Reflections

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!

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 got 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

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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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.