny realized the harsh reality, however, when they headed back to the barn. In Over My Head’s right front leg had swelled up noticeably. The location was also concerning. Maybe it was just a minor ankle injury. Maybe it was something far worse. It was too early to tell.

“We were definitely worried, but it wasn’t like he was dead lame,” Greg added. “He seemed to be able to put weight on it just fine and they walked him after the race and he really didn’t show any major signs of favoring it. We were really down about the race, but not overly concerned about the injury at that time.”

The next two days were tough on the group. The mind has a tendency of playing tricks in situations like that. It can force a person to assuming the worst and ignoring the fact that the odds of the worst thing happening are rather slim. The ‘worst’ in this situation was a potential injury to the suspensory ligament. The suspensory is the ligament that connects from the back of the horse’s knee, down to the back of their ankle. If you can imagine a horse’s hoof hitting the ground, you can envision the ankle dropping closer to the ground and then springing back up as the horse pushes off. It is the suspensory that is the ‘rubber band’ to allow that movement to happen. It absorbs the load of the step, then springs back as it releases the built up energy. Any horse owner/ trainer dreads the day that a vet tells them the injury is to the suspensory. They are legitimate career threatening injuries in race horses and even if a horse does return, they oftentimes do not return to the same level. It was the thought of this injury that kept team In Over My Head up for the next couple of nights.

Monday afternoon brought new hope to everyone involved. The vet had come out to see In Over My Head and the initial results were good. First, the swelling in the leg had completely gone down. He wasn’t favoring it and when the vet put him through a series of flex tests, the entire area held up very well. No pain and maybe, no problem after all. It was welcome news to Danny.

“We needed it. It usually takes a day or two to get over a bad race, but the lingering worry was this injury. All signs were good. We just had to get the leg scanned (x-rayed) and we would probably be on our way.”

On Wednesday, February 24, In Over My Head’s leg was scanned and the results put everyone back on their heels. John Butenschoen had the job of delivering the news to Greg. The scan had revealed something very concerning. A ‘grey area’ in the suspensory ligament. It was an indicator of a potential tear. John had decided to have In Over My Head taken to Dr. Patty Hogan, an expert in this type of injury. They had set the appointment for Tuesday, March 2nd. At that point, they only knew there was a problem. It could be minor or it could be severe. The next six days were going to be tense.

Weeks earlier, Danny, Kacy, Laura and Shawn had scheduled a trip to Florida from February 26th – March 1st. They originally hoped this trip would be a fun way to celebrate a great start to the season. Who wouldn’t enjoy spending some time with the Butenschoen’s at their winter training facility outside of Orlando? The trip ended up serving a different purpose: a much needed distraction. Having that said, the dark cloud of a potential serious injury hung over the group.

John Butenschoen recalls: “We were talking about it at dinner one night and all I wanted to do was tell them some good news, but there wasn’t any. We just didn’t have enough information at that time. I was definitely worried, but there was no sense worrying too much. We wouldn’t know anything until after the next vet visit anyway.”

Danny and Shawn returned from the trip with a newfound positive attitude. There is something about being around the other horses that helped pick them up. They shared the news of Showtime Shark (the other horse in their stable) with Greg. Shawn felt the group’s fortunes turning. “I have no idea why, but I just thought everyone was going to be alright. It was nice to have that feeling in the middle of all that uncertainty, but looking back, all it did was make the news that much more painful.”

Greg received the call from Dr. Patty Hogan at around 3pm on Tuesday, March 2nd. The news was bad. An ultrasound had confirmed an injury to the suspensory ligament. The recommendation was for eight weeks of daily hand walking followed by eight weeks of turnout, if he is ready. In all, the total recommended time away from training was eight to ten months. After that, the prognosis was uncertain if he could return to his previous level of racing. Greg delivered the news to Shawn in a phone call that was short on words and long on silence. The worst case scenario had just presented itself. Team In Over My Head was crushed.

The Rehab – March of 2010 through March of 2011

The shock of the devastating news was coupled with denial. It just didn’t make sense. How could the injury be that bad if In Over My Head was only showing limited signs of lameness? “Those were some dark days,” Shawn recalls. “When Greg first called to tell me the news, I thought he was joking. Not that he would ever joke about that, but that is how unbelievable it seemed. Danny said he thought the same thing. I have a hard time explaining to people the feeling of hearing that news. It is kind of like if a family pet was badly injured. I know we don’t see Mo everyday so a dog owner might not quite buy that, but it is still a legitimate comparison. The second part of it is the business part. Mo was like our best salesman…well, our only salesman really. We were in this together and suddenly, our entire business model was blown up.”

It was an education for everyone that a suspensory injury can be much worse than meets the eye. It was all water under the bridge at that point, however. What Mo needed was time to heal. Everyone decided that the best place to do that was back in Illinois at Butenschoen’s farm. Even though he was a horse that had traveled quite a bit over the previous couple of years, it was still ‘home’ for In Over My Head. It is safe to say that he would have received excellent treatment in each location, but the ‘x’ factor was that Greg, Danny, Shawn and others could go visit him as he worked his way back to health. While there is no specific medical benefit of those visits, a little extra love has never hurt anyone…human or horse.

The process of healing a suspensory ligament is a slow one that is also full of potential pitfalls. The problem is that oftentimes, the ligament will heal with scar tissue as opposed to the original smooth parallel fibers that compose the ligament. Scar tissue is more brittle, less elastic and more apt to become reinjured. This is really the major reason why the suspensory injury is such a bad one. The horse’s body will heal the injury, but it would never be what it once was. Because this ligament is vital to high stress movements of a racehorse, a less than perfectly healed ligament leads to performances sometimes less than what the horse was able to do in the past. What team In Over My Head didn’t realize at the time, was that a literal framework was already working its magic within Mo’s leg just hours after leaving Dr. Hogan’s offices.

The treatment is called ‘A-Cell Therapy’ and is still considered cutting edge treatment today, nearly ten years after it was first introduced. In a general sense, cells are injected into the injured area. What they do is provide a matrix that new cells can attach to. The result is a more natural shaped ligament post healing, as opposed to the random scar tissue pattern that was common without the treatment. In its early years, the treatment showed a success rate of 85% in which the injured horse returned to the same performance they did prior to the injury. An incredible percentage compared to the past. In addition, the healing process was 30% faster than without the treatment. Luckily for everyone involved, most importantly In Over My Head himself, his body took to the treatment immediately.

While the healing process was slow, it was encouraging as In Over My Head showed continued signs of improvement throughout the spring and early summer of 2010. In August, five and a half months after the injury occurred, he was able to get back on the track for slow jogging miles. This was something Mo relished. “When I had him up in Point that winter (of 2009), he would always get so excited when it was time to jog.” Danny said. “It is almost like he would try and contort his body to speed up the process of getting the equipment on. When he would see the track, it was like a kid seeing the entrance to Disneyland. He just loved being on the track.”

The jog miles were short and slow at first, but gradually picked up speed. There was a time when everyone involved thought he might actually be ready to race again in the late fall, but after talking through it, the team decided to error on the side of caution. Greg recalls: “If it was a different time of the year, we may have tried him, but the soonest he would be ready would be in November. We didn’t want to start him back in the winter and certainly didn’t want to rush him at all, so we just kept jogging him and decided to hold off until the next spring.”

It was that decision that got In Over My Head the vacation that he ‘earned’ a year earlier. “I think we all said before the Windy City when we were back in the barn, ‘Mo, if you win tonight, you’ll get to go down to Florida for the winter’. It was obviously a joke for two reasons. One, we thought he had almost no chance at winning and two, we had already planned on staking him to those late closers at the Meadowlands and Florida just didn’t make sense at the end of 2009. At that point in 2010, he needed a nice place to train so we figured we’d make good on our promise from the year before.” Shawn said with a smile.

The Comeback – Spring of 2011

The air was brisk on March 19, 2011 in Wilkes-Barre, PA when In Over My Head lined up behind the starting gate at Pocono Downs. It had been 394 days since his last race and as the car pulled away and the qualifier began, John Butenschoen looked on with cautious optimism. Mo had been brought back very slowly, constantly checked and rechecked with scans of his injured leg to make sure that he was progressing. According to the x-rays, the leg had actually healed months before, but everyone was cautious to a fault. The plan for today was also to start slow and give Mo a chance to open up a little bit in the last half mile. He did just that, crossing the wire third in 1.57.1, last half in 58.0. John called Greg, Greg called Shawn, both Greg and Shawn called Danny and for the first time in a long time, optimism again overtook the group.

After a second qualifier and a week off, In Over My Head was entered in a conditioned race at Pocono on April 9th. The purse was small, the field was non-descript, but it would turn out to be the most nerve wrecking race of Mo’s career for his connections. Greg, Shawn and Danny all flew out to Pennsylvania for the race. He would need to go faster. He would need to be tested. Would his leg hold up? If it didn’t, it could literally be the end of his career. They had given him over a year off to recover and if it that wasn’t enough, there might not be any fixing him.

Before the race, the tension was steadily overtaking the group. They had talked about grabbing a bite to eat before the race, but those plans had changed. Everyone was too tense. Danny recalled another time he and Shawn went out to see In Over My Head race.

“At the Meadows, before Mo’s first race in the Pennsylvania Sire Series as a three year old, I’m standing on the apron and my stomach is kind of knotted up. I wasn’t even thinking about eating and Shawn come strolling down with a big slice of pizza hanging out of his mouth. He’s apparently better at eating through the stress…although he did spend the next ten minutes before the race pretending like he was going to get sick over the rail. Actually, I’m not sure if he was pretending or not. On the day of Mo’s comeback, there wasn’t any pizza. I don’t think anyone was even chewing gum.”

They would oftentimes joke before the race or throw out ridiculous scenarios to break the tension. Today it was just silence and pacing back and forth. The horses brushed past the wire as they were heading to the starting gate. The starting line was actually on the backstretch of the five-eighths mile track. Mo looked good. He was ready. Would he hold up? No one knew for sure.

The race started and Mo left a little bit from his number six post position, finding a comfortable spot fourth on the rail. He was behind the favorite, which set up well for a potential second over trip. He looked to be going along very easy as he came past Greg, Shawn and Danny. They went into the second of three turns in the same order. On the backstretch, the favorite tipped out in front of Mo and he was tipped out to follow. It was a second over trip. He followed the favorite well into the final turn as they pulled even with the leaders on the inside. As they came out of the final turn, driver Brandon Simpson tipped Mo to the outside. He was obviously feeling good and was full of pace. The scenario unfolded like it had many times in the past. Mo fans three wide, gets his head swinging side to side and charges at anyone in front of him. Today was no different and before long there was nothing in front of him but open racetrack. As the horses hit the wire, he had won his first start back by over two lengths.

All of In Over My Head’s previous wins were emotional for the group. Some more than others of course. Springfield was the most exciting, but only until the Windy City Pace victory. This day, however, overtook them all. As Simpson took him back to the winners circle, he was eagerly asked how the horse felt. “Perfect,” Brandon said, “didn’t seem off at all.” Three enormous sighs of relief. The wait was over a year, but they were back where they belonged: in the winners circle with their beloved horse.

Now, a win at a mid-level conditioned race at Pocono Downs is not the same level that In Over My Head had been racing before the injury, but that was OK. It was considered a quick stop in double A ball before getting called back up to the majors.

Mo raced a couple more times, and did well in both. Most importantly, his leg remained strong and without any signs of trouble. Throughout that summer, Mo gradually worked his way back up in the racing ranks and by the end, he was butting heads with the best of the best in Opens and Invitational’s throughout the eastern racing scene. He made fifteen starts as a five year old, he won seven of them and never finished worse than fifth. He was sound and strong and Team In Over My Head was loving every second of it.

Despite the injury, Mo stayed completely healthy and very competitive as a six year old (he actually made more purse money that year than any other in his career) and his seven year old year went well too until late in the season when he took a little step back and was bothered by some nagging injuries. The group gave him a long break and brought him back in the summer of 2014 as an eight year old. He started out fine, but the younger horses were starting to get the best of him despite Mo’s best efforts. Greg and Shawn had a discussion with John, and they all decided that the time had come to think about retiring him. By this point, he had built up enough of a resume that a number of small to mid size farms were willing to give him a shot as a stallion. What sounds like a sad conversation really wasn’t. He had recovered from a career threatening injury and had a mid life racing renaissance. He had nothing left to prove. It wasn’t until they talked to Danny that they all realized he actually did have one more thing to prove as Greg recalls.

“He was actually in great shape and racing well, but wasn’t quite up to his old level. We didn’t want to cheapen him. It was time to move on, but then Danny brings up racing him at the Iowa County fair. He said that it would be a great way to end his career and that he (Danny) could drive him. If he went well, he would probably break the track record.”

Danny’s next call was to Shawn and he chuckled as he remembered, “I didn’t have to lay it on too thick with Shawn. We had talked about doing something like that back at the end of his three year old season. It was the perfect place to end it. The track we all grew up going to with Grandpa. We thought it would be a really cool way to end his career. Mo was healthy enough to do it, so why not”

“I totally agreed with Danny,” Shawn said. “But not just for all the reasons he explained. I was also excited that Rex and the Vampire could be there to watch his last race.” When asked to elaborate, Shawn just smiled. Apparently that is an inside joke.

Back to Mineral Point – September 2014

It was clear that no other horse in the field had a chance to beat Mo that day. As strange as it seems, everyone in the race was pulling for In Over My Head to destroy the field and set the track record. There is a certain camaraderie amongst horsemen and women in Wisconsin where they all naturally pull for each other. Even the owner of the horse that held the track record, Dan “Pooch” Clark, felt that way. A long time friend of the Carey family, he summed it up rather succinctly, “You never want to lose a record, but as they say, all records are made to be broken. In Over My Head was a worthy record breaker and given everything he had gone through in his career, I couldn’t think of anyone better to break it.”

The record, 1.59.1, may not seem very fast in the days of sub 1.46 miles, but getting around a tight half mile oval with a less than fast surface is tougher than one might think. Danny was confident as he headed up the ramp to the track, “We won’t leave any doubt!” The horses scored down and every time Danny drove past the grandstand he was pelted with good luck wishes from the large crowd. Mo had drawn post position number one (some think the draw was a little rigged, but no one cared too much) and Danny wasted no time going to the front end. Unlike his first career drive on the same track where he flew to the quarter in a blistering 37 seconds, the now more veteran reigns man hit the quarter pole in 30 seconds flat. Mo was already beginning to show distance between himself and the field and he buzzed past Greg, Shawn and their clan who were stationed on the hill at the end of the second turn. Danny got him to the half in an even minute and as he would say later, he hadn’t asked Mo for anything yet. It was then Danny decided that since this was In Over My Head’s last chance to shine, it would be fitting to do his best Secretariat impression. He gave Mo a tap of the whip and he shifted gears. When he reached the three quarter mark in 1.29.0, the rest of the field was an afterthought. “He has the record dead in his sights!” the track announcer exclaimed. Danny asked for more and like the true champion he was, Mo found that extra level of speed for one last time. As he shot out of the final turn below Greg and Shawn, Danny was shouting words of encouragement to Mo and he picked up even more speed as they came home. The grandstand roared their approval as In Over My Head and Danny flew past the finish line. After checking the timer, the track announcer told everyone what they wanted to hear, “We have a new track champion! In Over My Head in 1.56.4!” He had paced his last quarter in 27.4 seconds and beat the field by over twenty-five lengths.

Team In Over My Head ascended onto the track as Danny turned him back toward the grandstand. The day marked Mo’s thirtieth career victory and he seemed to relish in his opportunity to pose for a win picture. The beautiful brown horse (appearing nearly all black after working up a lather) was flanked by his large cheering section. There were a lot of smiles and even some tears amongst the group. He had finished his career the right way.

What was more special?: the shocking Windy City win, his first win after an injury that threatened his career, the numerous wins once he again reached the top ranks at ages five, six and seven or the simple victory over a timer on a fair track in a small southwestern Wisconsin town? The answer is they are all special in their own right. Also, it wasn’t just the wins they would remember. It was the journey as a whole that really mattered. In the beginning, they had purchased an above average race horse that turned out to be more than that. They rode to the peak and crashed into the bottom, only to climb to the peak once again. It was the tough times that made the good times even more special. He was such a unique horse. He wasn’t the most dominant or the most consistent or the most talented. In Over My Head was a little bit of all of those things, but most importantly, he was the most memorable.

Not the best of times

2010-03-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

I have to apologize to anyone who has read this blog in the past for my disappearing act. I just haven’t been able to bring myself to post anything lately. After riding high with two victories this season, In Over My Head finished eighth in his last race on February 20th. He didn’t look like himself that night and as it turns out, he had good reason. He has an injury that limited his performance and we are currently in the process of determining exactly what the injury it, the severity of it and what is a proper game plan to bring him back to health.

I’ve actually written two separate entries in the past few weeks, but have decided not to post them. It has been an emotionally trying time for all of us. It seems like the news has gone from bad, to better, to worse, to way worse, to better again and round and round. The only thing we know for sure right now is that Mo needs some time away from what he loves, which is racing. It is very sad, but unfortunately, injures are part of the game. We’ve enlisted the assistance of some of the best vets in the business to assure he gets the care he deserves.

In the coming days or weeks, I’ll lay out a story that summarizes what has happened in the past few weeks, but I’m just not ready. It is just too sad of a situation right now. Even the most optimistic of timelines will keep him away from the track for a number of months. All I can ask is that you say a quick prayer for Mo. He’ll need a little bit of good fortune to get back from this one. I can tell you this, though. He has spent his whole life overcoming long odds and we all have faith that he can find a way to fight through this one as well.

Get well soon buddy.

The Draw

2010-02-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

Usually I will only put a new post up after a race, but going into the $88,000 Exit 16W final this Saturday, I thought a little story about a mid week happening might be fun. It is the draw. For a race on Saturday, you have to enter your horse by calling the track race office on a designated day. Entries for Saturday were due today by 9am. John Butenschoen always calls our entries in, so we just wait for them to be posted. In today’s world, the easiest way to see the final entries is on the internet. In the olden days, you’d have to call the race office. If they didn’t answer, some people would just let it ring…but that’s another story for another day. It can be kind of nerve-racking because a bad post can spell doom, or at least a much tougher race. You want to avoid outside posts. It is all luck of the draw. Here is some insight as to what it is like to find out in a rather big race (at least it is for us) where we very well might be the favorite to win:

It started rather tame at about 11am on Wednesday morning. In past weeks, draws became available around 11am in the morning. It isn’t always at that time, but usually pretty close. So I logged onto ustrotting.com. Nothing up yet. Then checked thebigm.com (the Meadowlands site). Nothing there either. O, well, it will probably be a few more minutes. Back to work for awhile. Send some emails to Danny about various horse related topics. Ten minutes or so pass. Head back to ustrotting.com. Nothing. Back to thebigm.com. Not yet. Back to work for a little bit shorter time than last time. A quicker email to Danny…and so on and so on. About 40 minutes later, I had ustrotting.com constantly on my web browser and was just hitting refresh over and over again. No work was getting done, but I had to make a phone call. Pick up the phone, hit refresh, dial one number, hit refresh, dial a second number, refresh, phone starts beeping because I’m taking too long to dial, refresh, slam down the phone and begin pounding on my mouse button…WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING THEM SO LONG TO PUT THE DAMN DRAW UP ON THE WEBSITE!!! It was like Harry in Dumb and Dumber when he was trying to get that lady’s number at the gas station after he lit his leg on fire. She looks for a pen. Can’t find one. He tries to be calm, “you can just tell it to me…I have a really good memory”, she starts with the “Ok…its 555, wait, that’s my old number…” and Harry finally snaps “FOR GOD SAKES JUST GIVE ME THE DAMN NUMBER!” I was Harry. Eventually you have to get to the point where you give up and stick your flaming leg in the bathroom toilet, saving Lloyd from unwanted intimate time with Cam Neely. For me, the bathroom was instead lunch with Laura….a much better option. (And if you haven’t seen Dumber and Dumber 100+ times like I have, that last reference will make no sense. If you have, you will laugh. Sorry to those who haven’t seen it.)

Normally when something like this happens, I can count on Danny to sit patiently at his computer and text me when the draw comes out. Unfortunately, Danny had to waste his time going to class. Midway through lunch, I was very proud at how calm I was. Laura and I were having a nice conversation about how tasty the offerings from Panera Bread were and SHE asked about the draw. I said it hadn’t come out yet to which she replied, “Why don’t you check it on your phone?” I’ll take that opening. I pull it up on the phone and wouldn’t you know it…ustrotting.com finally had the entries up. We got to a point where I was one IPhone screen touch away from finding out what post position Mo would be racing from on Saturday night. Deep breath. Touch the screen. Wait a good 30 seconds (I thought 3G was suppose to be fast???) and finally the page pops up. From this point, though, I could only see the top of the page and no post positions were revealed. I had to scroll down. Another deep breath. Laura figures that since this is taking so long he has to be at the bottom of the page in position nine or ten. Much like someone would take a band aide off a hairy part of their body, I made one big aggressive scroll to reveal the entire field at once…and…AND…post position #6! Whew. What a relief. We would have a fair shake at this thing and not get stuck outside.

I immediately texted Danny and then called Greg. The old heart rate was still pretty high, which apparently also causes my ‘inside voice’ to become an ‘outside voice’. Laura politely gestured that maybe I should continue the conversation in the car because people were wondering who the idiot was talking on his cell phone about ‘six holes’, ‘Woodstock Hanover’, ‘inside posts’ and ‘Pacinello’, but we got through it.

So there you have it. A story of post position draws. If you go waaaay back in the blog, last year I got to write about In Over My Head’s draws in the Junior Trendsetter legs and final. They were: 10, 9, 10. This was after he drew post 10 in a tune up race before the first leg. I guess you could say we were due. So far this year we have: 2, 1, 6. Not too shabby. The draws always seem to find a way to even out over time, but in a vacuum, it can sometimes feel like every draw is bad. We’ve been lucky so far this year and with post position 6, we will have a fair shake at this thing on Saturday. We will see what Sears wants to do with him from there. I can’t wait to watch.

Not quite a marathon...but that's a good thing

2010-02-15T18:58:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen those little oval bumper stickers that say 26.2 on them? Have you ever wondered what they meant? I have for quite some time and finally used “The Google” to find the answer. It is a reference to a marathon, which is 26.2 miles long. Apparently, marathoners put those things on their bumpers as a way to let people know they have completed the grueling feat. It is actually a pretty cool idea. I was a little embarrassed when I found out what it meant. Despite the fact I’ve never done a marathon, I do enjoy running, but apparently not a much as I enjoy harness racing. When I see those stickers I always think one thing. Can you guess what it is? If you are reading this it is actually pretty easy to figure out. 26.2 is pretty snappy last quarter!

We learned something new about In Over My Head this last Friday in his division of the Exit 16W series. We learned that he can rip off a 26.2 last quarter when he needs to and on Friday, he needed to accomplish that and then some. I went back to look at his fastest last quarters. Last year, he had two 26.3’s last year as well as a 26.4. When talking with Greg and Danny, we continue to be amazed with this horse. Every time we think he has shown us everything he has in his racing bag of tricks, he shows us something more.

The saga of the second leg of this series actually started mid week when the draw came out. We had drawn the rail and obviously put down Brian Sears to drive after he won with us the week before. Unfortunately, another Sears horse was also in our race, Majestic Jackpot. Jackpot was a very worthily adversary, who had made five starts in 2010 which included three wins, two seconds and over $50,000 in purse money. We simply assumed that Sears would take him over us and we were discussing who to get in his place. However, when the program came out on Wednesday morning, we were pleasantly surprised: Sears had chosen us over Majestic Jackpot. Even Dave Brower was taken back. His race comment was: “What a mile and what a drive last week! It was so good that Sears opted for this guy over the #7. A surprise there. Talented colt.”

Unfortunately, our team of Greg, Danny and I were not going to be able to watch this race together due to various conflicts. Greg was going to hold down the fort at the South Beloit betting parlor, Danny was watching the race at home before showing up late to the Tim McGraw concert (Tim was going to have to wait…I love Danny’s dedication) and I was going to be watching the race from the computer in a math classroom. That’s correct, after finishing up my assistant coaching duties for our sophomore team at Memorial High in Madison, another coach/ friend Jeremy Schlitz was nice enough to take me to his classroom so I could watch the race. Our team had just won by eighteen points against an opponent that beat us earlier in the season, so I was feeling good going into the race.

Due to the game/ concert, Danny and I were not able to enjoy the pregame show that the Meadowlands puts on. Greg saw it and said we received some pub from the guys as they mentioned Mo’s Windy City Pace win and the Wisconsin connections. I don’t think any of us are used to the publicity. We generally watch those things and hear about other horses/ owners/ trainers and now they are talking about us! Pretty fun stuff.

From our three different spots, we were all locked onto our respective TVs/ computers as post time arrived. My little group consisted of Laura, her little sister Queshawna from Big Brothers Big Sisters and myself. Knowing my general level of excitement when watching races and the fact that sometimes no so nice words fly out of my mouth in the heat of the moment, Laura whispered to me right before the race “no swearing” and gestured to Queshawna. It was a much needed reminder. It was The Q’s first horse race…we didn’t want it filled with a bunch of bad words. When the gate closed and the horses took off, Sears left well, but not overly aggressively. He protected the rail with In Over My Head as the favorite, Woodstock Hanover and Majestic Jackpot fired for the lead. At the quarter pole, we were sitting third on the rail.

Unlike some other races, the next half mile was rather uneventful. Sears did have a shot to take Mo first over past the half, but chose to stay on the rail. I’m guessing he was thinking that the two in front of him were good horses and there was little chance they would fade and lock us up on the rail. No sense in working any harder than you have to. After getting stuck too far back last week, Tetrick had Pacinello on the move and was first over. As they came out of the last turn, I could see that In Over My Head was just loaded with pace. At that point, however, there was still no place to go and I was thinking that a win was beginning to look unlikely.

When Mel Kiper talks about college players entering the NFL draft, he sometimes references a ‘non-stop motor.’ I believe his definition is simply a player that never stops working and is constantly grinding to find a way to make a play. During the stretch drive on Friday, In Over My Head looked like he had a motor that just doesn’t stop. Majestic Jackpot was sitting in the two hole behind the leader Woodstock Hanover and pulled out to challenger the leader. Between that and the horses fanning out somewhat to the middle of the track, some room finally opened up for us on the inside. As soon as there was room, Sears and In Over My Head were on the move. It didn’t take long before he was even with Woodstock Hanover. Pacinello was still working on the outside, Majestic Jackpot was looking like a potential winner, Woodstock was fading a bit and we continued to fire up the inside. We were running out of track, but Mo kept grinding away. Just before the wire was about to hit, he got to the front, crossing the finish line a half length in front of Majestic Jackpot and a length in front of Pacinello. He needed just about ever inch of track to get there in time and did it with a jaw dropping last quarter: 26.0. That may be two ticks less than a marathon, but on this night, 26.2 would have only gotten him third or fourth place.

We now have two starts off a two month layoff with two wins. Both wins in times that are faster then he had won previously. I think it is safe to say that In Over My Head is better than ever. The only somewhat painful part of the whole thing was watching Sears take him to the winner circle where they was a little trophy presentation and we weren’t there to accept the trophy, but I guess it is what it is. Prior obligations need to be honored despite the fact it would be such a fun time to be out there.

Luckily, our team will have representation this Saturday for the $73,000 final. Greg and Danny have booked their flight and will be in attendance. It would be incredible if they could find their way into the winner circle. I guess we can only hope for a good draw and from there we will see what happens. Greg and I joke that in the winner circle after we won the Windy City Pace, they turned to him for the owner interview. Instead of taking the question from Tom Kelly, he just pointed at me to take the questions. If we win on Saturday, Greg is going to have to do the talking! That will be a good problem to have. As for me, as much as I’d absolutely love to be there, prior obligations call. We are in the final throws of our basketball season and wouldn’t you know it, we have a game on Saturday night. I did quite a bit of reflecting as to what to do on this one. Skip the game and go to New Jersey? It would probably be more fun. Heck, we may very well be favored to win. Our game on Saturday is against a team we should take care of anyway. In the end, though, it just didn’t feel right. I can’t talk to the kids about dedication and commitment, then turn around and bail on them as our season winds down. The right thing to do is stay. So, I’ll be back in that classroom watching the computer and hoping against all hope that I’ll get to see two things Saturday night: another win by In Over My Head and a chance to see Greg and Danny get interviewed in the winner circle!

Last week's race can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIIAWVSXWPo

Welcome and What a Race!

2010-02-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

What a night last night. In Over My Head made it 2 for 2 on the season with another exciting win in the Exit 16W series. As I was reading the articles on thebigm.com and ustrotting.com, I noticed that they put a link to this blog. The publicity is great but if you are new here, please keep in mind that I've been writing this for about a year and really the only people that read it are family and friends...in other words, the proofreading leaves a lot to be desired! I'll try and go back and clean some stuff up.

If you do stop in to get some back story on In Over My Head, I hope you enjoy the posts. I'd direct you to the Windy City Pace victory recap as it was really a night to remember. And in case you are curious about the cast of characters, the regulars who are involved with our horse are Greg (we own In Over My Head together and he is my uncle), his son and my cousin Danny (who is an up and coming young horseman...he also warms In Over My Head up sometimes, which is very cool), or trainer John Butenschoen, his wife Jackie and last, but certainly not least, my girlfriend Laura.

I'll put up a summary of last night later today or tomorrow, but first wanted to welcome any newcomers.

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

2010-02-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

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.

Successful Qualifier and Another Video

2010-01-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

After what seemed like a few months (it was actually 61 days), In Over My Head was back on the track today! He qualified at the Meadowlands this morning with our potential new driver, Tim Tetrick, in the sulky. After coasting to an easy first half of 60 seconds, he turned it up and came home in 55.3 with a last quarter of 27.1. It was the perfect first qualifier off a break and we plan to give him one more tune up next week before getting back into real races the first week of February.

As we quickly approach the start of Mo's four year old season, I have one more video to share from when In Over My Head was up in Mineral Point. The week before Christmas, Danny started to do some light jogging miles with him and one day I rode along with him and took a little video. Give it a look and you can see what it is like to ride along with In Over My Head. Enjoy (youtube link below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8xjx7wuHs

Racing Back on the Horizon

2010-01-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the life and times of In Over My Head. As I type, Mo is out in New Jersey, working his way back into racing shape. We expect to qualify him on January 28th and his first start back will be on February 5th at the Meadowlands. He will be competing in the Exit 16W series first, which consist of two legs for $25,000 a piece and a final of $74,000. Making the final will be based on points accumulated in the two legs. He hasn’t been in race since the Windy City on November 20th and he is literally chomping at the bit to get back.

As we are only a couple weeks away from the start to 2010, I wanted to link a highlight video that Danny put together in December. He did an incredible job. He had to break it into three parts to get it on youtube, but if you enjoyed reading about In Over My Head, take the time to watch. It is very cool. Enjoy!

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN6z2sa5FfY
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Io1l4PZcR4&feature=related
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hT5_wn3-pI&feature=related

Reflections

2009-12-13T12:33:00.000-08:00

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.

O My God…I Think He Just Won It!

2009-11-22T18:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes life seems very predictable. You go through your day to day grind, almost able to guess what might happen next. Once in awhile, however, something will happen that will simply knock you off your feet. Something completely unpredictable. An event that you’ve thought about endless times and have analyzed over and over again takes a turn down a path you didn’t even know was there. That is what happened Friday night at Maywood Park in Chicago.

Last Saturday, Danny, Kacy, Laura and I drove down to Balmoral Park for the American Nationals. The night was a lot of fun. We had a good dinner together, spent some time with In Over My Head along with Tyler and Penny. He raced well, but finished 8th. He just got beat by a group of horses that were better than him. It was an all star bunch that we have no shame in not being able to beat. So, when we followed up our trip with a caravan down to Maywood Park in Chicago for the Windy City Pace our expectations were understandably similar. Our group had grown by four as we added Greg, Kirk, Ryan and Jamie. One of the great things about racing is that it is often a good reason to get together with friends and family. Regardless of how the race finishes up, you can still at least have some fun. With a complementary buffet for all of us and a good night of racing in front of us, we were all excited.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but to be honest, I didn’t have very high hopes coming into the race. I just looked at the field, spend time all week trying to figure out how the race flow would go (this included using little slips of paper with the horses names on them and moving them around on my desk at work trying to mimic possible race scenarios…good thing my boss didn’t walk in). Unfortunately, each iteration of paper moving led to a scenario in which In Over My Head was shuffled back and stuck a long way from the front going into the stretch. I talked to Greg Friday morning and asked what his honest opinion was. He was thinking what I was: we would need a stroke of luck in terms of race flow to put us in position to finish better than 5th. Having that said, even a strong 5th would be OK. It would move Mo’s earnings to nearly $100,000 on the year and we could be very proud of what he accomplished going into some time off.

We headed down in a couple of different cars and right when Kirk, Laura and I left Madison, Danny gave us a call. Greg has picked up a program down at the OTB in Beloit and it revealed that even the 6th, 7th and 8th place finishers would receive a $4,500 check. Thinking back to those slips of paper and considering that If I Can Dream, Sheer Desire, Annieswesterncard and Standupnkissme were all in the race, a guaranteed payday felt pretty good. When we arrived at the track, we were more worried about not getting there in time to get the free long sleeve t-shirt that were given to the first 1500 fans.

When we walked in, we quickly realized how big of a deal the Windy City Pace is. With a total purse of $225,000 It is the richest event raced at Maywood Park each year. For owners in the Illinois area (including us in Wisconsin) it is kind of our Rose Bowl. It is not on the level of a national championship (that would be the North American Cup, the Meadowlands Pace, the Little Brown Jug), but racing in the Windy City is something you dream about. We were welcomed warmly by track employees and given a number of trinkets and treasures…including our t-shirts, which Kirk was very excited about.

Like always, the few hours before a big race are kind of a blur. We enjoyed the buffet. We bet some horses and told some jokes. One thing that stuck out to me that night was the incredibly positive attitude of Laura. She kept looking at the winner circle and saying ‘that’s where we will be going.’ It was a little strange how upbeat she was about winning despite out long odds. It was almost as if she was sensing something good was on the horizon. I didn’t sense it and almost wanted to tell her we really didn’t have any shot at that. I didn’t want her to be disappointed. Before we knew it our warm up professional Danny headed out to get Mo loose. It is always cool to see Danny out there warming him up. Each ownership group received a badge they could wear around with their horse’s name on it. We all proudly displayed our ‘In Over My Head’ badges. We were the long shot, but we didn’t care. We were all happy to be there and loved our horse no matter what. When I was standing up watching Danny warm Mo up, I looked over at the table next to us and it was the ownership group for Sheer Desire. He was one of the favorites that night and remember thinking “someday we’ll have a favorite in a race like this.”

We were in the 7th race and right before the 6th race I got a text from my friend Rob Cook that he was not going to be able to make it out to the track. Rob knows racing and has been involved in virtually all of my horse partnerships before Mo. Despite the fact he couldn’t make it, he wanted me to bet $15 across on In Over My Head. Quite aggressive and given the fact I had been donating to the purse account all night through lost bets, I was a little bit short on cash so he only got $10 across. It would be a losing bet anyway, I thought, but appreciated his confidence.

After the 6th race, the vice in my stomach made an aggressive tightening motion and I made my way out to the second story viewing area outside the clubhouse. We had watched many races from that perch. Some good, many not so good. We all watched Arizona Attack provide us with our first ever win as owners nearly 6 years prior from there. I had watched In Over My Head make two breaks from that spot (once at 2 years old and once at 3). We saw Greg’s horse, Carey’s Royalflush, just miss a check by finishing 6th in the 2002 Windy City Pace. More bad than good. We all knew that all you really needed was that one good race to take away the bad memories and maybe it was our time. The mood was rather tense right before the race, but we really all agreed on one thing. We wanted In Over My Head to have one more good race. It was his last chance in 2009. It had been an incredible year, but we wanted him to go out strong. To us, strong meant that he races up to his potential. If that equated to a 5th place finish, so be it.

As the horses approached the start and our collective hearts were pounding, things good off to a rather good start. Dale Hiteman wisely got In Over My Head off the gate well and out in front of the #1 horse who was a little sluggish. My Boy Luke gunned out of the #4 post and coming out of the first turn, we were sitting third behind Sheer Desire and My Boy Luke. The class of the race, If I Can Dream, was on the move and grinded toward the front. As the horses rounded the 2nd of 4 turns and moved toward the half mile mark, he had nearly made the front. Standupnkissme followed him 2nd over and Annieswesterncard was 3rd over. Our prognostication was unfortunately coming true. Locked in 3rd on the rail, we were in the process of being shuffled to the back of the pack.

Race luck. That intangible thing that Greg and I both agreed we were in dire need of began to materialize as the horses entered the 3rd turn. The 2nd over horse, Standupnkissme, began to tire and fade. Suddenly, instead of being locked on the rail, we had the opportunity to move to the outside. Hiteman decided that it wasn’t time yet. He waited. Annieswesterncard tipped 3 wide to move around Standupnkissme and before we knew it, he was even with us. As he paced past us on the outside we all knew something incredible was happening. After taking the easy path on the rail the entire race thus far, we were about to get the opportunity to tip outside and follow Annieswesterncard. As Hiteman tipped Mo to the outside, we were in the top five. As long as we kept up, we were looking at something more than a consolation prize. Mo hesitated for a second before quickly closing the gap between him and Annieswesterncard. He looked alive. The race was on.

In Over My Head followed his live cover around the final turn and as they turned for home, Dale tipped Mo to the outside of Annieswesterncard and it was then we knew our horse was loaded with pace. The two horses in the front, If I Can Dream and Sheer Desire, can literally be considered two of the best horses in the country. Could we reach them? At this point it didn’t matter. A 3rd place finish suddenly seemed like a very real possibility. In Over My Head wanted more. If he were to ever answer a personal add, I think he would say he enjoys carrots, longs walks in the pasture and passing horses in the stretch. He is all heart and that speed burst that we knew he had began to materalize. The two previous races he didn’t fire in the stretch, but he was sick/ still recovering. This night, our old horse was back and our old horse doesn’t take too kindly to other horses crossing the finish line before he does. He found another gear and as he ate up race track on the outside and flew at the leaders like a horse literally shot out of a cannon everything started to blur. Was this actually happening? The pounding of hoofs reached their peak as field buzzed past us. Sheer Desire on the inside, If I Can Dream in the middle and one horse who belonged in the back of the pack inexplicably flying at them on the outside. Our angle wasn’t the best as they hit the wire. I couldn’t tell for sure what happened at the end, but I remember someone say, “O my God, I think he just won it!” The announcer said it was too close to call. Photo finish.

We sprinted down the stairs toward the winner circle hoping that the impossible just happened. Kirk thought we won it. Greg asked the race secretary who was standing at the wire and he thought it was #2 (Sheer Desire). Danny was the only one who had enough sense at the time to run inside and watch the replay on a TV screen. I was trying to find a TV screen in the winner circle booth but didn’t see one. “Is there is a TV in there…we need a TV!” I remember Greg saying as he was trying to get someone’s attention in the booth. By chance, I ran into (almost literally) someone from the Sheer Desire group. I asked him who he thought won and he didn’t know. I said that if he won and we took 2nd I’d be happy (which was a very honest statement since we hadn’t even dreamed of 2nd place). Just then Danny came storming out of the building. “We had to win…I saw it…we had to have won it!” Almost at the exact time those words left his mouth the track announce came over the loud speaker, “It’s official…” I don’t remember him saying the words ‘In Over My Head’, but looked up at the board in the infield and saw the final order. The number ‘3’ shined brightly on the board next to ‘1st”. In Over My Head had just won the Windy City Pace. Our group…who just minutes earlier all steadfastly agreed that a good 5th place finish would be a happy ending, stormed into the winner circle.

I think it was Vince Lombardi who would tell his players that when they scored a touchdown, they should act like they had been there before. We, on the other hand, weren’t quite as poised. Danny took off down the track to meet In Over My Head, Dale, Tyler and Penny. Mo was led into the winners circle and we all posed for the picture as we thanked Dale over and over for the incredible drive. Some nice gentleman handed me a trophy. All of our heads were spinning like we just walked off the Tilt A Whirl. I think there was a second picture with a somewhat different group of people and then Tom Kelly, the PR director for the track, came walking in to do the driver interview. I remember turning to Danny and saying ‘what are we doing here?’ We all laughed. It was truly surreal. Then I noticed that the track owner, John Johnson was motioning to Tom to interview the owners after he was done with Dale. O, no. Ever since the end of the race, I was fighting back tears…it was such an emotional moment. I figured that Greg would do the talking, but he pushed the mic in my direction. Somehow I managed to say something at least marginally intelligent and remembered to thank both Hiteman and the Butenschoens’ at the end. Whew. Meltdown avoided.

The generosity of Mr. Johnson was really memorable as he invited all of us up to the track owner’s suite for complimentary Champaign. He seemed really happy for us and it meant a lot. On the way up to the suite, I called my Mom and Dad. It wasn’t really much of a conversation as I got the words ‘Dad…he won’ out and from there I was pretty much choked up. Once we got our hands on the Champaign, the reality began to set in somewhat. We were all making phone calls (Greg’s wife Becky, Grandma along with a bunch of friends and followers of racing in general) and enjoying the moment. It was a special toast even though I don’t remember what the toast was. Our entire group, Greg, Danny, Kacy, Laura, Kirk, Ryan, Jamie and I clinked our glasses and took a drink in honor of In Over My Head who had just delivered the most improbable victory.

Back in the barn afterward, we got to share in the excitement with Tyler, Penny and of course In Over My Head. He was a gracious host, letting us take him in and out of the stall for pictures. Different people were petting him and he seemed to know that he had just accomplished something great. He was a wonderful horse to be around. Then came the decision as to how to end the night. Do we drive back to Wisconsin as we originally expected or do hit the town? Funny thing was, earlier in the night Greg had said that if something crazy happens and we won, we’d head downtown and get some drinks in the Signature Room atop the Hancock Building. After thinking about it for about a minute, we all voted on the Signature Room.

We made the right decision. Sitting in that lounge, we basically just replayed the night’s events over and over again. Kirk had to drive back home, but Rob joined us to celebrate. Danny shared an almost eerie story about a guy he ran into outside the track when they first arrived. The stranger asked him who he liked that night. Danny said the guy was kind of rough looking and he wasn’t too sure if he was going to just share some idle chit chat or ask him for money, but Danny told him about In Over My Head being in the Windy City Pace. He asked who the driver was and Danny said Dale Hiteman. The stranger looked Danny dead in the eye and told him that our horse was going to win. He said Dale would find a way. Danny thought it was a little strange, but just blew it off. However, as Danny walked out of the winner circle after the race, the same stranger was standing there looking at him. He congratulated Danny, shook his hand and then disappeared into the crowd. Was it a coincidence or was someone watching over for us that night? You believe whatever you want, but the story makes the hair on my arms stand up. We lasted until about 2:30 before the excitement wore us down and it was time to call it a day. We cabbed back to the Embassy Suites (thanks for setting that up Ryan) and fell asleep as visions of horse races danced in our heads. It was a night to remember.

I was originally going to write this yesterday, the day after the race, but decided to wait. The story needed a little more time to season. Having that said, it still doesn’t seem possible. It really was a David vs. Goliath story like I wrote about a couple of posts ago. Two owners who own just one racehorse (and young Seanie), taking on some of the largest owners in the country with huge stables of all stars. A driver who some might think has his best days behind him in a race against two guys (Tim Tetrick and Dave Palone) who came in just for a couple of races that night to beat the locals with superior animals. The training group really wasn’t that big of a long shot. The Butenschoen’s have had their fair share of big wins, but they don’t carry a stable the size of the largest trainers. And, most importantly, a horse with a cinema quality name who, luckily for us, didn’t care that he was a 55-1 long shot. We could honestly race horses for another 50 years and never have anything like this happen again. It wasn’t supposed to happen. It didn’t make sense. As In Over My Head sling-shotted out of the final turn and accelerated like he hit some kind of hidden turbo boost, he took us all down a path that we didn’t know was even there. And as we traverse down it together there is only one thing I can say with any certainty. None of us will forget it as long as we live. We let it fly and now it feels like we are floating in the clouds.

Let It Fly

2009-11-17T19:21:00.001-08:00

After I printed the program for last Saturday’s American National at Balmoral Park, I called my Dad to see if he wanted to place a bet on In Over My Head. Despite the #1 post position, we were the long shot in the stacked race, but I thought it might be worth taking a chance on a show bet or maybe mixing In Over My Head into some trifectas. Dad’s response was somewhat surprising: he wanted to bet $10 to win, place and show. I asked if he was serious. In Over My Head would probably go off at about 50-1 odds and you really didn’t need to be that much to make some good cash if he shocked the world. “Let it fly,” was his response.

Let it fly is Dad’s way of saying ‘let it all hang out’ or ‘roll up your sleeves and go to Vegas’ or ‘I didn’t come here to knit’. It is a way to show confidence, even if it doesn’t always make logical sense. He figured we had been hoping to make it in the American National all year long. We had a good horse that had some bad luck throughout the season. We had post position #1 and even though it was clear that a number of horses were better on paper (some far better), if we were going to support Mo, then support him. Don’t do it half assed. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way we hoped. The race rundown was rather simple. Mo got away second behind Standupnkissme. He followed him all the way to the stretch and for a brief moment, it looked like he was going to be in the mix for a place as high as 3^rd. However, the outside speed was just too much and Mo (coming off a week of being sick remember) hit a bit of a wall. In the end, he finished with the fastest time of his life (1.51.2), but finished 8^th. Regardless, I was thankful of Dad’s unwavering support.

Let it fly is kind of a good way to describe what we are doing this Friday in what will be In Over My Head’s last race of 2009 when we take on a number of the same horses in the Windy City Pace. The ‘Windy City’ is the richest event raced at Maywood Park with a purse of $225,000. What makes this race interesting is that unlike the American National where places 6-10 were paid 2% of the purse amount, only the top five make money in the standard 50%, 25%, 12%, 8%, 5% payout. So why, you might ask, would an owner pay $3,000 to enter a race where he is probably no better than the 5^th best horse on paper, with little to no chance at winning and a legitimate shot at walking away with nothing that night? There are some legit reasons. We only got beat 6 lengths in the American National. Mo is as quick as he is fast, which can be a big advantage on a half mile track (Maywood is a half mile track). He should be over his sickness for sure this week. However, when you look at the program filled with monster horses, those logical steps don’t quite take you to the point where you can unequivocally say “yep, I’m going to risk three grand!” Logic simply won’t take you there. You need to look to a blind confidence in your horse and your team that can sometimes lead you make moves that may not be ‘by the book.’ You need to consider the fact that we’ve made it this far and in reality, there is only ONE thing we CAN do at this point. I think by now you know what that is…we need to let it fly. Cross your fingers, we’ll need all the luck we can get on Friday night.

Lastly, enjoy a couple of pictures from American National night.

David vs. Goliaths

2009-11-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

"48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground." (Samuel 17)

I'm not a bible quoter, but that is a good one for today as In Over My Head faces his toughest group of competitors ever in the American National. Here is the lineup of horses and their lifetime earnings in order:

If I Can Dream: $1,867,000
Annieswesterncard: $575,000
Straight Shooting: $440,000
Sheer Desire: $373,000
Doubletrouble: $218,000
Standupnkissme: $200,000
Nob Hill High: $169,000
My Boy Luke: $158,000
Smellthecolornine: $138,000
In Over My Head: $88,000

For once, at least on paper, Mo is in a race where his name says it all.

We knew going into this week that we were going to enter into the American National, but were not sure if we were going to make it in. Only the top 10 horses made it based on 2009 earnings. As it turned out, only one horse (Smellthecolornine) has lower earnings than we do. Regardless, we are extremely excited just to be in the race. Considering that fact that even the 10th place finisher gets 2% of the $265,000 purse, we have nothing to lose.

It was a text from Danny that let me know that Mo actually made it in the race. Laura and I were walking out of the Yak and Yetti restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom (post multiple rides on Exhibition Everest) when my phone buzzed: "Rail. Going for 265k" I was floored. Not only had we made it in the race, but we drew the best post position #1. We celebrated by going on the Safari ride.

Now before you go and stick a fork in In Over My Head before this race even starts, consider the following:

- We have the best post position, which allows Mo to save ground and race as efficiently as possible.
- We have actually beaten a number of the other horses in this race in the past
- We identified what happened in his last race and he is back to his normal self.

No matter what happens, tonight's race leads me to one more quote, this time not from the Bible, but from one of my favorite movies:

"...and most important, don’t get caught up thinking about winning or losing this game, if you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, i don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of this game, in my book, we’re gonna be winners!"

Do you know the movie? The one and only Hoosiers, one of the best ever David vs. Goliath stories ever captured on the big screen. The above quote is from Coach Norm Dale before little Hickory High took on a powerful Indianapolis school in the state finals. I think I can speak for our team in saying that all we want tonight is for In Over My Head to race his best race. Put out his best effort. If it isn't enough, so be it. He is still a good horse and we are happy to have him. However, just for the record, Hickory High won that game. I'm just saying, it isn't impossible.

Lastly, in case Mo reads this blog today when waiting in the stall, I want to give him a little motivation. There was a race back in February where he was up against a bunch that were better than him. He had post position #10. He went off at 85-1 odds, but when they crossed the wire, In Over My Head had finished 3rd. He proved he belonged that night. Maybe tonight he will remind us of that once again.

A Bad Race Leads to Difficult Decision

2009-11-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

When In Over My Head turned for home last Saturday night in the $18,000 Free For All at Balmoral Park, I think we all had high hopes. We had seen this mile before: he aggressively leaves from a bad post position (#8 that night) and fires toward the front. He found an opening behind one of the favorites (Booze Cruzin) and patiently raced in 2nd place for the next half mile. In the past, the next step would be for Mo to put together his usual gutty stretch run. Working his way toward the leader, sometimes getting up for the win, but always racing competitively toward the end. As the horses were in between the three quarter and seven eighths pole that night we saw something for the first time ever with In Over My Head. He began to fade. Instead of being the passer, he was the passee and when he finally crossed the wire, he was finished last.

For the first couple of seconds, I didn’t even know how to react. I just kind of stared blankly at the TV screen. Then reality set in. Something had to be wrong. He had to be sick or had some other issues in his lungs. Maybe he was hurt. Not horribly hurt, but hurt enough that it showed up at the end of the race. Questions, questions and more questions. The problem was we had no answers, which is why I waited to add this entry to the blog. As of today, we think we have used our CSI skills to piece together what went wrong.

The biggest issue here is the timing. This race was suppose to be our final tune up before entering into the $300,000 American Nationals against some of the finest 3 year old colts in the country. When we sent in our sustaining payments last March (you need to make payments in the spring just to stay eligible for these races), we identified the American National as well as the $250,000 Windy City Pace as our ‘slot machine’ stakes. Maybe not the best odds, but if you get a little lucky, it will be real big. Before last Saturday, we thought that In Over My Head was in prime form to take on his stiffest competition yet. However, watching him fade in the stretch threw us for a complete loop.

Step once was to scope him after the race. This checked for issues in his lungs or sickness. They actually have a rating system based on mucus buildup and such on a scale of 1-10. The results were good: he showed no signs of sickness at all. Next step was to draw blood and have a vet go over his blood work. Again, nothing there. Step three was for the vet to give him an overall general check: check his feet, legs, joints and so on. Again, nothing was found. After all of that testing we were really only able to figure out a couple of potential problems. First, the inclement weather caused a couple of issues last week. He was unable to spend time out playing in the paddock because it was nothing more than a soupy mud pit. More time in the stall can lead to more stress. Stress often times manifests itself in the stomach (this also is the case in humans of course). He had showed signs of stomach issues that week (either stress based or potentially general digestive duress). Second, he could not train on his normal schedule due to the weather, so instead of training on Tuesday or Wednesday, he was forced to train on Thursday. There is a chance that the work was too close to the race and left him somewhat leg weary at the end of the race.

If you put all of those things together, we think his clunker of a race can be explained. The good news is that he is back to a normal regimen and schedule. Also, we are treating his stomach issues. He trained well yesterday and seems to already be back to his normal self, which is wonderful.

With that, we have a very large decision to make. Do we enter into the American National or not? We can’t race Mo this weekend as he needs a little more time to recoup, but we do expect him to be 100% by Monday. So what should we do? The entry fee is about $3,000. He will be up against a monster group of horses. Having that said, when he is right, there is no doubt in my mind he can race with that group. We have a lot to think about. We have until next Tuesday to decide.

Long Odds Lead to a Profitable Evening

2009-10-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

You know how you see all of those signs around Wisconsin for Ho Chunk Casino? Everyone in the picture is usually holding onto a fistful of hundred dollar bills. Winning is easy, right? I remember in college I took my friend Jack up to Ho Chunk for a little blackjack. He had never played before and after splitting a bunch of tens, hitting on 17s and so on, you would think he would be down for the count. Instead, he was up nearly $300 in about 15 minutes (keep in mind this is $300 when in college, which equals about $3,000 in post college money). His comment on the way home was, ‘it really is as easy to win money as those billboards say it is!” He was obviously kidding, but we did take a trip back a few weeks later and he gave it all back and then some. “They don’t build those big fancy casinos because the owners are losing money,” my Dad would always tell me. Well, once and awhile, you can pull one over on the big casino owners. Laura and I did just that last Friday.

In Over My Head entered into the Open at Maywood Park last Friday following his horrible race out in Pittsburgh on Tuesday the 6th of October. Like past races after making breaks, we were all extra nervous. We had to see a clean trip. He drew poorly (post position #7), which can really kill your chances on a half mile track. This is especially true when a 3 year old like Mo is going up against a group of tough older race horses. Luckily, no one told Mo he wasn’t supposed to do well that night. After a nice dinner up in Wisconsin Dells, Laura and I drove to Ho Chunk. We had a little time to kill so we headed over to the slot area where Laura proceeded to rake in the cash ($25 on a $10 ‘investment’…a real nice return on your money). We headed back to the horse betting area after a couple of complimentary sodas and settled in for the race.

For the first time in awhile, I was in charge of placing a bet for my Dad. We had talked that week and both felt that win or lose In Over My Head would be a good value bet. He was 8-1 in the program and had a couple of things that would really scare off potential bettors: his post position and the fact he shows two recent breaks on his card. Now, making a break is never a good thing, but we knew that one was a flukish, tight quarter, flying whip scenario and the other was when another horse pretty much ran into him. Laura joined in the betting fun and as the horses went to the gate, Mo was at about 10-1 odds. A nice chance to get paid.

This was the first time that Greg, Danny and I were all in different places to watch. Greg was at home (and unfortunately got shut out as TVG or HRTV didn’t show the race), Danny was at the track and I was at Ho Chunk. Danny actually warmed Mo up that night and texted me that he felt great. We had old reliable, Marcus Miller driving him (I guess Marcus should really be considered young reliable since he’s about 21 years old). Marcus knows him well and that always is a calming thought as an owner. It is nice when the same person drives your horse week in and week out. The plan was for Marcus to try and get to the front, but when the horses left, that really wasn’t an option. The group took off like a pack of dogs chasing a chuck wagon and Mo had to work hard just to get into 5th coming out of the turn. The first quarter went a very snappy 26.4. Going into the 2nd turn, there was a horse behind Mo already angling out, which forced Marcus to take Mo off the rail and go first over. We were barley past the first quarter and In Over My Head was going to attempt to go first over against a bunch of open pacers. A tall task, especially on the half mile track.

He began to simply grind away. Slowly moving past the horse in 4th, then 3rd, into another turn and onto the backstretch. At that point, Mo had worked his way into 2nd place, while the favorite, Kansas Wildcat, continued to lead. It was a lead we knew would be tough to get. Kansas Wildcat was on a four race win streak. As they headed into the last turn, Marcus let In Over My Head know it was time to stop the grind and turn on the speed. As they came out of the final turn, he had pulled ahead by nearly a full length on the leader and was a short stretch drive away from a win. That’s when a horse who had been patiently sitting 2nd all race behind Kansas Wildcat shot up on the inside, quickly gaining ground on In Over My Head. When he got in Mo’s line of site, things changed once again. When he saw this new challenger come up on him, Mo found another gear and quickly dashed his hopes of a victory. As they crossed the wire, In Over My Head was clear by nearly a full length and on his way back to the winners circle.

In the end, it wasn’t a huge race for us (the purse was $12,000), but it was a very impressive race. He had overcome a bad post position against a good group of horses and did it off a bad trip. He had erased the thought of the bad race before (his card now reads: 1st, 8th, 1st, 8th, 1st…quite unique). And, he provided us gambling up at Ho Chunk a nice little surprise win. $30 across paid Dad and I about $145 and Laura’s $5 win and place bets returned $60….even more profitable than slot machines.

We are off this week and will return to the track next week as we continue to hope Mo will make the American National and Windy City Pace in mid November. He is literally in the best form of his life right now and if he makes it in, we believe we won’t just be racing for a 5th place check. Only time will tell.

A New Addition to Our Stable

2009-10-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

First things first. In Over My Head will return to the racetrack this Friday at Maywood Park in the Open pace. It isn’t a horribly tough field, but any Open won’t be easy. He drew an outside post (#7), but we are just excited about him getting back on the track. As long as he gets a good, clean trip we will be happy with however it shakes out. No more getting backed into. No more breaks. Just a clean trip. Cross your fingers.

In other news, In Over My Head’s strong season thus far has allowed us to grow the stable! Greg, Danny and I headed down to Lexington this weekend for the annual Lexington Select yearling sale. Greg and I went down as buyers, but not certain buyers. We were very galvanized in our game plan, which included:

1. Find a horse we like on paper (the pedigree pages)
2. See this horse in person and agree we like how he looks
3. Make sure that John Butenschoen agrees the horse looks good and has the proper conformation.
4. Stay within our budget. Never overbid. If we don’t get one, we don’t get one.

This four tiered game plan netted us a total of 11 potential targets during the Friday and Saturday session. We bid on a couple Friday night, but were outbid badly. On Saturday, however, we were a little more optimistic since 7 of our 11 were to be sold. The first target came into the ring and we watched only somewhat closely. We expected him to bring a big number. He was a huge, beautiful looking Dragon Again colt out of a very successful mare. The gavel hit at $50,000, far more than we had to spend.

Interestingly enough, we had 3 targets what were selling back to back to back (hips 507, 508 and 509). We agreed that we would treat all of these horses equally and would take the first one we could get. Luckily, they were to be sold in an order that fit our preference. Number 507 was our favorite, 508 second and so on. As we approached #507, things started to get rather tense. Not nearly as tense as the In Over My Head bid (which I detailed in the first blog entry here...scroll down to "Background of the Story": http://inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html), but buying a horse is a big decision. When #505 was selling, Greg leaned over to me and said if we got #507, we’d have to change the name. I took a look: Seanie. “Seen-y” I pronounced to myself. What a stupid name.

As Seanie walked in the ring, I’m pretty sure Greg had the same thought process I had: “I really hope he is the one we get”. We really liked his breeding. His sire, Cams Card Shark, was more than proven and his mother, Dream Seeker, had a nice racing career and had shown some serious speed. Additionally, she had already produced a colt named Best Dream Seeker who was one of the best 2 year olds in the country last year. On top of all of that, he had the look. Some Cams Card Shark colts are borderline ugly, but he looked to take on more attributes of a horse named Western Hanover (his dam’s sire). He was a little above average in size, good body length, an athletic build and a good head. Our kind of horse. When the announcer gave the audience a quick rundown of Seanie, he mentioned one thing we didn’t realize. Seanie was a ridgeling, meaning he’s one nut short of a pair if you get my drift. The scientific definition is: “a horse with at least one undecended testicle.” We quickly agreed it didn’t make any difference to us. I had just read an article in Hoof Beats the week before about a famous horse that was sold as a ridgeling named Blissfull Hall. The article remembered his incredible performance in winning the Little Brown Jug ten years ago. Blissfull Hall was a true superstar in his day, winning nearly $1,500,000 in just 31 lifetime starts. I’d take a horse like that!

While it didn’t matter to us, the fact he was a ridgeling probably scared off some buyers. Three things can happen in that situation: you can race him as is and hope that he isn’t bothered by the situation (sometimes it can cause pain that negatively affects their racing performance), you can race him as long as you can and hope the 2nd nut will drop and he will end up with a normal pair like everyone else (this is what happed with Blissful Hall) or you can just castrate him. Many race horses are castrated (or gelded) and it rarely affects their ability to race. However, his potential as a stud horse would obviously be over. That didn’t worry us. We weren’t hoping to hit the double home run of having a horse so great that he could actually be sold as a stud horse after his racing career was over. We were just hoping to buy a successful race horse, so Greg threw his hand in the air and made a bid. When we got to $12,000, the bidding stalled and we were on top. I actually thought for a moment that we would get him for the amazing price of $12,000, but just then it shot to $13,000. Back and forth the bidding went (it appeared we were duking it out with a gentlemen one section over from us in the sales arena) and he got on top at $18,000. After a short pause, Greg made a wise decision to skip $19,000 and go straight to $20,000 (our max). If he went to $19,000, the other guy might go to $20,000 and we would have been out of luck. Greg’s quick decision making worked. After a long 5 or so seconds, the gavel fell. Seanie was ours.

The post victory excitement was a lot of fun. We all agreed that we had got a good horse at a good price. That guaranties nothing, but at the end of the day we did the same thing we did with In Over My Head. We took out time, did our homework and didn’t overbid. We were patient and focused. If Seanie turns out to be a dud, I won’t look back and say, ‘we should have done this…’. Buying a yearling is very risky and we realize that, but we did it the right way.

As we headed out of the areana and back to the barns to get another look at our new purchase, we chatted about what we should change his name to. I suggested One Tough Nut, in reference to his testicular…ahhh…issue, but I don’t think that will end up being his name. We approached the barn where he was kept and I thought back to that morning when we first looked at him. After asking to see #507 we waited for them to bring him out. Danny gave the a quick disclaimer about the potential lack of looks that Cams Card Shark horses have since he and Greg have looked at a lot more than I over the years. They may not look like much, but they are often times fast Danny said. Just then Seanie came out of the barn and I was taken back. There was no disclaimer needed on him. He was strikingly sharp looking animal. A dark brown, almost black coat with a distinctive white mark in the center of his head. When they brought him out after we purchased him, he looked even better. Great look, right size. I was glad he was our horse.

As we walked away and headed back to the sale building for a celebratory brew, Bill Argle (Bill and Kevin Argle joined us who are Greg’s brother in laws/ Danny’s uncles) noticed something on Seanie’s pedigree page we had not noticed. He shared a birthday with Grandpa Carey. April 19th. This is the first yearling Greg and I have bought together and he happened to share an important birthday. Can’t be a bad omen.

We got to the bar and met up with John Butenschoen who seemed genuinely glad we won the bid on Seanie…never a good thing if your trainer feels the opposite! He shared a story of telling his wife that we had bought the horse and immediately commented to her what a stupid name “Seen-y” is. She looked at him half confused and asked if he was serious. Of course, John had replied, it is a dumb name. That’s when Jackie explained that it is pronounced SHAWNY. She thought it might have helped in our decision to buy him. Little did Jackie know, we were just as clueless as John. I looked at the page again: Seanie…wow I am an idiot. Sean (a more traditional Irish spelling of Shawn) and an ‘ie’ instead of a ‘y’. How in the hell did I of all people miss that??? We just bought a horse with my name for God’s sake! That, as you can imagine, led to a great round of laughter at the table. At the end of day, we still planned to change the name. Good for a human, bad for a horse. Also, the only other horse named after me (Shawn’s Way), wasn’t exactly a speed demon. Either way, the horse had the same name as me, so I’m chalking that up to good omen number two.

The post auction talk led us back to my hotel for one more at the bar there. They closed up before we finished so Greg, Danny and I finished our drinks in the hotel lobby. Shortly thereafter, a guy came up to our group and sat down to join the conversation. I’m guessing he saw our sale books sitting on the table as the talk quickly went to horse racing. We talked briefly about the sale and he mentioned he was from Canada. We asked if he ever had any good horses. He responded with the fact that he was a trainer and his name was Ben Wallace. Now, unless you know harness racing you would never know who Ben Wallace was. However, we know harness racing well and know that Ben Wallace was the man who gained a large amount of his fame from training…are you ready for this…BLISSFUL HALL! What are the odds of that random late night meeting at the Sheridan Four Points? A MILLION TO ONE? Are you kidding me??? Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you good omen number three.

The strange thing about buying a yearling is you get all excited and then you wait. Seanie won’t race until at least next June, but that’s the way it is. I’ve always said those yearling sales are like the NFL draft. You get all geared up about who your team took in April, but it doesn’t mean anything until the following September at the earliest. Nonetheless, it is a lot of fun to go down and find what you think will be a winner. You know the saying about the third time’s a charm? How about the third good omen is a charm? Now, Seanie doesn’t need to be Blissful Hall, but we just hope he stays healthy and makes a good horse on the track. Anything above that will be gravy.

Keystone Classic = A Colossal Letdown

2009-10-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just have those nights. Nights so bad you just want to give up. Take all of the money you put into racing and just use it for something else. Maybe a new hobby. Boring traditional investments. Watching that race last night was just plain painful. There was so much hope and excitement going into it and that hope was dashed to bits within a matter of seconds. This keeps happening. Why do I keep putting myself through this? I’m not sure how much more I can take.

We were racing for $50,000 out at the Meadows near Pittsburgh. We drew well (post position #3). We had a horse that by all accounts was on top of his game. The field was tough and we weren’t necessarily thinking win, but In Over My Head was developing quite a knack for finding the winners circle lately. Three wins in his last five starts. One second place finish where he got beat by a half of a length. In his only bad race, he got knocked out by what we think was an inadvertent whip to the face. This meant more, though. It was a bigger purse and we were in need of additional earnings if we hoped to qualify for the two big Chicago races at the end of the season. This was one of our last chances to do that as the season is winding down. There was a lot riding on this race. We also wanted to see how Mo would do against a very good group of 3 year old horses. We THINK he’s good enough to beat all of them. Unfortunately, we never go the chance to find out.

The detailed run down of the race won’t take long. Eric Ledford got us off 5th, which was really a perfect spot to come 2nd over. The favorite got off 4th (Pangiorno). The guy driving Pangiorno (Doug Snyder), went to close the gap between him and the horse in front of him too aggressively. He ran Pangiorno into another horse causing him to make a nasty break. When he went on the break, he backed up into the horse behind him. Guess who that happened to be? In Over My Head! So, we make a break to avoid a collision and get knocked out of the race. Thanks Doug, that’s twice you’ve ruined us in a big race at the Meadows.

We put up $1,000 to ship to Pittsburgh and $400 to start in the race. For that, we got to race approximately 9 seconds before getting knocked out. Unfortunately, this isn’t bull riding. We finished last (8th), but the judges placed us 7th since Pangiorno caused us to finish last (he was placed 8th). We are now 14 hours removed from the race and I still feel sick. Our season is slipping away and it isn’t even Mo’s fault. This may sound stupid, but I just for once want to see him get beat on his own merit. No more having a driver run him into a wheel. No more wild whips. No more of the bs that happened last night. I want to see him in the stretch giving it all he has and seeing a horse or two pace away from him. That has only happened one time and the horse that paced away was Hypnotic Blue Chip, who has raced in 1.48 and change. I’m not saying we would have won last night. The first and second place horses put on an incredible display of speed and guts in the stretch drive. I don’t know if we could have beat them, but we would have had at least 3rd.

At the end of the day, the season is still going better than we probably expected when we bought him back in January. He’s banked over $75,000 and has a chance to make some more. He’s paid for himself and has generated enough for us to look to grow the stable by another horse at the yearling sale in Lexington this weekend and for that I am incredibly thankful. He really is the best horse I’ve ever had. BUT we are just leaving so much on the track and it isn’t his fault. It is just sickening. It is going to take awhile to get over this one.

Bad, Good and Some Words of Wisdom

2009-09-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

Your attitude toward owing a race horse can kind of be equated to a balloon. Every time your horse (or horses) does well, it is like a giant breath went into the balloon. As more and more air goes in, the balloon gets bigger, but also becomes more fragile. After In Over My Head went win, win, second in Springfield, a Balmoral overnight and Duquoin, his particular balloon was billowing with hot air. Then came the dreaded needle. The same needle that popped our balloon back on July 16th when Mo make a break and took last out in Pennsylvania came and attacked us again on September 19th. He had elevated himself to the status of an ‘Open’ horse. As the last entry had talked about, he faced a big time group that included Annieswesterncard. The fact of the matter was, however, In Over My Head was the best horse in the race that night. I have no doubt about it. Unfortunately, as he entered the final turn (there are 4 turns at Maywood since it is a half mile track), the horses all got bunched up. The one he was following started to back into him just a bit. Mo’s nose was nearly touching the helmet of the driver in front of him. He was loaded with pace and ready to win the thing in the stretch when…he made another break. We still don’t know exactly why. Maybe it was just too jammed up, maybe he got hit in the head with an errant whip, but it really doesn’t matter. He finished last, while Danny and I stood next to the track and got a chance to see it live. The night ended with a resounding POP! I didn’t want to think about racing for a few days. It was a real long trip back to Madison that night.

Luckily for us, another giant breath of fresh air was breathed back into our lives as owners last Saturday. Mo needed one more tightener before heading out to his next stakes event to be raced at the Meadows (Pittsburgh) on October 6th. We entered him at Balmoral and he ended up facing a very tough field that included many of the best older horses in Chicago. We knew this would be a tough test and we also had the added fear of what if: what if he makes another break. Not a fun thought. At least we drew well (post position #3) and had one of our regular drivers (Marcus Miller) at the reigns. We were hoping for a solid race…maybe in the top 3. Generally, we just wanted to make sure he was sharp and ready to ship out east.

The race started in somewhat a surprising fashion. We kind of thought Marcus would take Mo to the front, but instead he dropped him back to 6th. You always have a plan going into a race, but in the end, it is the driver that has to make the decision. They have to read their competition. Read how the horse feels that night. It is a lot of split second decision making and Marcus felt that dropping back was the best move. Coming to the half, he moved In Over My Head off the rail and expected one of the horses in front of him to do the same so he could follow another horse. After waiting for a couple of seconds, it never happened, so instead of being the follower, Marcus and Mo got to be the leader. It is definitely a tougher trip, but Marcus did a good job bringing Mo up toward the front in a very controlled and measured fashion. By the time they reached the ¾ mark, Mo was moving on the leaders, but was still a few lengths from the front.

That stretch at Balmoral is just one long sprint and in the beginning, Mo was his usual self: just grinding away, pacing hard as hell and slowly moving toward the leaders. The problem was this was no soft group. His competition was very tough that night and we weren’t making up a ton of ground. Half way thought the stretch, he had edged closer, but I was still thinking we were in for a 3rd place finish. Luckily for us, Mo wanted more. There just seems to be something in that horse. He loves passing other horses and just doesn’t seem to get tired. He kept grinding away. It was like DuQuoin all over again. First he gets to the back of the leader’s bike. A couple more steps and he’s half way up on the leader. The wire is getting closer and closer. Another horse is coming up on the inside. It is three horses coming to the wire, practically in unison. He’s running out of room and just when you think it is over, he finds one more burst and….it’s a photo for the win! Was it enough? Did he get there? It is a matter of inches between winning and taking third. Waiting for a photo is absolutely excruciating as an owner. We patiently waited for the announcer…”It’s official…the #4 In Over My Head is the winner”. What a race! What a gutty performance! The balloon now has air again!

It is races like that one last Saturday that just continues to build our love of Mr. In Over My Head. He just doesn’t quit. I swear if they moved the finish line another quarter of a mile out, he’s just keep on grinding away. Digging in, swaying his head slightly back and forth like he’s trying to eat up every possible inch of ground he can with each step. I could watch those replays over and over and never get sick of seeing them.

When we bought In Over My Head last January, we knew that this would be the time of year we would have to make a decision about him. We are entering the prime sales season for horses (both yearling and older horses) and the not so fun thought has to come up. Do you keep him? Based on what he’s accomplished, he’s worth a pretty big chuck of money. Probably somewhere in the vicinity of 3 to 4 times what we paid for him. The smart business decision might just be to sell him. Take the money and run. I’ll never forget listening to Grandpa talk about the business end of racing one time when I was just a kid. “It is a business” he said. “You can’t get caught up with emotion and you can’t let yourself fall in love with a horse.” He then paused for a second deep in thought and followed up. “But sometimes, you just can’t help it.”

In Over My Head officially falls into the ‘sometimes you just can’t help it’ category. He isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Renewed Rivalry? Not Quite, but we’d Like It To Be

2009-09-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

For you local NFL historians, you may remember back in the early 1990s there was a heated rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. They faced each other virtually every regular season (included national games on Thanksgiving) as well in the playoffs. The games were intense and often close, but there was one problem with the ‘rivalry’. The Cowboys always won. From 1993 – 1995, the upstart Packers were reestablishing themselves as one of the top teams in the NFC. They made the playoffs each season and were a threat to win every game with Mr. Favre under center. However, in six meetings (3 regular season and 3 playoffs) the Packers were 0-6 against the powerful Cowboys. Packer fans hated the Cowboys. They were the team’s #1 ‘rival’ in those years. Cowboy fans had a different perspective. They didn’t really care. The Packers weren’t a rival…the Packers were a nice up and coming team they always beat! It wasn’t until the great Cowboy teams began to decline that the Pack finally got a leg up on them. Not much of a rivalry after all.

We here at team In Over My Head have identified our new ‘rival’ and his name is Annieswesterncard. We, like those Packer teams, are an upstart youngster who is just now starting to make a name for ourselves. Annieswesterncard, on the other hand, is like the Cowboys. In just 11 starts this season, he has banked over $280,000. As a two year old, he raced 12 times and took in $220,000. He ranks among the elite in the 3 year old pacing colts in the country. Oddly enough, in In Over My Head’s first lifetime start, he finished 2nd to…you guessed it Annieswesterncard. So why all this background? Our ‘rivalry’ will be renewed this Friday as Mo races at the $14,000 open at Maywood Park and much to our surprise (and chagrin) none other than Annieswesterncard has entered the race as well. We now have a regular season game against the Cowboys on our schedule.

To complete the analogy, our ‘playoffs’ will be two big races in Chicago at the end of the season. Like a real playoff scenario, we need to finish strong to even be eligible. There is a chance we may be watching those races from home. Annieswesterncard is already eligible and will more than likely be racing in them (unless the connections choose to take him somewhere else).

We hope to start a real rivalry this Friday night. Maybe we can pull off an upset and turn a few heads. Beating Annieswesterncard would certainly do just that. Is it likely to happen? No, it really isn’t, but you never know. Stranger things have happened. Maybe after the race we will be in the middle of a “Go Pack Go!” cheer instead of hearing “how ‘bout them Cowboys???”

An Exciting End to an Interesting Day

2009-09-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

If I could draw up a picture perfect Saturday, it might look something like this: sleep in, get some breakfast, hop in my car, drive down to watch In Over My Head race, drive back to Madison, go to a Badger football game with friends/ clients, take in some postgame fun afterward. That is exactly how Saturday was supposed to work out, but due to an intervention by Mother Nature, we had to do a little bit of improvising. Luckily, it all worked out just fine.

In Over My Head was set to make his second Illinois State Fair start in DuQuoin in the 3 year old open Hayes Memorial Stake race. It was a similar race to Springfield with a little larger purse ($46,000) and a couple of new arrivals to make the race noticeably more difficult. Nob Hill High and Ideal Danny joined the fray and along with our regular rival My Boy Luke. This event proved to be a real test to Mo’s ability.

The morning line oddsmakers didn’t seem to have much faith. Despite a favorable post position of 3, he was picked 5th in the program at 8-1. I could understand Nob Hill High and Ideal Danny being at lower odds. They have raced in some of the largest national events this year. Ideal Danny had a mark of 1.49.4. It made sense, but Mo was also picked behind My Boy Luke (who he had beat two times in a row) and Boccio, an untested colt with a very limited resume. We were getting the Rodney Dangerfield treatment, but it didn’t matter too much. The race would set everyone straight eventually.

So the plan was simple: drive to South Beloit, watch the races and then drive back to Madison for the football game. The plan was thrown off as soon as Danny and I arrived down in South Beloit. Instead of sitting down to watch the 1st race, we were watching a screen that simply said the races had been postponed due to rain. We got a hold of John and he said the plan was to reevaluate the track at 1pm (in about a half hour) to see if they would try and race or just cancel the races. The thought of canceling was not a good one. In Over My Head need a race and we thought we had a good chance at a big chunk of that purse given how sharp he had been. We also had Andy Miller at the reigns, which had proven to be an excellent combination. That also changed at 1pm when we found out that the races were being moved back 5 hours to a 5pm start. Also, Miller (along with other top drivers Brian Sears, Tim Teitrick and others) were leaving. There was a huge race card up in Canada that night and they couldn’t risk missing those events. We were driverless.

I’d like to thank Tyler Butenschoen for keeping us informed and being down at DuQuoin to secure a driver for us. After the group left for Canada, there were only a couple to choose from. We ended up landing Dale Hiteman, a long time veteran of the Chicago circuit. While we didn’t know how he would work with In Over My Head, we at least knew we had a guy who had been through rigors of a race many times over. Once this was all figured out, it was time to hit the road. Danny and I had to get back to Madison for the game. Unfortunately, my brother Kirk and Dad also met us in South Beloit only to turn around and head home almost as soon as they got there. On the way back to Madison, Danny and I agreed this was just something you have to roll with. One of those things in life you can’t control, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. The delay, the driver change, uncertainly of more rain that could wash the race away. Expectations for the day had dropped.

Danny and I felt our new plan was rather workable. He conveniently lives just a block from Camp Randall Stadium. I was going to do my duty entertaining clients at the game and at the end I would say my goodbyes and head over to his house for an internet viewing of the race. Greg, unfortunately, didn’t have that luxury and got to spend his entire day in the greater Beloit area. Twelve hours of waiting to watch a 2 minutes race. Now THAT is dedication! Per my timing, I expected the race to go off at about 9pm, which was perfect. The Badger game would be about over and it would be no problem to head out. Also, Bucky was surprising their somewhat skeptical fan base (myself included) by jumping out to a big lead on Northern Illinois. After a frustrating season in 2008, this was looking much better…even if it was just Northern Illinois.

In the middle of a conversation, my phone buzzed, but I didn’t bother to look until 20 minutes later, which is when my heart rate began its standard pre race climb. Apparently, they were getting through the races faster than expected and the text was from Danny, “When are you coming? They are on the 8th race”…and that was 20 minutes ago. I quickly got back to him and found out it was 10 minutes to post. I had a decision to make. The game was only just starting the 4th quarter and all my guests were still in the suite. Do I skip the race? Do I just leave and explain myself later? I decided to do what most rational people would think is the right thing: stay at the game and entertain your clients. The race can go on without you. It is your paycheck after all that allows you to own race horses. The next 60 seconds was filled with swirling thought of In Over My Head racing for $46,000. Heart rate increasing….sweat beginning to form…mind continuing to race in 50 different directions, which lead to. “Guys, I’m really sorry, but I have to go…I have a horse racing in like 10 minutes…glad you could make it.” With that, I was gone. No one ever said owning a race horse is rational anyway.

As soon as I reached the bottom of the elevator, my phone buzzed again “5 mtp”. Damn, I just skipped out of the game, now I CAN’T miss the race. So, I started to run. Running and weaving through the scattered red clad fans all looking at me with the look of ‘where the hell is he going’ on their face. I came to my only real obstacle, which was a lighted intersection. It flipped to walk right as I jogged up to it. I’m in the clear. I rang Danny and met him in back of his house before being ushered around a few party patrons to his room where he had the computer all set up. It was at 2 minutes to post when we all got settled (Danny, his girlfriend Kasey, his sister Kim and myself). Now it was time to sit back and see what was about to unfold.

We all agreed before hand that getting In Over My Head off the gate was a key to the race for us. He has such good gate speed that you have to use it to help get into position and despite being on him for the first time, that is exactly what ‘The Hitman’ Hiteman did. He got Mo out of there beautifully and took him to the top. It was déjàvue all over again when My Boy Luke came sweeping up from the outside to take the lead. We sat second and the other two big names sat patiently behind us. Mo continued to follow My Boy Luke past the half, which is when Nob Hill High (who was the favorite at post time) went first over and was followed gamely by Ideal Danny (2nd favorite). In Over My Head had got unexpectedly loose in the pocket a couple of times down the backstretch, which really worried us. Was something wrong? Was he off today? Maybe a bit sick? I was hoping none of the above and remembered John telling us one time that Mo is such a relaxed horse in the pocket that you sometimes have to chase him a bit to keep in on the horse's back in front of him. Given Dale’s lack of experience with the horse, I was hoping that’s all it was. As they came out of the final turn and into the stretch, Mo was back up to My Boy Luke and looked ready to strike. At that point, Nob Hill High had pulled even with My Boy Luke and Ideal Danny was about to tip out to challenge him. We were in fourth and as we entered the stretch and was expecting a powerful charge from In Over My Head, but it didn’t come right away. He was pacing hard, but we were unsure if he could make up enough ground against this talented group in front of him. Over the next 12 or so seconds, I had accepted a 4th place finish. The other horses had a bit of a head start and were just too fast to sprint past. Luckily for us, Mo had one more move in reserve. With no more than 100 yards to go, the top four horses were nearing a bunch and we were still in the back. Mo was chewing up ground and with one incredibly quick speed burst shot from 4th, to 3rd and right at the wire, he inched past Ideal Danny and into 2nd place. While he didn’t get to the winner (Nob Hill High), we were thrilled.

In Over My Head had just put up another incredibly strong effort. He again showed why we love watching him race. He showed heart and guts to go along with his speed. With the exception of the race back at the Meadows when he clipped a wheel and broke, he is always flying in the stretch. He paces beyond the wire every time. He had that same look that he did at Balmoral the race before when we watched the replay. Head swaying side to side with each step as he goes after any horse in front of him. You can almost read his mind “I’m going to catch that son of a gun if it’s the last thing I do.” Much to our liking, he usually does and in the last couple of races, he’s been beating some very solid horses. We beat Ideal Danny. We just got beat part of a length to Nob Hill High who is heading off to the Little Brown Jug to face the premiere 3 year olds in North America. In Over My Head always races with his head up, like he is full of pride. After our last few races, the owners are feeling a sense of pride too. We know now he is no fluke. We are proud that our risky purchase has gone from an immature speed horse with a propensity for making multiple breaks to a fast, gutsy and easy to handle racehorse. We aren’t sure how much better he will get. We still aren’t totally sure how fast he is. He hasn’t put up that gaudy 1:50 mile yet, but he hasn’t had to. All he does is race hard and beat other horses. I’ll take that any day.

A Big Suprise in Little Kendall

2009-08-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have ourselves a win streak…

Saturday night marked the strangest place I ever got word of how a horse finished: Standing at a jukebox at a bar in Kendall, Wisconsin (population 450). A group of us were up in that area for a little bike riding along a popular trail (see the gang in the picture). I was trying to find the right song to follow up “Got Me Under Pressure” by ZZ Top. I should have instinctively just went to ‘Over My Head’ by the Frey, but never got that far. The rest of our group (Laura, her brother Ryan, sister in law Jamie along with Schlitz and Liz) were hanging out at the bar (which was empty except for us). I was considering going with an old standby, “Folsom County Blues” from Mr. Cash when I heard Laura yell from across the bar ‘Winner, winner!’ ‘Danny just texted ‘Winner, winner!’ Apparently, Jamie was using her phone when the text came in. None of us (except Laura) got phone reception up in Kendall and I had asked Danny to text her number when the race was over. Winner, winner? I couldn’t’ hardly believe it. Two in a row??? The jukebox would have to wait. I ran across the bar and took Laura’s phone outside to call Danny.

In Over My Head was racing at Balmoral Park that night in a 3-year-old open event against some formidable foes. It was more or less a tune-up for our upcoming stakes event in DuQuoin this weekend. We were once again taking on My Boy Luke as well as a very talented horse named Doubletrouble and three other solid colts. The purse was small compared to some of our recent events ($7,000), but every dollar helps when it comes time to pay the bills at the end of the month. Once I got Danny on the phone, he gave me the verbal replay. Unlike our Springfield race, our driver (Marcus Miller) took Mo off the gate relatively cautiously and he fell back to 5th place going into the first turn. Much like Springfield, My Boy Luke gunned to the front. It stayed that way for until just past the half when Fox Valley Seth tipped off the rail and began a first over trip. Mo followed him and the favorite, Doubletrouble, followed Mo. That group of three slowly grinded toward the leader and at the head of the stretch, Fox Valley Seth had pulled even with My Boy Luke. That’s when Marcus decided it was time to send Mo to the outside and put the hammer down. The next quarter of a mile or so was fun to watch. Fun because we got a clear shot of In Over My Head just charging to the wire. He looked strong, he looked fast and as they crossed the wire, everyone else was looking up at him. He had just scored his second win in a row.

His final time of 1.52.4 was very good, just 0.1 off his best lifetime win mark. The number that caught my eye was his last quarter in 26.3. His stretch drive was amazing…just watching him charge home, giving it all he had. He showed strength, speed and heart. It was a thing of beauty.

The other positive part of that race was that he got a good trip and wasn’t used all that hard, which should make him razor sharp for next Saturday’s race in DuQuoin. The Hayes Memorial should have a purse of about $45,000 and I’m guessing a field of 8 or so. It should prove to be a bit tougher than Springfield, but I think Mo is ready. Maybe a State Fair sweep? We’ll see, I don’t want to put the cart before the horse.

A Race Day to Remember

2009-08-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday. I guess it would have technically been early Wednesday morning. I was reeling a bit from the handful of brews polished off earlier in the evening, but my mind was on something other than the lingering headache. It was a feeling I wasn’t expecting to experience after the events that took place just a couple of hours before: remorse. It was like we got too much…too much fun, too much excitement, too much purse money. It felt like I didn’t deserve it for some reason. Luckily, that feeling subsided after thinking about the path to get there. A path we wouldn’t have even been on if it were not for that painful race out in Pittsburgh on July 16th where we traded a certain 1st or 2nd for a last place finish. If we had won, we wouldn’t have shipped back to Illinois for the Review Stakes race. If we didn’t ship back to Illinois for the Review, we wouldn’t have had a chance to experience the events of Tuesday night. There was no reason to feel like we got too much of anything. We deserved it.

It isn’t often were you can go to a race where you have a full compliment of ‘fans.’ Danny and I had been out to the Meadows for a race, Laura and I had been to Pocono Downs, but this was the first time we had the full crew: Greg, Danny, Laura and myself. Also, John, Jackie and Tyler Butenschoen were all down in Springfield for the race. If that wasn’t enough, Danny brought along a couple of friends (Darryl, Parker and Tanner) to round out the unofficial ‘In Over My Head Fan Club.’ We were all there because we all had a feeling something good was going to happen that day…well, except the Butenschoen’s. They had to work and take care of the horses! They may have had good feelings too. Anyway, ask any horse owner about having a big group come down to see a race you have a good feeling about and they will tell you a story about a time when their expected celebration turned out to be an uncomfortable, somber evening. A situation where their horse was expected to do well and the race went horribly. Horse got a bad trip, made a break, any number of things can happen to ruin a night. We were hoping that day would not create another one of those bad stories.

The one thing the general public didn’t realize was that we had a secret weapon that day. That weapon was none other than Danny Carey, fully dressed in his new colors, and he would be warming In Over My Head up. Danny has 3 starts as a trainer with 2 wins and 1 second. Between him and the Butenschoen’s, we had the best in the business getting Mo ready.

Because of rain the previous day, they had to race about 10 races from Monday’s card before ours, which pushed our race back from an anticipated 6pm start to about an 8pm start. As much as I love watching the races, Laura and I decided to step away from the track for awhile and take in the State Fairgrounds the only true way: on the skyride! For just $5 per person, you can ride in that cable car looking thing that slowly glides over endless rows of deep fried food stands, hot tub dealership booths, an ‘international village’ (which surprisingly wasn’t too busy), the midway rides and a plethora of other booths and food stands. We ended up getting a ‘milk shake’ for $4.95 that, quite frankly, I could have got for $1.50 at Dairy Queen (it was just soft serve ice cream), but hey, that’s what State Fairs are for. We ended up timing the ride perfectly because as we came back to the start, we got to see a bird’s eye view of the start of a race on the track. Very cool.

After a trip through the fairgrounds, the rest of the day was kind of a blur. I bet a few races, cashed a couple of tickets, but before I knew it we were just a few races away from ours. When Danny was out warming him up, I started to feel it. Those nerves were setting in. Gone were the high flying fun times of the skyride. My body started to feel heavy. My stomach started to tighten up. We were nearing race time.

There is something so unnerving about being able to stand and look at your horse before a big race and that is what we had that day. You don’t get to do that at most tracks as they come onto the track from the paddock, which is located a quite a ways away from the grandstand area. That isn’t the case in Springfield where the paddock is open and close. We could sit on some picnic tables near the grandstand and see In Over My Head standing there. He was a mere 20 yards from me. He was active: ears perked, looking over the stall at his future competitors, throwing his head around and at times he just appeared to be calmly watching the races unfolding out on the track. He is such a sharp looking horse. With all of the people we had down watching the race, there was a lot of activity around Mo. I decided to keep my distance. We didn’t need too many cooks in the kitchen. I just watched…and got more and more nervous.

I swear, races 6 through 10 went by in heartbeat. We were in the 11th and when the 10th race was complete, the group gathered over near Mo. Greg, Danny, John, Jackie, Tyler and Danny’s friends. I walked over, but left quickly. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Too tense. From there, I headed over to the betting counter. I had a $20 in my hand and planned on putting $10 to win and $10 to place on In Over My Head. I felt he was at least the second best horse in the race. The favorite, My Boy Luke, was certainly a worthy adversary. In his last 6 races, he had finished first 2 times and second 4 times. His times were fast and he would be tough to beat. However, as I got to the window, I had a change of heart. “$20 on the 2 (In Over My Head) to win,” I said. “Wow, everyone seems to be liking the 2,” the attendant replied. To that, I said, “That’s good, because I own half of him.”

I met Laura and said it was time to head up to the grandstand. She suggested saying a little prayer before we left, which was fine, but I didn’t want to pray for Mo to win. That would be too greedy; I just wanted him to race well. Laura said she’d take care of the win part of the prayer.

We found a spot in the grandstand near the wire with a good view of the track. Greg joined us a couple of minutes later and we both spent the next 10 minutes in a world of agonizing nervousness. He said it best when he commented on the fact when you only have one horse, everything rides on that race. There isn’t a big stable to fall back on. I think that is something that people miss when they see us so nervous. I’d just say think about going to a casino. You plan on gambling $250 dollars that night, but instead of $10 blackjack bets, you just throw it on one hand. A little more intense, right? Well, that’s us. One horse, one bet and a bucket full of nerves.

The tension was so high, that I didn’t even watch the horses as they approached the starting line. Instead, I was just looking down at the ground, hoping we were about to witness something good. When they reached the start line, I looked up and liked what was unfolding: Mo had driven out to the lead. My Boy Luke was gunning from his post position #4 as well, but Andy Miller (who seems to be a master of getting In Over My Head out of the starting gate well) made him work a bit around the first turn before he cleared. The first quarter was a snappy 27.1, one of the fastest that day on a relatively slow track. After a rather exciting start, the next half-mile was actually kind of bland. My Boy Luke continued to lead the way as we followed and he slowed the race down to a near crawl. The time as we reached the ¾ mile marker was 1.30.0, which is very slow for this group even on a bad track. With those easy fractions, it would be a sprint to the finish line.

Now we know Mo is a sprinter, but the problem was he was locked in. My Boy Luke was in the lead, we followed and two horses had moved up from the back in the outer flow, pinning In Over My Head on the rail. A thought flashed through my mind…we won’t do any better than 3rd. Without racing room, there would be no chance to use our speed to try and sprint past these other horses and as they neared 1/8th of a mile to go, I was thinking our trip down would have an average ending at best. That’s when things changed. My Boy Luke was pouring it on and starting to separate from the horses challenging from the outside, but he wasn’t separating from us. That created an opening and Andy Miller masterfully jumped at it within a split second of seeing it. He pulled Mo off the rail and within just a few steps, he was gaining on My Boy Luke. The problem was that we were running out of race. They were charging to the wire, now in full view of us looking on from the grandstand. It was a two horse race. In Over My Head was gaining ground with each step: past the race bike, up to My Boy Luke’s back, to his midsection…we just needed enough track to finish him off. It was then Mo seemed to take a gigantic couple of steps that got him eye to eye with the leader. There was still 50 feet of track left and with our momentum, the favorite was toast. Mo stormed past him and as they crossed the wire, In Over My Head, with a perfect drive from Andy Miller, had just captured the first big victory of his life.

To be honest with you, the final couple of seconds and the immediate time afterward was kind of a blur. I remember when Mo pulled even with My Boy Luke and knew at that point, the race was ours. I think I yelled something to the effect ‘We got it!’ to Greg and he said something like ‘this way!’ and motioned for me to follow. Greg had done his homework: he had already mapped out the fastest route to the winner’s circle! Very impressive game planning. Apparently, we took off sprinting about as fast as In Over My Head down the grandstand platform to a set of stairs and started going down them like we were a couple of cops chasing a suspect. Then we realized we forgot something rather important: Laura. Oops. I ran back up the steps and yelled for her. She wasn’t too far behind and was on cleanup duty as I had dropped my sunglasses and race program in the sprint. Now back together, the three of us winded our way through the belly of the grandstand and emerged on the ground level near the winner’s circle.

Shortly after we arrived, we were joined by the rest of our group: Danny and his friends, the Butenschoen’s and the stars of the track: Andy Miller and In Over My Head. Andy gave John a quick fist bump as Mo was led into the winners circle. We all followed and lined up for the picture (which you can see below). Lot’s of happy faces in there.

It wasn’t until after we left the winners circle when I realized just how special the day had become. Not only had we just won an important race, we had done so together. It is kind of rare to get everyone together to go to a race. It is even rarer to win that race. It is even rarer for that to happen in a stakes event. I thought back to our brief, but interesting history with In Over My Head. This is what we HOPED might happen when we bought him. I think we all actually envisioned a time when we would all be together in Springfield to watch a big victory and it actually happened. It really was a dream come true. I know in the future there will be more horses. Hopefully more big wins, but I can tell you with 100% certainty, that the victory in Springfield that day and the shared excitement with all of together will be something I will never ever forget.

We were the last race of the day and once done with the picture, picture ordering and cashing winning tickets, we headed back to the barn. On the way were lots of phone calls (Kirk, Mom, Dad and Grandma) and text messages. Darryl was able to locate a few cold Miller Lites. We popped the tops and had a big cheers to In Over My Head…I can’t remember the last time a beer tasted so good. From there we headed out for a late dinner and numerous recounts of the race and all the excitement that surrounded it. It was one of those days that you really don’t want to end, but we all reached a point of exhaustion soon enough. The stress and excitement of the race can really wear you down. It was time to call it a day, but it would be a day that I knew would be remembered and reminisced about many, many times.

I took a moment to look at past champions of this event. The Review Stake is certainly not a major race, but a true stakes race. Some of the biggest names in racing won it: Tar Heel in 1951, Race Time in 1964 and Bret Hanover in 1965. Recent speedsters such as Yankee Cruiser (2003) and Jeremy’s Jet (2006) won it in the last decade. To be fair, it was a bigger event in the past. With the blossoming slot purses in states like Pennsylvania, less horsemen ship their horses back to Illinois for the State Fair races, but that doesn’t matter. We made history, even if it was a small sliver of history. And, it marked the 10 year anniversary of another Carey owned horse victory: Carey’s Card Shark who won it in 1999. Let’s hope we can find another ‘W’ sometime between now and 2019.

A Good Fifth and a Trip Back Home

2009-08-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure exactly why, but I was thinking good things were going to happen on Saturday afternoon when In Over My Head raced at the Meadowlands. Due to planned trip to the Door County area with family, I was unable to watch the race and depended on the always timely calls/ texts from Danny as to what was going on. When I got the text that he finished 5th, I was noticeably bummed out. Not upset, but just bummed out. I thought a top 3 was clearly in the cards that day, but it just didn’t play out as we hoped.

The beginning of the race was a flashback to the early days of Andy Miller driving Mo from a far outside post as he swept quickly toward the front, eventually giving up the lead to the #10 horse that was also rushed out quickly. That two hole trip would normally be a thing of beauty, but the problem was as they turned for home. Mo was absolutely loaded with pace, but the horse he was following was on the last legs of his bid to be the first to the wire. As he began to give up ground to the charging pack on the outside, Mo also got pushed back. He did sneak through on the rail, but the outside momentum was too much. He finished a very game 5th, only getting beat 3 legnths and clocked his quickest lifetime mile in 1.51.2.

With that, we leave the eastern USA for a trip back to the Heartland. It will be Mo’s first trip back to the Land of Lincoln since he was shipped out east back in December of 2008 when he prepped for the January sale where we purchased him. The plan will be for him to go three starts: The Review Stake in Springfield for open 3 year olds, an expected overnight at Balmoral and the Hayes Stake in DuQuion for open 3 year olds.

Those three races should give him legit opportunities to do something he hasn’t done a lot of in the past few races: exceed expectations. He did plenty of that this winter and when he first came back in June, but we’ve left some better finishes on the track in the last few starts. In reality, none of it has been In Over My Head’s fault. Some bad breaks, bad draws and bad race luck have kept our hopes of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes under wraps. That’s the way it goes. As I talked about with Greg, one big race can change that in a hurry. John continues to keep Mo sharp and I really think we will pop for a big one soon. Springfield next Tuesday would be a great place to start a big run. Only time will tell.

Time to Reflect On a 45-Year Anniversary

2009-08-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, the richest event in harness racing will take place at The Meadowlands in New Jersey. The Hambletonian, with a purse of $1,520,333, showcases the best 3 year old trotters in the world. It is the only live nationally televised harness race of the year. Muscle Hill is the heavy favorite in the race, but crazy things can happen in 3 year old trotting events. If looking for a pick that might pay, I’d keep my eye on Federal Flex. Just a hunch.

Oddly enough, my focus won’t be on the Hambletonian or any of the other première $100,000+ events that are being raced on Saturday afternoon. It will be on the race 13, where a field of 10 non winners of 4 races/ $65,000 lifetime 3 and 4 year olds will help fill out a star studded card. I bet you can guess who is in to race…that’s right, In Over My Head. We are racing on Hambo Day! It would be the equivalent of having a horse race at Churchill Downs on Derby Day. We didn’t draw real well (post position #9), but we are reunited with Andy Miller, who will be driving Mo for the first time since the Junior Trendsetter Final back in February.

This is the 83rd installment of the Hambletonian and marks the 45th anniversary of Speedy Rodney racing in the marquee event. As I mentioned before, Speedy was owned by my grandpa Wayne (as well as his brother and another investor). It is hard to imagine what is would be like to have a horse complete in this event. Here we are, 45 years later and Greg, Danny and I are just thrilled to be racing on Hambo Day. Our race is just an afterthought, but it still feels special. You have to have a really good horse to even be able to make that card (and we do), but we are a number of notches below the featured event. It just gives additional perspective on what Grandpa had to be feeling back in 1964. What a memory. Maybe someday we can get there too. Feels like a million miles away now, but as the old saying goes, crazier things have happened.

As you might imagine, I have searched quite a bit over the years to find any sort of story or bit of memorabilia that relates to the 1964 Hambletonian and the fact is there isn’t a ton out there. It was a different media world back then, but I have found a couple of links and a picture to share. The first is more of an official summary from the Hambletonian Society:

http://www.hambletonian.org/archives_hambo/h_1964.html

And one from Sports Illustrated…this is really interesting and I honestly have never read it before I did a search for this entry. Note the ‘Wisconsin owned’ comment in regards to Speedy Rodney and the fact that the owners ‘refused to sell’ Speedy to big money owners out east. I always knew Grandpa could be stubborn!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1076355/index.htm

Also, here is a picture of the start of the 1964 Hambletonian. As mentioned in the SI article, you can see Speedy Rodney gunning to the front on the far outside…a move that proved to be a bit too aggressive.

At the end of the day, the Hambletonian was a disappointment for Speedy Rodney and his connections, but he lived to race another day. He was actually at his best as a 4 and 5 year old and provided a lifetime of memories for Grandpa, his brother (co owner) as well as Greg who would have been about 10 years old.

With that in mind, it is kind of a good time to reflect on where we have been and hopefully where we are going with our own horse. The season started with an endless amount of promise: a 2nd place finish in the sire series followed by a 2nd and a 1st at Pocono Downs. Next came the 5th place finish in the 2nd leg of the sire series, which was disappointing, but not the end of the world. Unfortunately, that was followed by the trainwreck in the 3rd leg of the sires series that made us modify our plans for the rest of the season. That’s the way it goes. Strikes and gutters. I feel like we are on a bit of an uptick now…maybe that’s wishful thinking, but I know we still have a horse who in reality has yet to put together his best race. I want to see that race. I really think it will be impressive and will pull us out of our current state of mind and back to a level of ownership bliss (even if the stay there is temporary).

The next three races will provide In Over My Head his chance to show everyone what he can do. Starting with the Saturday race at the Meadowlands and followed by a trip back to Illinois to race at Springfield and DuQuoin. The races will go for $22,500, $30,000 and $40,000. Nice purses and races that he has the ability to win. Big performances can go a long way in setting us up for the rest of the season.

To compare our current spot right now to a normal sports team, we are kind of in the meat of the season. Preseason expectations don’t matter anymore. They feel a long ways away now. The first part of the season was filled with some wins and some losses. It kind of feels like we have a 5-3 record (if this was the NFL), which is good, but for some reason we should be 6-2. One more win doesn’t look like much on paper, but has a very different feel to it. We are happy, but not ecstatic. We left a big win on the field by dropping a game winning touchdown against the first place team back in the 3rd leg of the sire series and it still stings a bit. Stings can subside, though and the only way to do it is go out and race better.

What this stretch could (and hopefully will) do is set us up for a chance at the ‘playoffs’ at the end of the season. I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves (go 1-0 every week, right…how many coaches have said that to you…guessing about every one), but we have a chance to race in a couple of grade A events in November, but nothing is guarantied. The next 3 races should give us a good idea where we will end up. More to come!

One wedding and a 3rd place finish

2009-07-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the slow uptake on the blog entry, but the last week has been filled with good times, new friends and even some polka music. Last Saturday, I attended the wedding of Laura’s brother Ryan and his new bride Jamie in St. Louis. It was a great day and everything went off perfectly. I even got to drive around some family relatives including Laura’s grandpa, who, wouldn’t you know it, is a harness racing fan! What are the odds of that? Not surprisingly, In Over My Head was making his return to the track after the last debacle (that led to the 5 Worst Experiences post) on Saturday night. So, I was obviously not going to watch the race. We had entered him in a non-winner of 4 races at The Meadowlands in New Jersey that went for a purse of $18,000. Not too shabby. This would be his first trip back at ‘The Big M’ since his huge 3rd place finish in the Junior Trendsetter Final last February. There is something very cool about being able to enter your horse to race at The Big M on a Saturday night. Although competition has increased at other tracks out east, it remains the première track in North America and being able to send a horse up there has kind of a feeling of pride to it. That pride can obviously disappear quickly if you don’t race well. Luckily for us, Mr. Mo did a good job in helping us forget the pain of the prior race.

Saturday night’s race marked the 5th time Mo has raced at The Meadowlands since we owned him. I love racing there, but I’ve only been able to watch him live once. Previously, I’ve missed races for a work conference in Phoenix, two basketball games and now a wedding. That’s the thing about owning a horse. It is so much fun to watch them (especially live at the track), but sometimes it just doesn’t work. Luckily for me, Greg and Danny were down at the usual spot in South Beloit and the plan was for Danny to give me text updates as they became available. I remember when the first one buzzed my phone. The problem was I couldn’t look at it. We were still in the middle of dinner and I didn’t want to be distracted. Of course, the text made me think. I thought back to the break he made in the Pennsylvania Sire Series on July 16th, I thought back to all the breaks he made as a 2 year old. What happens if he did it again? Another last place finish? What would we do? Maybe he was hurt after all. The fun of the wedding was able to push those thoughts out of my head until about 15 minutes later when the next text buzz occurred. Five minutes later, there was another one. At this point, dinner was winding down and my mind was racing (no pun indented). It was time to take a peak at my phone. My heart rate went up a few notches as I pulled up the texts. The first just said ‘about 15 minutes to post time’…guess I could have read that one when I got it. The next one carried the important message: ‘3rd raced good’. Whew…what a relief. And that’s what it was, a relief. This race wasn’t about celebrating or even hoping for a win. It was about making sure that In Over My Head was still healthy, still strong and still the racehorse we hoped he was. It turns out he just missed 2nd place (by a neck). He reminded us why we think so much of him.

Mo proved to us that he belongs amongst the top 3 year olds. Not the upper crust, but the next tier. He can complete and rack up top 3 finishes. The horses he raced against on Saturday night were virtually all 2nd tier stakes horses. Now, after being knocked out of contention in the Pennsylvania Sire Series due to nothing more than a fluke race in which he was tipped out too soon, we have formulated our backup plan. It is a plan that was validated by his competitive race on Saturday. Although a Plan B, the new plan hopefully will end up being a lot of fun as it will include a trip back to the Land of Lincoln (a place Mo hasn’t raced since that sad Thursday night last October talked about early in the blog). We will take him down to Springfield and Duquion to race in the 3 year old open events going for $30,000 - $40,000. I think he’ll be competitive and the cool thing is we can ditch South Beloit and go watch him race live. One more race next week out east first before he ships home. Heres to hoping the new plan actually turns out better than the old one.

Top 5 worst race experiences ever (which, unfortunately, includes last night)

2009-07-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have to be honest, last night was too painful. I can’t write an entire blog on the race. It was the racing equivalent of being hit across the face with a 2x4. Maybe worse. I think I would have rather taken a 2x4 to the chops to be honest. It is at least a tie. No, the more I think about it, I’d take the 2x4. At least I could sit and watch the replay over and over while nursing my busted up face. That would make me happy, although it might hurt to smile. Anyway, from the ‘misery loves company’ department, here are my top five worst racing moments ever. Enjoy:

5 – This wasn’t specifically tied to a race, but it involved my first ever horse, Arizona Attack. We claimed Attack back in the summer of 2003 and put him back into race the next week. He finished 6th, which was kind of a tough way to start as owners, but that was just the start of it. The next morning, he banged a front leg somewhere (maybe the stall, it is hard to tell for sure) and was out injured for a month. So we buy him, race him once, make no money, then get shut down for a month and have to pay extra vet bills. I’m sure the 3 guys I brought in with me on that venture were veeeery pleased. Luckily for us, Attack came back to race pretty solid to lessen the overall financial pain.
4 – It was the summer of 2004 and I was living in Chicago. She Grins Again was coming off a strong 5th place finish going for $40,000 in Springfield (she was only beat a length in a very bunched up finish) and was down in Duquoin to race for similar money. I rented a car from someplace downtown after work on Friday and got up early Saturday morning to head down. Duquoin is at the very southern tip of Illinois, and is about a 4.5 to 5 hour drive each way. Undeterred, I cruised on down, hoping to see something good. I got down there, found Grinny back in the barn and watched a couple of races. There were only two races to go before her start when it started to rain. The fast moving storm blew over in about 15 minutes and the horses got back on the track. Five minutes later, it started to rain again. Another ten minutes later, they cancelled the rest of the races and I drove 5 hours back to Chicago. If I ever did a ‘trips that didn’t go as planned’ list, this may be #1. As if this wasn’t enough, they rescheduled the races for the next day and Rob Cook and I headed down to the betting parlor on Weed Street to watch Grinny go. She had drawn the rail and had a good chance at a nice chunk of that purse. Instead, she made a break at the start and finished last. My stomach literally just turned over thinking about it. Now that is a bad racing weekend, but it still does not crack the top 3.
3 – In one of our first big trips as horse owners, my brother, Rob, Schlitz and I headed down to Indianapolis to watch She Grins Again (Grinny with the not so great notoriety of making this list twice) complete in a $100,000 two year old event. We knew she had a very slim (to no) chance of winning, but for $100,000, even 5th place gets you $5,000. After leaving well to start the race, she found the perfect spot behind the heavy favorite, Arts Bid, just after the first quarter. John Butenschoen turned to me and said ‘we’ll see how long she can follow the leader’. Unfortunately for us, not quite long enough. She faded badly in the stretch and finished 6th. In case you are keeping track at home, 6th is good for exactly 0% of the purse money. My favorite quote of the night was from my brother. After heading to a bar afterward and putting back a couple of fruity shots at the suggestion of the waitress, he just turned and said ‘you got anything stronger than this?’ Whisky followed. It did the trick.
2 – Would have to be last night. We were in position to get a 2nd over trip and In Over My Head was full of pace with a half mile to go. Instead of safely tipping outside to catch cover (a move that would have landed him either a win or a second place finish…that is not an exaggeration, it was his race to take at this point), the driver pulled him too early and his front right leg clipped the wheel of another bike. This sent him into a gallop and he finished last, knocking us not only out of the race, but out of contention in the Pennsylvania Sire Series. Pretty sickening. It was so upsetting I could hardly talk afterward for about a half hour and still haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the replay. An enormous opportunity missed that we won’t get back. Ugh.
1 – Even after feeling completely deflated after last night’s race, I still have to say the worst ever was the Orange and Blue final back in 2007. The week before, Westside Gritty had won her elimination in 1.52.2, tying a 10 year old track record set by Ohyouprettything. In doing so, she beat the two best horses in her division, giving us hope that Gritty was actually the best. The Orange and Blue went for $260,000 and while I was only a 10% owner, a win would be a significant payday. Even more, the week before (after her big win in the elimination) a Madison paper did a small story about her. We were riding high as a kite, which made the ensuing crash the most painful ever. She drew outside that night and after leaving toward the front, no one opened up a hole for her to drop into. Sam Widger, in particular, absolutely screwed us that night by hanging us outside. Yes, I remember who the driver was and if you ask me 50 years from now, I still will. Anyway, she had no choice but to try and fight all the way to the front and she did her best, but the pace was too fast and she eventually succumbed to fatigue (any horse would have) and finished 8th. I remember another partial owner who had made the trip from Madison asked if we could go back to the barn and see the horses afterward. Reeling from my then shattered hopes and dreams, I responded with, ‘nope, I’m going home’ threw down my race program, got in my car and took off. Sorry KC, that was a jerk move on my part.

There you have it. The top 5 worst racing experiences ever. Hopefully there will be another good one soon so I can write the top 5 best moments. The feels like a million miles away right now. Ugh.

Not Even Jim Thorpe Won Every Time

2009-07-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

Did you realize there is a town in eastern Pennsylvania named Jim Thorpe? Well, there is and guess what? Jim Thorpe never set foot in the town…well at least not until he was died. Upon his death, his family looked for a town in which he could be burred and renamed to memorize the early twentieth century star. He was called the greatest athlete in the world at the 1912 Olympics and later was considered the Athlete of the Century (a title Terrell Buckley attempted to take from him as a cornerback for the Packers…it didn’t go too well). Jim Thorpe is now a small tourist town and was part of the tour de Pennsylvanian Laura and I took last week. The trip also included a short stop in Scranton (no sign of Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute or Jim and Pam) and a night at Pocono Downs to watch In Over My Head battle in the second leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes.

When the draw came out for this race, I knew Mr. Mo was going to be in for a real challenge. First, we drew post position 8, the farthest outside. Second, our field was full of more than capable challengers including River Shark (a real speed demon), Bunkmeister (finished second in the first leg of the series) and Picassos Boy among others. We hoped that we would be able to leave the gate aggressively and get toward the front within the first quarter of a mile. Doing so would allow us to avoid having to make up a lot of ground from the back, which is difficult to do when facing such a tough field. Sometimes the best plans just don’t work out the way you hope.

The trip to Pocono Downs started with Laura and I heading back to some of the on site barns to see John Butenschoen and In Over My Head in his regular home. He looked ready to race by the time we got there as he was just about to head up to the paddock (where the go before the race). From there we headed back toward the track and grabbed an outside table near the finish line for a couple of pre race brews. I was surprised how calm I was for the first race or two. Maybe is was the fact we didn’t have as much to lose that night. I was very hopeful for a big race out of Mo, but I also knew he was up against a tough group with the worst post position. Maybe Laura kept me calm, I’m not too sure. I do know that by the start of the 3rd race (we were in the 5tt) all of that short lived calmness quickly disappeared. The pre race tension was back in full force and we headed down to find a spot right on the fence.

Just like every race, the nervous anticipation in the last 15 minutes or so is just crippling. It is hard to even put together a full coherent thought. All this buildup for 2 minutes of race and as an owner, you have no control over what is about to happen. There is lots of pacing back and forth and looking at the program, which in reality just is a jumbled mess of letters and numbers at that point. It is hard to process much information that close to the start of the race. Laura and I watched him warm up and chatted about how I hoped the race would unfold. Hope, unfortunately, is not a strategy.

So after 14 hours of driving and a few hours at the track, I knew within the first 5 seconds that we really had almost no chance to win. Kind of a bummer, huh? The horse inside of us (the #7 horse) was acting up going to the gate to the point that our driver couldn’t take the chance to charge at the gate and attempt to get toward the front like we had hoped to for fear he might get run into. What a horrible stroke of luck that was. He had to institute plan B, which was to simply fall to the back and hope to make up as much ground as possible. A few seconds into the race, we were already over 10 lengths off the lead. As they made their first trip past the grandstand (where we were standing), I got a quick hint of hope: Pavia had tipped Mo to the outside and he was really building up a head of steam. He went from 8th to 6th and was on the move. At this point I was thinking we had a tiny chance, but things need to pan out perfectly. We needed a horse from the inside (preferably a top one like River Shark) to also tip to the outside and we would follow them towards (and hopefully all the way) to the front. Well, that is kind of what happened. Unfortunately for us, the timing didn’t work in our favor. River Shark did, in fact, tip outside, but he did so at a much slower pace then we were currently going (remember, we had already began our charge and he was just starting his). This caused our driver to have to pull Mo up and break his momentum. Imagine driving down a two lane highway. There are two cars in front of you that you want to pass. Your plan is to build up a head of steam and go past both of them all at once. Then, at the last second, the second car also moves out to pass and you have to hit the breaks. That’s kind of what happened and it was the last straw in our chance to make a major move.

In the end, Mo raced big and finished strong in a time of 1.52.1 (his personal best) to finish 5th. Fifth is still good for 5% of the purse money, so at least that helped. In the end, Bunkmeister won it in 1.50.4. I truly believe that Mo can race with any of those horses, but he isn’t necessarily better, so things kind of have to break your way sometimes. It is like an old saying Barry Alverez used to use: good on good. When Wisconsin football was at its best under Coach Alverez, they won a lot more than they lost, but sometimes you would face another good team that would just beat you. Good on good. That night, he just got beat. It happens, but he’ll be back, that’s for sure.

The next stop in our journey will be back at The Meadows on July 16th for the 3rd leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Series. This is really a big one. After the first two legs, we are currently ranked 15th per my unofficial ranking. That would put us in the $50,000 consolation in mid September. The top 9 make the $200,000 final, with the next 9 in the consolation. We have some pretty serious work to do to have a shot at the final. In reality, we need a win. Hopefully, we will get a little race luck to go our way on the 16th.

In other news, Danny and is now the winningest driver in the history of Wisconsin…at least when looking at overall win percentage. He is one for one! He piloted Mr. Prince to victory at the Mineral Point Matinee on Sunday June 29th. After getting to the lead and going a blistering first quarter pace of 37 seconds (sorry Danny, I had to throw one jab about that), he held off a couple of challenges and coasted home for at 2 length victory. Nice work!

The Train Keeps Rollin

2009-06-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

I haven’t checked in for awhile here at the blog, but things have been going quite well for Mr. Mo and his quest to become the greatest racehorse stabled at Pocono Downs, trained by John Butenschoen and owned by two guys who live in Wisconsin (a relatively small pool of horses). First before I get into racing, note the title of this entry. A couple of friends and I took in the Areosmith show at Alpine Valley a couple of weeks ago and I have to say, those dudes can still bring it. Great show that I’d highly recommend. Anyway, since his big 2nd place finish in the first leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Series, he has come back for two tightners and finished a strong 2nd on June 16th and was back in last night.

Last night was a fun one. Our group of three (plus race fan Jeremy Schlitz), headed down to our South Beloit off track betting parlor hangout to watch the race. I had missed the race the week before due to contractual obligations as the first basemen of the Urban Achievers, our men’s slow pitch softball team. It hasn’t been the best year for the Achievers, so I was glad when the race fell on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday so I could partake in both. It was steak night on Wednesday, but Schlitz said afterward we made a good decision getting a hamburger. Anyway, we were enjoying a night of losing virtually all of our bets until Mo’s race. We were all pretty nervous because we knew he had a legit chance to win (although he was the 2nd betting favorite). Even with a good horse wins are very hard to come by and this field had enough talent in it to knock us off.

The race started very well for us as driver Joe Pavia got Mo right off the gate and to the front with relative ease. Coming around the first turn into the first of three straight-aways on a 5/8s mile track, a long shot was coming up on our outside as he didn’t find a place to drop on the rail. This was concerning. He was going to try and make it all the way to the front so he wasn’t hung out the entire mile. We didn’t want to let him go since we didn’t want to be stuck behind a long shot. The result was that we had to work a bit harder than we hoped on the front end to continuously fend him off. Around the 2nd turn we slowly pulled a length in front, which also helped as the favorite, Precious Medal, was behind the long shot. Just after the half mile mark, Precious Medal got anxious and went around the long shot who was beginning to fall back. I thought the challenge would come from the outside, but the real challenge was sitting right behind us. Rapid Centurian had the perfect trip, following right behind Mo the entire way. Going into the last turn, it became clear that the betting public picked the wrong horse as Precious Medal began to fall back and Mo started to pull away from everyone…everyone except Rapid Centurian. As they turned for home, it became a two horse race. Rapid Centurian came up the inside and Mo dug in as we hollered at the 10 inch TV and hit the table in support of our colt. As they hit the wire, Rapid Centurian’s bid for an upset fell a neck short and Mr. Mo had his first win under our ownership. It wasn’t a major victory, but half of a $9,500 purse is nothing to shake a stick at…and we finally get to order a win picture (which I will post once I get it).

You would never guess what happened after our mini celebration and cashing of winning tickets. The song came on. What song you ask? ‘Over My Head’ from the Frey. Honestly, I remember hearing it out in Pittsburgh when Danny and I walked into the casino. And now RIGHT after our race at an off track betting parlor in South Beloit! Are you kidding me??? A little bit eerie if you ask me. The other kind of ‘strange’ thing that happened was right before our race, we heard a familiar name being called over the speaker of a nearby TV. Blue Man Group. Blue Man is In Over My Head’s half brother (the story of that is back in an early blog post). I haven’t heard his name in a long time, but he was racing at Ocean Downs in Maryland last night and we just happened to hear his name being called. Also kind of eerie. Blue Man finished 3rd, which is a good finish for the little guy. Just a quick backtrack, if these two brothers were humans, Mo would be about 6’3” and Blue Man would be about 5’6”.

So now we are all set for leg 2 of the Pennsylvania Sire Series to be raced next Tuesday at Pocono Downs. I will be heading out with the lovely Laura as she gets her first taste of live horse racing. I’m sure she’ll enjoy watching me in my standard panicky freaked out nervous state of mind before the race starts. Some of the big dogs from last time, Lis Again (winner), Johnny Z (2nd) and Arctic Warrior (3rd) are all in Toronto racing in the consolation of the North American Cup that goes for $100,000. A special good luck to all those connections especially since they are not racing against us! The final of the North American Cup should be very interest as it is one of the richest events of the year and showcases the best 3 year olds in the US and Canada. The purse of $1.5 million turns a lot of heads. One horse to watch is Annieswesterncard. In Mo’s first lifetime start back at Hawthorne last July he made a very strong move near the end of the race to nearly get his nose in front at the wire, but who do you think was flying up on the outside for the victory? That’s right, Annieswesterncard. Best of luck to those connections as well.

In other racing news, my cousin Danny is about to eclipse a personal milestone this coming Sunday: his first ever start as a driver. Danny will be driving Mr. Prince, a 3 year old colt Greg owns in the Mineral Point matinee. Best of luck to Danny and hopefully he can get his driving win percentage up to 100%!

A Successful Trip to The Meadows

2009-06-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

Danny and I are back from Steel City and luckily for us, our trip to watch In Over My Head in his first stakes action of the season was well worth it. It has been months since I got a chance to see him race in person and I kind of forgot just how nervous I get at the track. It is nearly crippling. In a goofy way, though, that is exactly why it is fun to own a horse. Danny was doing better than I was, but I think my negative nervousness ended up bring him down just before post time. We can laugh about it now, though. Our horse performed admirably.

We got in at about 11am after an early morning flight and immediately went to the Meadows track, or what used to be the Meadows track. It is now a track/ casino and I have to say, the facility is a perfect example of what a racing venue should look like in the 2000s and beyond. Gone are the massive grandstands. They simply aren’t needed anymore. With off track betting, internet betting, video replays, on track patrons just don’t flock like they used to. They have nice seating outside, a large apron, seating inside with views of the track from numerous dining areas (from a food court to a higher end restaurant). The casino blends nicely into the race area and the first level also includes a Vegas style off track better area. The casino has multiple bars with lounge acts at night. It not just a track. Not just a casino, but a blended entertainment facility. It is clean, bright and welcoming. If Illinois could stop arguing and put a facility like that at Maywood Park, the results would be off the charts. I digress. Back to the trip.

I put a call into our trainer, John Butenschoen, when we got there to ask what barn he was in so we could come up and see the horse, but he wasn’t at the track yet. He was broke down on the side of the road. He was riding in with another trainer and they had a trailer full of horses, including our Mo. That was not exactly what I expected to hear. As it turned out, a third trainer John knew was nice enough to stop on the side of the road. He had room for one more horse in his truck and since Mo was in the back of the trailer attached to the broken down rig, so he got to go. John’s wife Jackie got the nerve wrecking job of leading a racehorse from one trailer to another on the side of the interstate as cars and semis flew by at 70 mph. She got him in the other trailer and when I called her shortly thereafter, she and Mo had just arrived at the track. Problem diverted. At least for us.

I’m not real proud of where my mind when next, but I guess I’ll chalk it up to human nature and I think Danny will agree he was in the same boat. In the trailer, still stuck on the side of the road was a horse named Upfront Hoosierboy. Hoosierboy was in our race and was the favorite to win. I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this. Our number one competitor might just end up spending the day on the side of the road and could possibly miss the race. What a selfish thought, but we joked about it possibly happening. Well, Hoosierboy ended up making it well before race time and we were taught a bit of a lesson.

I’m not sure if this trip was just chalk full of omens or I was just overly perceptive, but as we walked out of the casino to head over to the barn to see Jackie and the colt, Over My Head from the Frey was playing over the casino speakers. That song has nothing to do with horses, horse racing or trips to Pittsburgh and I’m not saying it was any kind of omen, but just saying I heard it and the precise time we were walking over to see our horse who shares a similar name. That’s all.

We got back over to the barn to get our first look at the horse we had not seen since buying him at the Meadowlands sale four and a half months before. Boy, that colt looked good. He really wasn’t any larger from a height perspective (maybe a little), but he had really filled out. Looked much stronger, fuller and well balanced. He personality was also a little different. When I saw him previously, he was pretty calm, but he had matured into an aggressively playful young colt. He spent the next 15 minutes trying to bite Danny and I as we caught up with Jackie. That is another reason I like going to the track. It is always fun to see John and Jackie and catch up.

It was time for lunch and after driving around for about 10 minutes, Danny spotted a Chinese buffet and we agreed a big lunch of sauced up deep fried food would be a great idea. The buffet was pretty much as you’d expect it, but the end was a little more than interesting. As our two fortune cookies sat wrapped on the table, Danny said, ‘here it is Shawn, time to get our fortunes.’ Given the fact we had traveled as far as we did and we were about 6 hours to race time, the fortune held much more meaning than a usually trip to eat chicken and broccoli. Danny opened his up first and the fortune was, well, interesting. It said, ‘don’t gain happiness from other people’s sorrow.’ Upfront Hoosierboy was stuck in a trailer on the highway as our horse happily ate lunch in his stall and we were thinking that might help us get into the winners circle. Kind of eye opening, don’t you think? I then grabbed my cookie and snapped it open. ‘Get in your car and go home, nothing good will happen to you here.’ Just kidding, but that’s what I told Danny it said. I then actually read it and got a bit of a chill. ‘Chances are present to make huge personal gains.’

The time between lunch and the race is kind of a blur. We went back to see Mo one more time. Played a few slots. Had a brew or two and before you knew it, the races were on. We were in the 8th race and I swear that the first seven races went by in about 10 minutes. Danny and I found our spot on the rail and watched the horses in our race parade out. Mo looked good on the track. He was being driving by Doug Snyder, who we didn’t know much about and weren’t sure how he would do. Any concerns we had were quickly forgotten once the race started. As we watched him go by again in the warmup, the nervousness was crippling. We used the tension to crack jokes about the race. I was hoping that Mo would finish. Danny thought I was being too negative. We leaned over the rail as if the tension was causing us to lose our lunch. Watching a race on TV is tense. Being at the track adds a multiplier. This was his first big test since it his time off. Was In Over My Head as good as we thought he was? Would he rise to the occasion or crumble under the weight of increased competition he was facing? In addition, a $42,250 purse is no joke. Snagging a chunk of that would go a long way towards paying for his summer racing and maybe even getting to the point of playing with house money so to speak.

After all of this buildup, the race was, quite frankly, kind of melodramatic. Snyder masterfully took Mo off the gate and to the front in the blink of an eye. After holding the lead for just a short time, the aforementioned Upfront Hooiserboy (now bet down to a heavy favorite) took the lead. Danny and I looked at each other with guarded excitement. We had the two-hole trip and all we had to do was play follow the leader and a big chunk of that purse would be ours. The second favorite, Big Ten Champ, moved on the leader between the half and three quarter mark, but as they turned for home, Hoosierboy began to pull away from his first over challenger and Mo was happy to keep on following closely. The stretch run was simple. Hoosierboy went on for the win by about 2 lengths. We took 2nd, clear of the 3rd place horse by about 2 more lengths. In Over My Head raced great and proved he belonged in this class of stakes colts. In only his second start, he went an even faster mile (1.52.4). We have the horse that we had hoped we would when we bought him that brisk January day nearly four and a half months before.

After a good race, it is time to get on the cell phone and start calling everyone who was waiting on the report. I started with my brother, as I always do. Actually, Kirk is really one of the only people I will call whether I goes good or bad. He knows the game better than I do and always has a good piece of advice or shares his congratulations. Then Mom and Dad and Laura. The calls are a lot of fun. Danny and I then headed over to the paddock to see our buddy. He was probably the only horse in the barn that got the rock star treatment of having his picture taken a dozen or so times. He was much more calm and didn’t try and bite us…guessing he was a little tired. We helped John and Jackie get everything back to the original barn and said our goodbyes. Assuming everything goes as planned, we’ll get to see them again at the end of June when Mo has his next stakes event at their home track of Pocono Downs.

Danny and I celebrated the great race by having a couple of cold beverages and trying to hit the Wheel of Fortune slot machines (it didn’t go too well), but it didn’t matter. We were there for the race and the race had gone great. Sometimes a normal life event can teach you a new lesson, or in this case, remind you of one you already knew. Now, I’m not saying that those slips of paper in those cookies were anything more than coincidence. However, it was a little eerie if you ask me. Don’t gain happiness from other people’s sorrow. Had Hoosierboy been stuck on that highway longer, we may have won, but it wouldn’t have been right. The right horse did win that night and we were a game 2nd. Two fortunes were fulfilled that night.

Sire Series Leg 1 Draw

2009-06-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

It is amazing just how nerve-wrecking this can be and the nerves don't just kick in for the actual race. Today was a good example of that. At 9am this morning, they drew for the fields in the 1st leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Series to be held at The Meadows racetrack near Pittsburgh this Thursday. They way they do it in the series is to draw even groups of horses. So, if 48 horses enter, you end up with 6 divisional races with 8 horses in each. As you could imagine, there can be a rather large difference in talent depending on where you draw.

There are a number of horses in this event with gaudy winning marks and eye popping earnings on the year including:

- Johnny Z: $176,000 in earnings
- Rusty's All In: $99,000
- Artists Rally: $90,000
- Dan Carter: $50,000 and a mark of 1.50.3

So back to the draw. It was completed with morning starting at about 9am and then it is a waiting game to see when it gets posted on the ustrotting.com website. I went into the 'entries' section and kept hitting refresh until it finally came up at about 1pm. I had a rock in my gut and slowing scrolled down revealing one division after another. When I got to the 8th race, I saw our colt nicely situation in the #5 post position and all of the big names above were not going to be joining him in Thursdays race. Whew.

At the end of the day, you never want to be in over your head (pun intended). You want to ‘fit’ the group you are racing against. That doesn’t mean you will win, but it simply means that if you are feeling right, you can complete. At first glace, I think Mo can compete with this group. This group is not easy (no PASS event ever will be), but again, I think he can compete. That’s all an owner can ask.

Race One Goes as Planned

2009-05-29T18:50:00.001-07:00

Mo is officially back. Last night he made his first start at Pocono Downs in a Non Winners of 3 to 5 races lifetime. You know the old saying that ‘perception is reality’? Well, my perception of what this race would be like wasn’t really reality. I kind of expected Mo to fall into a relatively soft field and have a legitimate chance to win even coming off this long layoff. That wasn’t the reality, but now that I look back at it a day removed, that’s just fine.

The field he faced was actually chalk full of talent. The #1 horse, Mobile, won $110,000 as a 2 year old and like us was making his second charted race off of a layoff (he was off a month). The #2 horse, My Old Friend John, won $124,000 as a 2 year old and made a run at the Berry’s Creek stake a couple weeks back. He didn’t make the final after finishing 6th in his elimination race, but only got beat by 2 lengths. The #7 horse, Precious Medal, took in $98,000 as a 2 year old and was coming off two fast qualifiers as compared to Mo’s single qualifier. Toss in a hot 5 year old (Nuclear Joe Joe) coming off two straight 1.51.1 miles and you have the makings of a stakes race. Not an easy task for Mr. Mo off that long layoff.

In the end our driver, Joe Pavia Jr., did what was best for Mo: he took him to the back and raced him up easy before urging him to turn it on in the stretch. I have to be honest, though, it was kind of hard to watch him sit back like that. The in race emotion was ‘why is he so content to just sit back?’, but upon further review, there was no other way to do it. Mo needed this race to get tight and he did. After closing with the fastest last quarter of the bunch in 27.4, he flew at the leaders and took 4th, only getting beat by 2 and ½ lengths. A longer stretch and he probably would have caught one or two more, but in the long run, that really doesn’t matter. He dropped 2 more seconds off his qualifying time to pace in 1.53.1. That’s a nice first mile on that track.

Now things start to get really exciting. We’ll be entering Mr. Mo in the first leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Series next Thursday at the Meadows Racetrack near Pittsburgh. It will be a tough race, but will go for good money and after last night, I really feel Mo is ready. He will likely be facing much of the same types of horses as Mobile, My Old Friend John and Precious Medal (and potentially will actually see them). What’s more, Danny and I are flying out to cheer him on! It has been a long time since we’ve seen the colt. We will make sure to get some new pictures to put up on the site. Stay tuned, the draw is on Monday and after our perpetual outside post positions, we are due for a good one.

Qualifying Day

2009-05-25T13:13:00.001-07:00

Eighty nine days ago (from when I first typed this), In Over My Head came out of the 10 hole in the $82,500 Junior Trendsetter Final at the Meadowlands. He gunned to the front, held the lead past the half and gutted out a 3rd place finish at 85-1 odds. Then we quit with him. It was a decision that was difficult, yet very simple. He never had a big break between his 2 and 3 year old seasons. He was relatively slow to mature as compared to some of his contemporaries. He needed more time and we just hoped it would pay off in the long run.

Will it pay off? Well, we just don’t know yet, but today was a step in the right direction. After getting the reports of some nice training miles, he took to the track at Pocono Downs in a qualifier this morning. John Butenschoen acted as a player/ coach (in horse racing terms, the driver/ trainer) and the results were great. He won in 1.55.1 (which is a new lifetime win mark for him) by open lengths. Sounds like he went easy on him in the stretch as he had proven all he needed to this day.

The race occurred this morning at about 10:30 and wouldn’t you know it, I had a big meeting starting at 10:00 am. It was so important that I never once thought about how the colt was doing…OK, that’s a lie, I thought about it a couple of times. Once I got back to the office, I saw the calls from John and Danny…had to be good, I thought and after barreling to my computer and pulling up ustrotting.com, I realized it was.
So what’s next? Finally time to race again! Taking a page from the book of every coach who ever lived, you need to take things one game (or race) at a time. You know where you hope to go, but can’t look ahead too much. At least we are off to a good start.

It’s All In the Stars

2009-05-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

I actually took some time this weekend to watch a little bit of the NBA playoffs. Now, I’m a huge basketball guy, but an average fan of the NBA (at best). Too long of a season, guarantied contracts make too many players lazy and the court is too small for these mammoth athletes (how about that one??? Think about it, the court for a 5th grade girls game is the same width as an NBA game…no wonder they stall in the half court). Anyway, despite everyone’s constant bashing of the NBA, it is a popular league and one thing they do better than almost everyone is the promotion of their stars. This point was driven home with the 500,000th shot of Kevin Garnett sitting on the sidelines in a suit, scowling at opposing players and trying to blind them by bouncing a run away stadium laser light off his boulder sized diamond ear ring. The guy isn’t even on the court and he is a focus. Why? Because the NBA promotes their stars no matter what.

Flash back to a blog post a couple of weeks ago in which I was talking about the need for racing to have aged horses racing for multiple years. I truly believe that is a NEED of racing in order to gain the public’s interest. No one outside of the tight racing community will have a clue who Somebeachsomewhere is by the end of this year (heck, they may have forgot about him already) and like I have said, he is a legit SUPERSTAR. Pardon my bluntness, but he is a worthless superstar in the breeding shed from a promotional perspective. No one knows about him and no one cares. Horses can start breeding at 6 or 7 just as easily, but as his owner stated, they need a reason to keep racing. What better reason that money and fame? Certainly seems to keep Mr. Favre interested in playing football.

Everyone can agree on one thing: racing need to market and promote much better. The question is how and with who? I really believe that these efforts need to be focused. You simply can’t promote ALL of it. You can’t cover every age, every gait, every race from a conditioned claimer on up to the Hambeltonian. It is literally impossible. I’ve always thought if you focus your promotion on the best of the best, the rising tide will lift all boats…including $2,000 claiming races at a small track.

Which brings us back to the loosely described idea I had a in a blog entry a couple of weeks back. An annual series that focuses on the aged pacers in harness racing (as a side note, trotters should also be considered, but it is important not to bite off too much at once). Aged pacers offer as the most marketable for a number of reasons including name recognition, durability (compared to younger horses) and anohter is consistency. The problem with focusing on the Hambeltonian or any younger horse race (especially trotters) is the general public have no idea what a break is, what it means or why it is happening. They think the horse is hurt, drivers are stiffing the public or it just ruins the race. The less breaking, the better.

I’ve recently been reading a number of well known horsemen describe a 5% or 10% solution in which a certain percentage of purses will be skimmed by the USTA and used to market the sport. That same solution should be used for this plan. The promotion and marketing needs to be FOCUSED and the series I’m about to describe is prefect for that. If you can identify with aged pacers, other ages and gaits will also benefit. Think of Nascar. They focus on the Sprint Cup series, but because of the success of that, the Nationwide series benefits, the truck series benefits and on down the line.

In a bullet point summary, here are the high points of a potential Harness Racing Series:

-A twelve race season with one race in May, two races in June, July, August, September and October. The final race will be in November. This represents enough races that a horse could miss (due to injury or other commitments) and not ruin the entire season. Also, twelve races over the course of six months is not overly grueling.
- Track schedule would obviously have to be negotiated, but in a general sense, the following tracks could be used in some sort of order: The Meadowlands, Yonkers, Pocono Downs, The Meadows, Chester Downs, Deleware (LJB track), Hoosier (or Indianapolis Downs), Balmoral Park, Springfield, Lexington, Dover and it could end at The Meadowlands again.
- Events in similar regions would be clustered together to avoid access shipping.
- Each event would have up to four separate divisions, drawn at random, meaning a maximum of 40 horses could compete on a given event. If more than 40 enter, ties are broken by series earnings first and lifetime earnings second.
- Each event would either race for $800,000 or $400,000, so if there are four divisions, individual races would go for either $200,000 or $100,000.
- 100 points are also awarded in each race in the following breakdown (from winner to last in a 10 horse field): 33, 22, 15, 10, 7, 4, 3, 1, 1, 1
- The first nine races would set up the final three. In the final three races, horses ranked 1-10 will compete together in the AAAA division finals. Horses ranked 11-20 will compete in the AAA division final, horses ranked 21-30 in the AA and horses ranked 31-40 in the A division final.
- These fields do not change unless of an injury or another reason a horse is pulled out. In which case, the horse with the next highest point total will get moved up one division (AAA to AAAA, AA to AAA and so on).
- Purses for the final three weeks are as follows:
AAAA: $500,000 per race
AAA: $200,000 per race
AA: $100,000 per race
A: $50,000 per race
-The winner of the AAAA division of the series will receive a $1,000,000 bonus.
-In addition, the winners of each division will receive a trophy (which will be named to build recognition and history over time).

That is how I envision the series in a nutshell. With any idea, there are numerous questions, but I’ll address the obvious one first: where is all the money coming from? Under this scenario, you would need $10.75 million in purse money to cover all the races and bonus. Here is where the 5% solution comes in.

In 2008, the top 50 two year old and three year old pacers earned a combined $36,860,000. Taking 5% of that purse money equates to $1,843,000. Again, that is just the top 50 two year olds and top 50 three year olds. It does not apply to aged races, claiming races and so on. The 5% solution could apply to more than just those horses. However, I believe it should have a floor, meaning that it should not apply to purses checks below a certain amount (say $10,000).

Additional revenues could come from starting fees (if it were just $500 per race with 40 starters and 12 races, that is another $240,000). A portion of the purse money could be offset from track handle as well. I would venture to guess that these races would be very well bet given the constant racing, balanced fields and marketing efforts.

There must be a lot more to make this series successful, including incredibly stringent testing and massive penalties for violators, limitless amounts of marketing opportunities (on the silks, on the bikes, on the numbers, on the track, you really can’t rule anything out) as well as gimmicks (driver helmet cameras, build up of rivalries between horses, trainers, drivers and owners, fantasy horse racing and on and on). I will continue to lay out more ideas over time. I really believe that something like this is what is necessary to draw new attention to harness racing. I’m not sure if anyone will agree or even hear about this, but feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested.

In other news, Mr. Mo will qualify this week on Thursday and I can't even talk about it. Just too nervous. Sounds like he has been doing his work well for John Butenschoen and should be ready to go. We are so hopeful, but you can't put the cart before the horse (literally and figuratively). We will have an update on Friday.

Berry's Creek

2009-05-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

The first big three year old race of the year, the Berry’s Creek, will be raced on Saturday night at the Meadowlands. This is the twentieth installment of the event that has always been raced at the Meadowlands. Its name comes from the actual Berry’s Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River, which runs just west of the Meadowlands.

The first ever Berry’s Creek (in 1989) was won by Fiorello Blue Chip, a Precious Fella colt out of a Steady Star mare. Fiorello Blue Chip went on to win $740,000 in 95 career starts. The Berry’s Creek purse in 1989 was $309,250 (interestingly higher than this year’s purse of $230,000) and the score of $154,625 equated to 21% of Fiorello Blue Chip’s total lifetime earnings. Not bad for one night at the Big M.

The first major ‘star’ to win the Berry’s Creek was arguably Cam’s Card Shark. CCS earned $2,500,000 in just 30 lifetime starts. His winning time in 1994 was 1.51.0, the second fastest in the then short history of the race, second only to Vine Street’s 1.50.2 victory the year prior. Vine Street’s win that night increased the colt’s earnings by $175,000, but didn’t propel him to greatness like CCS as it represented nearly 50% of his lifetime earnings of $356,000. One thing those two colts did have in common was their driver, John Campbell, who has won the Berry’s Creek a record five times.

The morning line favorite this year is River Shark, a colt out of Four Starzzz Shark who is beginning to round into form as a top 3 year old. He was only a $9,000 purchase at the 2007 Lexington Select Yearling sale. The fun thing about going to those sales is looking back and seeing if you made any notes or had thoughts about horses. I pulled out my old catalog and took a look at hip number 568. ‘Saw Saturday AM’ I wrote with a rating of 7 and a comment of ‘too slim’. I commend the owners for having more insight than I did!

There are a couple of horses in this race that our own In Over My Head took on earlier in the year, including the second favorite Hypnotic Blue Chip. He took some time off in late winter/ early spring and in his first race back he won his elimination to the Berry’s Creek in 1.51.2. In my opinion, Hypnotic Blue Chip doesn’t have to take a back seat to anyone in this field. It will be interesting to see what kind of price he goes off at with the money chasing the River Shark entry.

In other news, Mr. Mo is getting close to qualifying to re-start his 3 year old season. He is training down with John Butenschoen at Pocono and hope to get a qualifier and a start in by the end of May. It’s getting close and I can’t wait!