Background of the Story

Ownership:
I’ve been involved in owning race horses for about 5 years now and have been asked by many people what it is like. What goes into buying one? Where do you race? How do you pick a trainer and driver? With that as a backdrop, I’ve decided to start a new blog. I like to write and thought one or two people might get a kick out of a ‘I own a racehorse’ play by play blog. If you find this spot on the internet, feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested. Owning a racehorse is a rollercoaster ride. The highs are high, the lows are low and what really keeps it fun is the camaraderie amongst fellow owners, your trainer, caretakers and anyone else that happens to take an interest. One week you think you should have staked your horse to the Little Brown Jug…the next you wonder if they could win in a cheap condition claimer race at third tier track. I guess that’s what makes it so fun.

One of the best analogies I’ve heard is that owning a horse is like owning a sports franchise. You have to assemble talent (the horse or horses) through either the draft (yearling sale) or free agency (mixed sales and claiming races). You need coaches (trainer, additional caretakers and drivers) to make sure you are getting the best out of your talent. You can choose to be a hands on owner like Jerry Jones and pick your own players or let a GM do that for you (often times, the trainer is part coach and part GM).

It isn’t for the feint of heart. It can be hard. It can be expensive. Losses can be big. The most recent endeavor I was involved in didn’t pan out way we hoped. The people that put money in with me lost a good amount. I think they are all ‘horsed out’ and need a break. I can’t blame them. They are taking what we have left after the Meadowlands sale can cashing out. Maybe finding a more traditional investment…maybe spending it on something else. Hopefully not buying bank stocks. I on the other hand am doubling down. I’m taking all that was left after the sale and putting it back into another horse. Like most people, my brain has two sides: the logical side and the risk taking/ impulsive side. I’d say about seven times out of ten, the logical side wins. Not this time. There will be no paying down my mortgage. No low interest rate CD purchases. The response was to take an even more risky position in a young 3-year old colt. If this was a bar flight, the logical side just got a pool cue broken over his head by the impulsive side. It wasn’t even close. Quite frankly this horse racing thing is kind of a problem with me. I love it, but it has not been good to my balance sheet. Everyone gets lucky sometimes, right? I’m due. By the way, you may be wondering the name of this new horse. It’s ‘In Over My Head’. Nope, I’m not making that up.

Back to the camaraderie. I’ve been in a lot of partnerships and unlike many people’s experiences in partnerships, most have been very good. I’ve had a chance to own a number of horses (25 in all) with some great people. This new one, however, takes on an extra special meaning. It will be a 50/50 ownership with my uncle Greg. Also, although he doesn’t have any dollars into the deal, my cousin Danny is about as emotionally invested in this as humanly possible. We’re in it together.

More Background:

In the fall of 1962, a fella by the name of Wayne traveled from Mineral Point, Wisconsin to a standardbred yearling sale in Lexington, Kentucky. He purchased 2 yearlings at that sale: Speedy Rodney and Thrifty Way. Like any yearling purchased at a sale, the new owner is flush with excitement about the potential of their new horses. Most of the time, that perceived potential is not totally met. The sky is the limit for every horse purchased. That year, however, the sky was in fact the limit. Speedy Rodney turned out to be one of the greatest trotters of his era: he raced in the most prestigious harness race there is, the Hambeltonian (the Kentucky Derby of harness racing), he raced against, and beat some of the greatest trotters of all time including Speedy Scot and Su Mac Lad. He was a two time winner of the United Nations Trot in New York against the worlds best, he not only set a world record on a 5/8’s mile track, he later broke his own record and lastly, he was sold to stud and produced future Hambeltonian winner Green Speed. Thrifty Way didn’t have the superstar career that Speedy Rodney did, however, she turned out to be an excellent racehorse and was the backbone of Wayne’s breeding operating throughout the 70’s and 80’s. So what does this story have to do with this new partnership you might be asking? Wayne is my uncle’s father, thus making him my grandfather. As long as I can remember, my visits to Mineral Point centered around racing stories, reading old newspaper clippings, tending to the horses at his farm, driving to Chicago to watch his current performers and taking in harness racing at its purest form at the county fairs. I’ve grown up with it my entire life.

My uncle and I have separately owned horses for a number of years. He more or less took over for Grandpa probably about ten years ago (give or take). I’ve been an owner since 2003. Separate was good at the time. We did things a little differently and it was easy to pull for each other, while not being in the same ownership. He’s had some very good horses and I’ve been part of a couple good ones too (although smaller my smaller ownership percentage in large partnerships kind of diluted the intensity of it). I always thought we’d eventually own one together, but it just had to be the right time and the right horse. When would that be? Well, we’d just have to wait until it felt like the right time…you can’t really put a schedule on something like that. Best to let fate take its course. So how did all this come together? Let’s dig a little bit deeper.

In Over My Head was purchased at the annual yearling sale in Lexington, Kentucky in October of 2007 by It’s a Stretch Stable Too, a partnership that I was part owner in. The partnership’s predecessor, It’s a Stretch Stable (no need to number the first edition), had owned IOMH’s half brother the year before (half brother meaning the same dam and a different sire). That’s horse’s name was Blue Man Group. Blue Man Group was a little guy out of a mare named ‘Blue For You’. As he grew…well…he actually never grew. When we sold him in the 2008 January sale our ownership statement noted that he was ‘the smallest horse in the sale!’ in a way poking fun at the 50 ownership statements that all say ‘best horse offered in the sale!’ and at the same time stating the truth. Blue Man Group was not a large colt. Despite that, he raced hard. We tried him in four stakes events and he finished 5th twice, 6th once and 7th once and didn’t miss bigger checks by much. He wasn’t going to win, but he was in the mix for a top three a couple of times. Fast forward back to the 2007 sale. I remember saying to our trainer (John Butenschoen) that if Blue Man’s half brother was just a little bit better, those 5th’s and 6th’s might be 3rd’s and 4th’s. He might even snag a win. He was already much bigger than Blue Man and when the gavel fell at $23,000, In Over My Head was ours. Shortly thereafter I texted one of our fellow partnership owners, Ed Bardowski, that we had just purchased Blue Man’s half brother. His response: “Uh-oh”. That still ranks up as one of the funniest texts I’ve ever received.

The strange thing about buying a yearling is that put all this time into researching and studying them. Then you put down a big slug of money. Then you wait. That’s why it’s like the draft. You can analyze all you want after your team takes that wide receiver out of Florida with the 4.3 speed. Heck, Mel Kiper said his route running is equal to a 4 year veteran! Just think what that will do to your vertical passing game. About a week later, you kind of forget about it and go back to your normal life. I didn’t go down to visit IOMH again until April of 2008 nearly 6 months later. It’s a Stretch Too consisted of ten horses and to be honest, of the ten I saw that day he wasn’t even my favorite. He had matured well though. Much bigger than Blue Man Group. Sharp looker. Dark coat with a white mark on his head and one white foot. Average + sized and well balanced. I remember asking John if he was as crazy as his brother (besides being small, Blue Man was also a bit of a head case from what I’m told). No, John replied, he’s just ‘a real nice colt’. I’m not a perfect translator, but I think that’s trainer speak for ‘I actually kind of like this one, but it’s too early to tell for sure and I don’t want to get your hopes up so when he doesn’t pan out you won’t blame me for screwing it up.’

His First Races:
It was another 3 long months before any of the 10 horses in our partnership began racing. Since there was a lot to follow, I tracked every race in a spreadsheet. Where did they finish, what was their time and so on. I also put a little one line comment in. IOMH qualified on July 16, 2008 at Hawthorne and finished 1st. My comment, “1st over at ¾…sharp effort’. Now, winning a qualifier doesn’t win you any money. It is just a way to get the horse ready for a real race and you have to finish with a certain time to become ‘qualifed’ to race for a real purse. Having that said, winning is ALWAYS better than losing. He showed some speed. I was kind of excited for this colt.

His first real stat came on the July 27th in a maiden race that went for just $5,000. I was watching this one live over the internet. It started as many baby races do. They get off the gate and line up in a row along the rail. No one moves too much until the last quarter and IOMH was no different. The driver, Marcus Miller, found him some open space in the last 1/8th and IOMH made a move that really got my attention. A move that nearly won him the race. He finished 3rd and posted a last quarter in a snappy 27.0. His second start was even better. After tipping out coming out of the last turn, he powered home for his first lifetime win in 1.57.3 and another last quarter of 27.0. He had showed some speed and we were thinking big things for the colt at that point.

He was ready to graduate from the local maiden circuit and test his skills on another level. That would be down at the Indiana State Fair. A good test: the race went for $26,400. He would face stiffer competition, but it shouldn’t be anything he couldn’t at least hang with. I was unable to watch the race and waited for a call from John. The result was disappointing. He had made a break and finished last. As a quick sidebar, for those that have never watched a harness race, the horses must maintain a certain gate. If they break that gate and start to gallop, it is considered bad. They slow down and need to get out of the way of all their competitors before then can ‘re-enter’ the race. In a general sense, you never want your horse to make a break. After the initial shock, I shook it off. Many two year olds make breaks. This isn’t uncommon. I felt even better when I read an article that Art Official (one of the top 3 year olds in the country) raced there in another race and also made a break at the same spot on the track. Apparently there was a soft spot. Not a big deal. It was time to move on to the next race.

The next race was a week later in Chicago and was what we’d call a ‘tightner’. It was a race to keep you in prime shape in between the bigger money events. Our next big money event was a $50,000 two year old open race in DuQuoin on August 30th. He was entered in a non winners of two races lifetime and was up against a field of nine 3 year olds. The race unfolded like his first lifetime start. He rode the rail and waited to make his move and when he did, he moved fast. I mean he was flying by horses in the last 1/8 of a mile and looked for a second like he was going to win it. Then he got choppy and made another break. He crossed the finish line 2nd, but was placed 4th due to the ‘breaking rule’ where you can’t break at the wire. I really had mixed emotions after seeing that. Was there a bigger issue? Was it just another fluke? Then I saw the time: 1.52.2 and a last quarter in 27.2. It was only is 4th lifetime start. Speed wasn’t going to be an issue.

I made sure to clear my calendar on August 30th so I could watch him live on the internet go in the Hayes Memorial Stake race. I wasn’t about to drive to DuQuion. It is literally at the southern tip of Illinois. A few years ago, I owned part of a horse named She Grins Again who also raced down in DuQuoin. I made the 6-ish hour dive down to watch her race. About 20 minutes before her race, it started raining. Twenty minutes after that, they cancelled the races. I drove another 6 hours home. Thank God for internet technology. The excitement didn’t last long, however. As they entered the second turn, IOMH was pacing along well, in 4th on the rail. Then he started to gap a bit and then…he made another break. I didn’t have a mirror on me, but I’m sure my face turned six shades of red. I was officially pissed off. Not at the horse, not at John, not at anything in particular, but we had a horse with some major speed and something was wrong. We had a chance to have some nice finishes, but we were out of the money again. Frustration was running very high. My spreadsheet comment: Another break…another missed opportunity.

It would have been nice if the story had taken a positive turn at this point. A situation where he found his stride and won a big race late in the season, but that wasn’t the case. He had to re-qualify on September 18th and stayed flat. Then he raced down at Maywood the following Thursday night. I drove down to see him. My anger was starting to give way to something else. I was really starting to worry about him. I just wanted him to get better. I wanted him to go a good mile not because of the purse money, but because it is sad to see such a talented horse struggle. That night at Maywood he was parked the entire mile and finished 3rd…and admirable effort. It gave me a little hope. The race itself wasn’t the most memorable part of the evening though. It was earlier in the night. John wanted to test him a little bit when he was warming him up. Get him up to full speed to see if he was OK. I can remember standing on the rail that night as clear as a bell. When John brushed him and brought him past the clubhouse all I could think was WOW. Now I’m no big time horseman, but I’ve been around the game awhile and seen quite a few horses on quite a few tracks. I’m telling you that for that 1/8th of a mile, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a horse go that fast.

He was back in at Maywood two weeks later on October 9th. He was again in a soft spot and I was thinking it might be the night he gets back to the winners circle. I again made the drive from Madison to Chicago to watch him race. It’s always kind of exciting to hustle out of work and head down to a race. People at work would ask what I’m up to for the evening and my response would be ‘driving to Chicago to watch my horse race’. Kind of a unique response. When I went to see him before his race his head was down and he was digging with his left front foot. “He’s been digging holes all night” the groom told me. I didn’t really think anything of it at the time. Just petting him and told him he was going to race great and he was going to win. I’m pretty sure he didn’t understand me, but thought I’d be sure to tell him anyway. He didn’t win. He made a break. From our spot outside on the upper patio we saw it all. It was like I was watching the DuQuoin race all over again. He started to gap, then he broke stride. I didn’t yell or get upset. Just watched him finish last. I felt so bad for him. I went back to the barn after to see him and thought back to earlier when his head was down and he was digging at the ground. He knew he couldn’t go that night. It was a long ride back to Madison.

Two days later I got a call from John and after some further test (they had been going over him with a fine toothed comb for a few weeks) they determined he was just suffering from basically lack of maturity. The more he raced, the more sore he got. That explained why he raced so well early and faded. I remember asking something to the effect of ‘so you’re telling me he’s just not done growing yet?’ Basically, that was the case. My initial reaction was simple: I’m going to buy him back. He has shown speed, he hopefully had upside and more importantly, he had become my favorite. The colt just needed an owner who was willing to be patient.

Getting Our Horse:

Just like that I was now in the market for a horse. He was scheduled to be sold in January of 2009 as part of the dissolution of It’s a Stretch Too. Somehow managed to do the smart thing and resist the urge to buy into any yearling partnerships in the fall of 2008 (traded my draft picks for cash to be used on free agents so to speak). It is a hard thing to do. There is so much buzz and excitement surrounding the yearling sale season going from about August to November, but I stayed strong. I had my target and I wasn’t going to deviate. That’s when things really got interesting. When talking to my cousin Danny, I realized that my uncle was also in the market for a free agent and guess who he had his eye on. I can’t make this stuff up…he also wanted In Over My Head. My mind worked quickly when I heard that. I figured this was the chance for us to join forces and get one together. Everything was falling into place.

The decision was made: we were going to go after In Over My Head in the January 20th auction at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. We KIND OF knew what we were getting and thought we had the breaking issue identified, but you never know for sure. Maybe it was something else? Maybe it will be a career issue? Only time will be able to answer that questions. We did get chance to watch IOMH continue to build his resume. After nearly three months away from the track, he made his first start since that disappointing night at Maywood Park on December 30th. As part of the partnership plan, he and his nine stablemates would be racing going into the sale so buyers have a better chance to see what they were getting (hopefully benefiting us). He landed in a soft spot at Freehold, a half mile track in New Jersey. The result was good. He brushed to the front at the quarter and never gave up the lead. His 2nd lifetime win. It was good to see.

However, I was beginning to get worried. We didn’t want him to be TOO good. Think of it this way. If he came back and got three starts before the sale and they were all wins, there was a chance he’d sell for too much. We had a limit of $30,000 that we were not going to break. The win showed us he was OK, but there was still three weeks before the sale and a chance for him to move from the small Freehold track to the big track at the Meadowlands. A win or two at Freehold would open some eyes. A win at the Meadowlands would turn heads. Too many turned heads would probably mean our planned ownership would end up at least one bid short on January 20th. As luck would have it, however, we got a little help from an old adversary.

The 2008 NFC Championship game is probably the most painful memory for Packer fans in recent history, if not all time. Our adopted southern boy son was making his third run toward the Super Bowl (he got there in his first, making it twice and winning once, the second run was in 2002 when we got 4th and 26ed by the Eagles and this was the third and probably final). The game was in Lambeau and it was against the New York Giants…a team the Pack has beaten handily earlier in the year at The Meadowlands of all places (the stadium is a stones throw from the racetrack by the way). I don’t want to go into details as I don’t want to risk weeping in public as I type this, but the Packers lost. That one hurt. However, the Giants came back this year to do something very important: secure a first round bye and a home playoff game in the second round. What that also did was force The Meadowlands Racetrack to cancel racing on that Sunday (January 11th) since the facilities are next door to each other. All of the horses that normally would race that day would have to wait a week and come back the next Sunday (the 19th).

After rolling to his second victory in a row at Freehold on January 9th the plan was to enter In Over My Head at The Meadowlands on Sunday, January 19th. It would be a great place to showcase him going into the sale. Many of the owners would have already made the trip and would no doubt be watching. An impressive victory would do wonders to his purchase price. This is where the Giants come in. When you enter a horse into a race, they can only take 10 at a time. If more than 10 enter, you give priority to the horse who had the most time off since his or her last start. Well, when the wrote the race card for Sunday the 19th, they had a plethora of horses enter that hadn’t’ raced since the 5th, two weeks prior since the Giants cancelled the Sunday card the week before. In Over My Head had a Freehold start on his record on January 9th meaning all those January 5th horses had preference. He didn’t get in…we dodged a bullet. Well, to be fair, we MABYE dodged a bullet. There’s a chance he could have raced poorly that day, but odds are he would have been a favorite to win based on who ended up entering the race. Guess we’ll never know for sure, but I’m thinking we pulled a Neo in the Matrix. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

On Sunday morning we headed over to the barn and got a chance to see IOMH up close. It had been the first time I’d seen him since that October night at Maywood. I had forgotten what a beautiful horse he was. He looked stronger. He looked balanced. He looked like a racehorse. When I went to the stall to pet him his ears perked up. Did he remember me? The logical answer is more than likely no, but I decided to go with the illogical answer. He not only remembered me, but was happy to see me again. I was happy to see him too. We took him out of the stall to get a better look. He was calm, attentive, regal. I took a picture of him with my phone. He was looking right at me, ears perked up almost like he was posing for the picture. It was such a good photo I wanted to immediately set it as my background, but decided that would be a bad idea. Not until we get him in the sale tomorrow. I really, really, really hope we get him tomorrow I thought as we left the barn.

The next morning my uncle, cousin and I met for breakfast. We had batted around the idea of bidding on a couple of other horses that we liked. There was some concern that we would not get IOMH and we didn’t want to go home horseless. That plan changed at breakfast. It was either In Over My Head or nothing. We came for him and if we went home empty handed, so be it. No sense settling on something else. After breakfast we went back over to the barn one more time and got a somewhat disturbing message: another group had been through and after seeing IOMH up close they left the barn saying ‘he’s the one we are going to get.’ The initial reaction got my blood pressure up. He’s OURS I thought. I wanted to fight for him, but the harsh reality set in quickly. We have limited resources. If they outbid us, they outbid us. That’s the way it goes. It was going to be a nervous few hours.

The sale started at 10:00 am and In Over My Head was hip number 271. Why do that call it a ‘hip number’? Because there is a sticker they put on the horse’s hip with a number on it. Pretty cleaver, huh? When we got back from the barn they were on hip 150 so we had some time to kill. As part owner of the partnership that was selling 10 (including IOMH) it was nerve wrecking from that perspective as well. Our first one, Choose to Believe, was hip 191. He brought $18,500, which was a little disappointing. Cruzan a Day Away also came in a little low. I could see it was going to be a rough day, but I knew where the bright spot might come in.

The sales setup at The Meadowlands is somewhat makeshift. It is held in the paddock, which normally houses horses that are in to race that day. They clear an area out on one side and set up a bunch of folding chairs. In the middle is the sales ring and behind the sales ring are 10 stalls. As one sells they are moved out of the sales ring and out of the paddock. A new one is brought up to sell and everyone in the 10 stalls is moved up one, edging closer to their time to be sold. We were dealing with some weather issues and I was on the phone with the airline trying to move our flight. By the time I got back, In Over My Head has already entered the paddock and was in stall 3, just 7 spots away from entering the sales ring. I pushed my way to the front so I could get a good look at him. When I got there, I couldn’t believe what happened. He looked right at me and his ears perked up. It’s like he was saying hi to me. I might be crazy. Maybe someone behind me was holding up a carrot he was eyeing up, who knows, but I swear he looked right at me and gave a horse version of ‘hello’. My whole body was tense. I had owned him for 17 months. As the auctioneer hit the gavel and he moved into stall 4, I knew the sands of time in the hourglass had almost all run to the bottom. We had to flip that damn thing back over.

Sales were sluggish that day. It was probably affected by macro economic factors. Who can buy a horse in a recession? I don’t know the answer to that, but a lot less people that can buy in a time of prosperity for sure. Although a horse is still a better investment that Lehman Brothers stock was in early 2008. I digress. A lot of horses stalled early and the auctioneers had to work hard to get any momentum, but wouldn’t you guess, bids on In Over My Head took off like a rocket. We had positioned ourselves dead center, about 7 feet from one of the bid takers. My uncle was doing the bidding. My cousin and I had the job of standing next to him and trying not to have a heart attack. Sounds easy, but it was actually kind of tough. We were like a kid who comes home from school to watch his favorite cartoon who parks himself about 2 feet from the TV screen to make sure he doesn’t miss even the tiniest bit of action. Some people like to be coy at sales. Sit in back and casually bid. Forget that garbage. We weren’t taking any chances. Before I even knew what happened, he was up to $14,000. The numbers on the TV screen indicating the current bid never settled on any one number for more than a second. ‘Hey!’ ‘Hey!’ ‘Hey!’ the bid takers were yelling as the auctioneer fired through his auction babble like the seasoned pro he was. We bid $15,000, someone else fired back at $16,000, we went right to $17,000. You know in times of stress you sometimes have these strange moments of daydreaming? I remember thinking for a second whether I thought it was better to be odds or evens. Like it matters. What a stupid thought. I was snapped back into reality by: a pause. For the first time in the bidding there at been a pause at $17,000. We had the high bid…not for long though. Someone fired up an $18,000 bid and it was back to reality.

We went to $19,000, someone else went to $20,000 and $21,000 very quickly. We got back to the top at $22,000 and at that point it became a two horse race (so to speak). It was us and one other person. Was it the people who looked at him that morning? The folks that said he was the one they were going to get? I still don’t know for sure, but the back and forth continued through $25,000 as we put up the $26,000 bid. At that point, I accepted the reality that was staring us square in the face. After all this time…all this planning and build up we were running out of ammunition. We only had two bids left and when $27,000 hit the board, we had to pull the trigger to $28,000. Like Barney Fife, we only had one bullet left.

A funny thing happened when we put up the $28,000 bid. The auctioneer originally put up a bid of $30,000. Apparently he was tiring of $1,000 increments, but my uncle quickly corrected him that we hadn’t committed to that (yet). The TV screens sat at $30,000 for a few seconds before flipping back to $28,000. Looking back, maybe it had an effect. Maybe the other bidder saw that $30,000 hit the board and thought there was no beating us. Maybe he saw us at the barn looking at him. Maybe he knew our history with the horse and thought we weren’t going to lose that bidding war come hell or high water. Whatever the reason, we got to keep that last bullet in the shirt pocket of our uniform. After what seemed like an eternity, the gavel finally crashed down. SOLD! He was ours.

The initial reaction was excitement. We had got our horse and after some hand shaking and back patting, the sales company came around with a sales confirmation sheet to sign. The sheet was passed down to Danny to sign. I can’t speak for Greg, but I would have had a hard time signing the damn thing due to shaky hands. I think Danny had the same problem, but he got it done.

Like any major purchase, the secondary reaction is not quite as fun. I’m not going to say there was a standard ‘buyers remorse’ moment, but the reality was that I had just spend $14,000 on a horse (my half) on the same day that all the other ones I sold were not selling all that well. It isn’t just the initial outlay either. What if he kept making breaks? What if he got hurt? Stakes payments come up on February 15th, that’s another couple thousand at least. Was this the right move? Luckily, we had a cab to catch, so there wasn’t too much time to ponder the situation. On the way to the airport, our driver went the wrong way onto an on ramp, nearly causing a head on collision at about 30 mph. A bad omen? I decided to go glass half full on that one. There was no crash, so we snuck out of a bad situation. A good omen.

After the excitement wanes and the ‘should I have done this’ feelings subside, reality sets in and for us, reality was a good thing. We did our homework. We knew his history. We talked to a bunch of different people. We identified a contingency plan if he came back and did poorly right away. We didn’t go over our predetermined limit. We agreed as we waited for our connecting flight that, as buyers, we did the right thing. The other thing that helped get me over the hump was a conversation with my Dad. I had been keeping him well aware of the situation with In Over My Head from his first start and through all the breaks. When I told Dad we got him back he was very excited for us. That goes a long way in thinking I did the right thing.
In the end, we got our horse. Now, finally, it was time to race