The Movie Finally Comes to an End

 We never knew how or when this ride with In Over My Head would end.  I always assumed it would end when we decided to move on from harness racing.  It was starting to seem like our time with In Over My Head was going to be our peak.  While we continued to enjoy the sport, we would never ascend back to that level of success and excitement.  Mo would always be our one and only go to story to share with people that asked about our time in racing.  After all, we are as small time as it gets in this game. 

The amount of strings that have come tied together in the past few weeks is amazing.  The story of In Over My Head has tied itself into a nice little bow.

The central character in this story is In Over My Head himself.  After spending three years as a stallion at Lesa Peter's farm in Iowa, she decided to move on from him.  While he had produced a couple of decent horses, it wasn’t enough to keep breeders interested.  He was recently moved to his new home in Virginia to live on a farm and breed riding horses.  We will forever be thankful that Lesa gave him a chance to succeed.

Two weeks before that, the one offspring we bred from In Over My Head (and maybe the only horse we will ever breed!), ended his racing career and began a new one as a riding horse (thanks Kim).  He will lead a great new life, but I had really struggled accepting that the dream of a 'Mo clone' fell flat.  He was a failure as a racehorse.  It took nearly 3 years to realize that dream was simply wishful thinking and it stung every time I came across something that reminded me of In Over My Head...an old tee-shirt, wristband, program or whatever else we had saved over the years.  I certainly wasn't interested in finishing up this blog and in reality, I was ready to take it down.

For whatever reason, I had begun to accept that portion of our life was over.  Greg was no longer with us (it will be 5 years in November), In Over My Head is no longer a stallion to racehorses, our own offspring was done.  Some of the key places from the story are gone.  The family lumber yard was torn down last year.  Maywood Park, the place of our greatest achievement, was torn down last year as well.  All that was left were pictures, race replays and memories.  It was the morning of Saturday September 12th that all of this kind of began to move from painful to acceptable.  It was time to let go.  That doesn't mean forget, but to not hold on so tight to the point that it is holding you down.  It was time to accept the fact that the next adventure can't really begin until you let go of the past one and that what Danny and I had to do.

People have often told us that our story of In Over My Head is like a movie, so I began to envision an ending scene of our movie.  It had to be a bit bittersweet and accompanied by some melancholy music.  Reminiscing about what happened but hopeful about what lies ahead.  As a basketball junkie, I naturally envision the closing scene in Hoosiers.  The coach’s voice still echoes off the cinder block walls as the camera closes in on the championship team picture that hangs on the wall of the gym as a young kid pounds the ball onto the hardwood floor, heaving it toward the hoop that is too tall for him.  The gym is silent except for the old coach’s voice before the ball slams back to the ground.  The story is over, but the new generation hopes to recreate successes of the past.    

The comparisons for us a very similar.  The pictures will always hang on the walls.  The replays will always be watched and remembered.  Some of the horses, people and places involved remain, but others are no longer with us or have moved onto something else.  The excitement, sadness, jubilation and despair will forever live with the story of In Over My Head and they will be shared with future generations and hung onto just like past stories from the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s still are held tightly by Danny, his sister Kim, my brother Kirk, myself and others.

This is where the movie is supposed to fade to black.  Coach’s voice softly floats away as does the sound of the bouncing ball.  As it turns out, not all movies end the same… 

On the evening of September 12^th, with our entire families in the room, Danny and I had another experience of a lifetime when Blank Stare won the New York Sires Series championship.  He was not a long shot like In Over My Head, but we knew he would need some race luck to have a chance.  His winning trip and winning time, 1.52.2, were replicas of Mo’s win the 2009 Windy City Pace.  The track, Yonkers Raceway, was the site of Grandpa's biggest wins with Speedy Rodney, including the Goshen Trot and United Nations Trot in the mid-1960s.  It was almost as if fate was tipping its cap to the past and also letting us know it was our time to take the reins.

The story with In Over My Head was something that we hung onto for over 10 years.   Let’s hope this new one will last that long, let’s hope our kids get more into it (I’m sure they will) and let’s hope we eventually make some better wardrobe selections.  We like this ending much more than just fading to black:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4BWp_9oCt0

The Fight

This post is based on a true story.  Part of have been embellished and parts of just been created.  Since I wasn't there when it happened, I had to take some liberties.

The world is so big when you are young, especially if your entire world can be contained in a single fenced enclosure in a small town.  The world certainly felt big for three young horses named As Fast As You ("Fast"), Prince A Insta ("Prince"), Going For Broke ("Broke").  They ran in a pack with some others, but they mostly kept to their small group.

Interestingly enough, all three of the colts were brothers. Half brothers to be exact, but they all had the same father.  He wasn't a father that looked after them, but he was a father that looked out over them.  They called him the Stallion.  He loomed large both in stature and by the fact the field that he ran in was up a gently sloping hill from where the youngsters spent their days.  From their perspective, the Stallion seemed like a giant.

The Stallion's home was just on the other side of a simple fence.  He was unlike many other stallions of his breed.  He was highly intelligent and generally very kind.  The farmers had let him live next to the yearlings for months and have never had any issues.  They would occasionally holler back and forth, but it was clear who was boss.  He was supremely confident in his new role just as he was on the racetrack.  He didn't feel there was any reason to physically exert his dominance over the young horses.

The three horses had very different personalities.  Broke was the loudest and and fancied himself as the leader of the pack.  Fast was the quiet confident type.  He didn't often lead the pack and many times just went with the flow.  When he did speak, however, his friends would listen and even the boisterous leader would back down and go along with him.  Prince was the jokester of the group.  He was usually found in the back and the others enjoyed having him around.

The young horses and the Stallion lived their separate lives, right next to each other for months.  The three brothers would often talk about what they would do if the Stallion broke through the fence and came after them.

"I'd stand right up to him," said Broke.  "He isn't all that tough.  I bet I could stare him down and he'd just walk away."

Prince just laughed, "Sure you would tough guy.  You're all talk...you'd turn tail and run if the Stallion even came close to the fence!  At least I'll admit what I'd do.  I'd be up over the hill and screaming for my life trying to hide behind anything I could find!"

Fast stood there silent.  "What would you do Fast?" Broke finally asked.

"I guess I don't know for sure.  I'd like to think there is a chance he'd want to talk to me, but if he broke through the fence he probably wouldn't be in the mood to talk.  To be honest, if he went through the trouble of busting through the fence to come after us, I'd be pretty ticked off.  We're just a couple of yearlings.  We don't pose him any threat.  Maybe I'd tell him to leave us alone."

"Make sure you say it loud so I can hear you from over the hill," said Prince and the group all had a good laugh.

Days went by and very little changed.  The colts got a little bit bigger and they continued to live their lives with the Stallion watching over them.

It all changed one very hot and humid summer day.  No breeze.  The air literally felt heavy.  With the summer sun beating down on the dark coated colts, their moods were sour.  They were uncomfortable and unhappy.  The same attitude was also afflicting the Stallion. The normally calm horse was clearly on edge.  Running the fence line and staring at the young colts.  He'd then go back to his barn, but not long after, he'd be back.  Fast, Prince and Broke were on edge.

"What's wrong with him today?" Broke asked.  "He's really starting to freak me out.  He's ran that fence and look at us before, but not like this.  I think we need to just back off."

"Wait a second...I thought you were getting ready to stand up to him?  Next time he comes down you should run the fence with him and see who's faster," taunted Prince.

In the time that it took for the three horses to look at each other and share a laugh, the Stallion was back at the fence, but this time he wasn't running the fence line.  He ran right through it.  For the first time in there lives, there was nothing between them and the Stallion. 

The muscular Stallion towered over the young horses and his presence triggered the most natural reaction a horse has for both Broke and Prince.  They turned and ran as fast as they could.  They assumed the Fast was right behind them, but when they got clear and looked back, their hearts sank.   
What they saw appeared to be the biggest mismatch since David took on Goliath.  Fast was standing face to face with the Stallion.  The move surprised the Stallion and he didn't make a move right away.  Then, sensing that the young horse was actually contemplating a challenge and pounded his front hooves on the ground.

"Get out of there Fast!" his brothers yelled, but Fast didn't move.  He stood there, half in awe and half in defiance of the Stallion.

It was then that the Stallion let out one final warning blast and stood on his hind legs.

Fast whinnied back.  His voice sounding pathetically weak compared to that of the Stallion.  For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to back down.  He was mad.  The Stallion had no business bothering them.  He was just in a bad mood, but so was Fast.

A feeling of panic began washing over his brothers bothers as stood as statues just 50 feet away.

"The Stallion's going to kill him," Broke softly muttered.

Fast's could hear the farmers yelling and could see them running out of the corner of his eye toward the site of the standoff, but he knew there were too far away to stop this.  He would never strike first and it was going to be up to the Stallion to decide if this was going to go from a standoff to a live battle.  As the Stallion reared up again, Fast knew that he was past the point of rescue.

He felt the first blow his his side, but everything after that was a blur.  He knew there was more blows and bites but it wasn't until a front hoof came crashing down on his stifle that the real pain set in.  He tried to fight back, but to an outside observer it may have appeared that he wasn't trying at all.  It was all happening so quickly and he was woefully in over his head.

At last, the farmers arrived and grabbed the Stallion before he could do any further damage to his young offspring.  As he stood there trying to asses how bad he was beaten up, he caught the Stallion's eye.  He gingerly turned to face him, nursing his injured back leg.

"You would have done the same thing when you were a kid, Stallion.  You would have stood your ground."

The anger in the Stallion's face faded and a was replaced by a wry smile.  His eyes narrowed as he looked at his offspring with a tinge of respect.  "That's exactly what I would have done."

Let's hope that our little Fast carries the same level of toughness that his father had.  If he does, we may be in for a fun ride.

Riding in Style

I’m not sure I have this story 100% correct, but from what I’ve been able to gather this is pretty close. 

The year was probably around 1965 and the hot streak was continuing for my grandpa in the horse business.  Starting in the late 1950s he had hit on a couple of real nice horses, but now he had gone from good to great with his grand circuit star Speedy Rodney.  As the purse money flowed in, he did what anyone would have done in those times.  He went out and bought a Cadillac.  It may have been gold, but I can’t confirm that.  

From that day forward, he always owned a Cadillac.  Fourteen of them to be exact with the last one being purchased in 2005.  Grandpa died in 2012 and Grandma has driven it ever since, but as of this year she didn’t have a need for a car anymore.  The plan was to sell it and my mom asked if I was interested.  At first, it didn’t seem very logical.  We didn’t need it.  We only have a 2-car garage.  However, as is the case with many things horse racing related, sometimes you have to look beyond basic logic to determine the right choice.

After throwing logic to the wolves, I am happy to say that Grandpa and Grandma’s last Cadillac has found a nice new home…in my garage.  My everyday car has been demoted to the driveway.  It is the unofficial ‘company car’ of the In Over My Head Stable.  Danny and I have yet to take it to a race, but the plan is to drive it to Lexington this fall.  It needs a little bit of work, but overall is in great shape and is physical reminder of Grandpa and his ties back to the first very first Cadillac he bought when his racing stable was hotter than a two-dollar pistol. 

Maybe the new Caddy will be our good luck charm.  It sure started out well.  After we bought it, Southern Flight went win, win, second.  He’s gone a couple of bad races, but that is just to do some sickness he has been fighting through…not even a good luck charm can hold off sickness.  I’m expecting good things in the near future with Flight and hopefully that luck carries over to our 2-year-old trotter named Darty that John Butenschoen (the master of young trotters) has out in Pennsylvania.

The other trip that I’m excited to take in the Cadillac is down to see As Fast As You.  We haven’t seen him in a while, but Lesa has told us he is growing up well and looks great (apparently all the In Over Head yearlings look great).  It is crazy to think that at this time next year, we will see his first crop getting to the racetrack and hopefully having some success.  And hopefully As Fast As You is the best of the bunch! 

We haven’t been real active on the updates here, but I think that will change in the coming months.  This whole thing started with us buying In Over My Head and now that his baby boy is getting closer to moving from a field to a jog cart, it will be fun to track that progress.  No matter what happens, it is nice to know that the next time we take a road trip, we will be riding in style and I’m sure Grandpa will be riding with us in spirit.

In Over My Head: Horse, Sire and now a Stable

Earlier this week I took a look at the stats for this In Over My Head blog webpage and noticed that it had just under 100 page views in the last week.  This happens periodically.  My assumption is that someone finds the page and reads the story from start to finish.  It is kind of crazy to think that it was nine years ago this Monday that Greg, Danny and I traveled to New Jersey and bought In Over My Head out of the Meadowlands sale.  He’s changed the trajectory of our lives in some ways and given the fact that people are still finding this page and reading the story, I thought I’d give a couple of updates.  The story of In Over My Head continues to live on in a couple of different ways.

As Fast As You in the foreground with his half brother

His Offspring

Our dream of seeing In Over My Head as a sire has taken off beyond what we thought was possible and this is really due to the outstanding care and focus of his current owner Lesa Peters.  Lesa has done a fantastic job promoting Mo throughout the Minnesota and Iowa circuit and through 2017 and two breeding seasons he has bred over 30 mares.  He has nearly a 100% success rate in getting mares in foal (at-a-boy Mo), which I think has really helped him and should continue to as he enters his 3^rd breeding season.  His oldest are yearlings this year and they look fantastic.  I know I’m biased, but it is a fact that his offspring look the part of a Grand Circuit horse.  He is a striking individual and he is passing that off to the next generation.  A year from now, we will start thinking about how they will fare on the racetrack, which is going to be fantastic to watch.

Our little In Over My Head (As Fast As You) is doing great and is also under the wonderful care of Lesa down in Iowa.  I have included an updated picture from just before Christmas and he is clearly starting to grow into himself.  Our plan is to get down to see him again in the spring.

Our Stable

Sometimes in life, a frustrating situation can lead to a new opportunity and that is exactly what happened this fall.  While we failed to get ourselves a horse down in Springfield last September (as mentioned in the last post), we did meet what tuned out to be our future co-owner in Jeff Davis of Dandy Farms.  Since then, we’ve picked up a couple of racehorses with him in the Indiana bred Southern Flight and OMG Hanover.  Both are off to a great start for us and have been fun to watch race.  We also were fortunate to get part of another yearling with John Butenschoen down in Lexington.  So after a couple years of struggling to get some new horses, the cup suddenly run-eth over! 

After picking up these new horses Danny and I decided to form a new stable to own them, but our biggest hang-up was the name.  Swenson Carey Stable?  Do we use initials?  Come up with something else?  It was on our trip back from Lexington that it hit us square in the face…we need to be named “In Over My Head Stable”.  What better way to carry on the story of Mo than to use his name on every horse that we plan to ever own.  So, if you even see “In Over My Head Stable” down as an owner, you can know that it ties back to us.

All Good Things Take Time...Lots of It

I remember a time a few years ago when we had multiple horses actively racing.  It was sometimes just a matter of days in between races.  I remember waiting for the next race was brutal…days seemed like weeks and on race day hours seemed like weeks.  I wish I could take a time machine back to those times and tell myself to relax and enjoy it because when 2017 rolls around you will try your hand at the breeding game…

And…it…will…be…very…very…very…very…s..l…o…w….

The overall slowness is magnified greatly by the fact we don’t have anything else racing.  It isn’t due to lack of effort.  We’ve been trying to buy a horse for over a year since we quickly (and wisely) parted ways with Royal Troon.  In late 2016 we bought into a horse name Tink and Tiger and raced him on New Years Eve at the Meadowlands.  Pretty exciting right?  He was claimed after one start.  Back to the drawing board.

Danny and I are doing our best to be selective and to date we have done a spectacular job because outside of Tink and Tiger, we have selected no one.  Not a single race horse has entered our stable.  Prices are very high and we are don't want to overpay.  This fact was driven home on Labor Day when we headed down to Springfield to try and get our hands on a reasonably priced Illinois bred horse.  We had about 10 to bid on and set clear purchase price limits before we started to bid.  Over the course of about 3 hours, I was about to put my hand in the air one time but never even got that bid in.  Back to the drawing board again.

Despite the slowness, we can at least be very thankful for our baby boy (and are happy to share a couple of pictures!).  He will always be referred to as Mini Mo, but he now has an actual name.  As Fast As You.  We found it to be pretty fitting given he comes from an ‘underdog’ sire.  Someday we dream of him lining up against more royally bred pacers and proving that he is, in fact, as fast as you.  The old Dwight Yoakum song was also a bit of an inspiration.  We've gone to visit him twice but not since June.  It is crazy how fast he has grown up (the one counter to general slowness).  He's a very sharp looking little guy.

These pictures are great because it shows he really does look like his old man (horse).  In about 12 months or so, we will be able to start the process of getting him trained and ready for his 2 year old season.  Given the fact we are nearly two years away from him making his first start (hopefully), it is really hard to imagine what it will feel like to watch him on the racetrack.  Will he deliver the same excitement In Over My Head did?  Will we become as attached as we did with In Over My Head?  We will just have to wait and see I guess.

While we wait for Mini Mo, we aren’t giving up on finding a new horse and are heading down to Lexington in two weeks to see if we can find something.  I’m not sure we can wait two more years before we have something racing.  While it is still fun to follow racing, it is far more fun when you have a horse in the race (literally and figuratively).

If we end up with a four legged investment, I’ll be sure to share some updates.  Until then, wish us luck.

The Next Generation

The next generation has arrived.

About 10 months ago, Danny and I purchased a mare we had never seen from someone we never met in person.  The only thing we really knew about the mare was that she was in foal to In Over My Head.  The plan was simple.  Cross our fingers and expect that roughly 10 months in the future we would have a little colt that resembled his dad.  Seemed easy enough, right? 

This was all based on the simple hope that we could extend the experience we had with In Over My Head.  Since he was done racing, we’d have to look to the next generation to keep this ride going.  I'm quite certain that anyone in the breeding business would have told us to temper our expectations.  It is far from a given that you will ever end up with an offspring with all the features we wanted.  Luckily, we didn’t take the time consult anyone with any actual experience prior to making the decision because if we did, this latest chapter would likely not be written.

As we forged ahead holding onto the motto, “Ignorance is bliss” we simply waited for our Mini Mo to arrive.  A couple other mares started to have baby Mo’s.  Some were colts, some were fillies.  Some looked like him, others did not.  All seemed to look really good overall (which is great for Mo’s future breeding options) and we were starting to get pretty anxious to see ours.

It was on Monday morning of April 17^th that Danny and I got a text from Lesa Peters telling us that it could be any day now.  The mare, Crystal Slipper, was getting close and the happy-go-lucky feeling of “let’s just wait for our little Mo to come along” started to fade away. 

What happened next started to resemble the feeling prior to a race.  On race day, the last handful of minutes prior to the start is when doubt washes over you like a tidal wave.  The same thing started to happen with us and our little plan for a mini Mo.   

What if we don’t get a colt that looks like Mo?  I guess that would be OK, but it would lose some luster.  What if we don’t get a colt at all…what if it’s a filly?  We got over that one too…fillies can really be just a fun.  We even came up with a girl name, but deep down we still hoped for colt.  The real concern was health.  What if something happened during birth?  What if he or she only has 3 legs???

Much like waiting for your own kids to be born you do just that.  Wait.  It was out of our control and just hoped for the best.

On Tuesday April 18^th I woke up in the middle of the night.  Hoping that I still had a couple of hours to sleep before the alarm went off, I checked my phone to see what time it was.  The time was actually 4am, but there was something else that caught my eye.  I noticed that two text messages that had come in after I went to bed.  The first was a picture what appeared to be a horse.  The second was a text from Danny. 

I knew that our horse had been born.  Was it a boy?  Did it look like In Over My Head?  As my heart rate quickly started to pick up speed, I sat up in bed and unlocked the phone.

The first message that I read was from Danny: 

  

“Now THAT looks like Mo!  Wow.” 

Engage goosebumps.  Heart rate continuing to accelerate.  Next I went to the picture and here is what I saw:

My response back to Danny:

“Holy smokes!!!  It’s a baby Mo!”

After 10 months of waiting, it’s official.  Our plan worked.  We have a Mo clone!!! 

Well at least in terms of looks which is a great start.

This little guy is darn near a spitting image of his father.  What is just as exciting is that Lesa said that he has shown some similar personality traits as his old man.  Hopefully he gets Mo’s intelligence to go with his good looks.

We will be forced to live in reality at some point, but for now, we can look at him as our little future champion.  We can think about seeing him out on the racetrack, closing hard like his daddy did as we run into the winner circle to celebrate another victory.  We will obviously have to wait to see if those things ever play out, but at least now have a little horse that we can go visit.  We can get to know his personality and hopefully start to form a connection like we did with Mo.

Over the last few months, I have hung a lot of racing memorability in our basement showing the multiple generations of our family’s time in the business. I have a magazine cover of Speedy Rodney winning the United Nations Trot in 1964, a win picture from the 1980s with Grandpa, Greg, my dad and brother Kirk, a win picture of Kirk’s filly from the 1990s, Grandpa and Greg’s horses from the early 2000’s and of course many pictures of In Over My Head, Greg, Danny, Kacy, Laura and me.  I’m very proud of the collection, but we have a gap forming from the most recent picture, which was from the summer of 2015.

After Mini Mo was born, I was thinking that maybe I should hang a picture of him, but hesitated since he hasn’t won anything yet (and won’t for a least a couple years…if ever!).  After further reflection, I’ve changed my mind. He is going on the wall long before he ever races.  He’s an extension of the dream and he belongs with all the horses that came before him no matter what he ends up doing as a racehorse.

As of April 18^th at 1:10am I can officially say the dream is alive and well.  Welcome to the family Mini Mo….now we just need to get you an official name!  

Danny and I plan to head down for a visit in the next couple of weeks and we will bring back more pictures.  Until then, I'll let you decide if the two look alike:

Post Script

We ended this story about a year ago and when I made the last post I honestly thought it was the end.  Not the end of Danny and I owning racehorses, but the end of our story with In Over My Head.  Since the last entry, I can confirm that Danny and I did not have any luck with the yearling we purchased and have already sold him at a sale this fall.  However, we are not horseless…

About the same time we realized our yearling had turned into a not a very good two year old, Danny received a text message with a photo of a horse.  Her name was Crystal Slipper…neither of us knew who she was.  Her owner, Lesa Peters, was the person we sold Mo to last fall and she planned on selling Crystal in a sale later in the summer.  Before committing to the sale she wanted to offer Crystal to us first.  Crystal was not a racehorse, she was a broodmare.  Her racing days ended many years ago.  Why would we have any interest in a horse that doesn’t race?  Well, this mare had one unique characteristic.  Crystal was pregnant and Lesa had a sneaking suspicion that Danny and I would be pretty interested given who the father was.  You can probably guess the answer.  The father is In Over My Head.

After much back and forth we made the somewhat illogical decision to buy her based on the even more illogical idea that her offspring will be just like its daddy.  It was kind of a last second Hail Mary hoping that we could extend the story of In Over My Head.  Time will tell if the decision was a good one, but for now it certainly feels good to know there is a chance was could add a sequel to our little adventure.

Danny and I came up with excellent justification for our decision.  We decided that buying a yearling who wasn’t any good was a sign that we should give up on yearlings for a while and invest our money into something that rekindled the emotional tie to racing (how’s that for spin…).  We were also treated to some interesting ‘coincidences’ involving the old In Over My Head t-shirts we had made back in 2012.  Those coincidences brought us back to the strange occurrences that seemed to happen during the “glory days” of Mo. 

The first occurred the day that Danny got the text from Lesa.  My laws were watching the kids that day and I was really excited to tell them about our plan to buy this mare who was carrying Mo’s baby.  They have always been so interested and supportive in our horse racing endeavors I knew they’d love the story.  When I opened the door and saw my mother in law, I stopped dead in my tracks.  She was wearing her In Over My Head t-shirt.  Said she couldn’t remember the last time she wore it.  “Why today?” I asked.  No reason, she said, just felt like putting it on. 

The second involved our friends the Wheelers.  The Saturday after I send the check down to Lesa to purchase Crystal Slipper, I was at the Madison Zoo with my son Jordan.  We don’t see the Wheelers much anymore since we moved from Madison, but they were down at Balmoral Park the night Mo had his five race win streak snapped by injury back in 2012.  I bumped into Sacia Wheeler first and after some small talk I asked where her husband Brett was.  She said he’s over looking at the polar bears and just then he turned around:

“Hey Swenny!  What are the odds seeing you here today???  What do you think of my shirt???”

He, of course, was wearing his In Over My Head shirt.  I stared at him speechless for a second and he asked what was wrong.  After I explained the background on Crystal Slipper being in foal to Mo and that I just mailed the check to buy her the day before he was the one who was speechless.  “Wow…that’s crazy.  I never wear this shirt anymore…not sure why I put it on today.” 

Do two random t-shirt flashback experiences mean that Crystal Slipper will have a colt this spring that will turn out to be just like In Over My Head?  Of course it does!  That’s what we are going with anyway.  We may end be being proven wrong, but the nice thing about the breeding business is that we have a long runway to dream big dreams.  The colt or filly won’t even be able to race for about two and a half years.   That’s plenty of time for Danny and I to build up a very realistic scenario that this horse will be just like Mo, but not suffer any of the career altering injuries that he had to deal with.  Like Mo, this horse will take us on a journey that we can share with our kids, just like Greg got to share Mo with us. 

Seems feasible, doesn’t it?  Maybe it’s in the cards, maybe its not, but it feels good to be back in the game.  I’ve seen more than one Hail Mary work.  Maybe this one will too.