The scene was really pretty bland. Sitting at a table at a small bar in rural South Beloit, three guys were staring at a 10-inch TV screen not talking to each other. No food, no drink, just a couple of race programs and pens were sitting in front of them. The tension, as they say, could be cut by a knife. The screen flashed 4 minutes to post time when a couple of nervous comments started to float around. “His odds are dropping like a rock!” (they went from 44-1 to 42-1). “These last couple of minutes are the worst…they seem to take forever.” “I wish I had a fast forward button right now. Just want to get this damn race going.” “What do you think the collective heart rate is at this table right now?” The next four minutes went by very, very slowly as a handful of patrons shuffled around at the northern Illinois off track betting parlor and the three guys at the table had their eyes locked onto the feed coming in from The Meadowlands in New Jersey. Finally it was post time. They all leaned in to get a closer look at the screen.
Approximately 1 minute and 52 seconds later…
The three guys at the table, Greg, Danny and myself, looks as if we just ran the race as opposed to watching In Over My Head take on some of the top 3 year olds in the $82,500 Junior Trendsetter Final. The other patrons had stopped shuffling around and were staring wide eyed at the three lunatics at the table in the middle of the room who just spend the last two minutes screaming at the top of their lungs and pounding the table as if they were urging the colt on themselves (my hand still hurts by the way). We knew our horse was a long shot coming in, but believed he had a decent chance to get into the money (top 5). The bettors didn’t agree. He started at 40-1, dropped to 38-1 and ended up at a distant long shot at 85-1. Luckily the horse doesn’t know his odds and luckily Andy Miller didn’t care either. He drove him like he belonged and he did.
Coming out of post 10 is never an easy thing to do. You need a horse with some speed and a driver with the ability to urge a horse out to find a spot toward the front. Last night it was verified that In Over My Head and Andy Miller might be a match made in heaven because Andy likes to leave and the colt responded very well. By the time we got around the first turn, In Over My Head was in the lead after blowing past nine other very talented horses. We had the lead at the quarter in a snappy, but not ruinous 27.2 and were ready for one of the favorites to breeze on past. That way we could follow them into the stretch and try and close for a check. The #1 horse (I’m So Blue) attempted to make that move, but got hung up just before clearing us, so we went on as the favorite, Hypnotic Blue Chip took the lead. At this point we had been on the front end for over a half mile (in 55.3). It was actually a good thing when HBC cleared us and we were able to have someone to follow around the last turn. Coming out of that last turn, we were in third as the second favorite, Glad to Be Back began his charge on the outside.
At this point, we really revved up our hollering into the mini TV screen. If you yell at a TV loud enough, can a horse 1,000 miles away hear you? Probably not, but we tried anyway. Hypnotic Blue Chip began to separate and I pretty much accepted the fact that a win was not in the cards, which, quite frankly, was fine. In Over My Head was in position to get into the top three if he could somehow hold on. The problem was that he tired. He had to work hard to get to front and never got a break until they were into the last turn. Now, he was a long stretch away from a huge finish for us. Unfortunately, the Calvary was literally coming. Three other horses were coming up on the outside of In Over My Head. Doing the quick math, that was two in front of us and three closely behind us…enough to knock us into 6th, which is good for zero percent of the purse. Watching our colt fight it out in that 5-mile long stretch (OK…it was actually only about three sixteenths of a mile, but it sure felt like 5 miles) was gut wrenching. Despite the fact he was spent, our colt simply was not giving up. He dug in held on, crossing the wire in 3rd and only missing 2nd by a half of a length. Needless to say, we were ecstatic.
That post race feeling is really special. Lots of high fives and handshakes. Many more deep breaths to try and get the heart rate back to normal. Rounds of beers are ordered and the race is recapped amongst each other dozens of times. Phone calls are made to friends and family and, of course, I had to put a quick call into John Butenschoen. From there, it is just a lot of sitting back and basking the happiness of having your horse put up a big race. There was only one thing missing and that was a trip to the barn to see him after the race. I was thinking it and Danny said it too. It would have been nice to congratulate In Over My Head in person, but I guess it isn’t feasible to fly out east every time he races. Hopefully we will get the chance to see him live a number of times this summer.
What happens next? In Over My Head gets a well-deserved rest. He will be turned out for about a month before training back to a targeted mid May qualifier. After that race part of me wants to keep racing him, but a break is the right thing to do. There is no reason to overwork him and burn him out. He can run around in a field and eat grass for a while. Over these last four starts, we had a lot of fun racing him out east. A lot, I mean a lot, can chance between now and mid May, but I’m pretty sure we have one heck of a talented colt on our hands. Thank God our $28,000 bid held. We very well could have one heck of fun summer ahead of us.
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