Checking in

It has now been a week and two days since In Over My Head put up that big mile at the Meadowlands, good for a third place finish in the Junior Trendsetter. Since that day, he has earned a one month, all expense paid (by my uncle and I) vacation to a nice farm in New Jersey. He spends his days running around a paddock and nights in a nice heated stall in the barn. If we could all be so lucky. He's also being fed a lot to make sure he will be ready to face the rigors of a long racing season. We will begin training him again in late March and will have him ready to qualify in mid May.

So what am I going to write about until then? Honestly, I'm not sure. I have to do something to keep my 3 readers occupied (thank you for reading by the way and feel free to share if someone else might want to read my ramblings). I'll probably latch onto some national stories from the world of harness racing and maybe some localized ones. I will also probably give an overview of what it is like to look at a stakes schedule as we did with In Over My Head. It is quite a balancing act. You want to keep your horse eligible to races where he/ she can make some money, but you don't want to overdo it. I can tell you it is quite easy to see your horse through 'rose colored glasses' and think they are better than they actually are. Not to pat us on the back too much, but I think Greg and I came up with a very reasonable schedule for In Over My Head. I guess only time will tell though.

Lastly, we are happy with our purchase of In Over My Head, but another good buy of the Meadowlands sale is True Gritty. She, like Westside Gritty, is named for the Nitty Gritty in Madison. She started her racing career slowly and only brought $2,200 at the sale (I'm not saying she should have brought a big number, but $2,200 was unreasonably low based on how good we knew she was). Well, congrats to the new owners as she has now finished 3rd in the first two legs of the Hopefull series at Yonkers. That's $2,400 worth of purse money...not bad for a $2,200 horse. I wish her and her connections the best!

Keep checking in...I'll keep coming up with harness related stories while In Over My Head gets a break.