Did you realize there is a town in eastern Pennsylvania named Jim Thorpe? Well, there is and guess what? Jim Thorpe never set foot in the town…well at least not until he was died. Upon his death, his family looked for a town in which he could be burred and renamed to memorize the early twentieth century star. He was called the greatest athlete in the world at the 1912 Olympics and later was considered the Athlete of the Century (a title Terrell Buckley attempted to take from him as a cornerback for the Packers…it didn’t go too well). Jim Thorpe is now a small tourist town and was part of the tour de Pennsylvanian Laura and I took last week. The trip also included a short stop in Scranton (no sign of Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute or Jim and Pam) and a night at Pocono Downs to watch In Over My Head battle in the second leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes.
When the draw came out for this race, I knew Mr. Mo was going to be in for a real challenge. First, we drew post position 8, the farthest outside. Second, our field was full of more than capable challengers including River Shark (a real speed demon), Bunkmeister (finished second in the first leg of the series) and Picassos Boy among others. We hoped that we would be able to leave the gate aggressively and get toward the front within the first quarter of a mile. Doing so would allow us to avoid having to make up a lot of ground from the back, which is difficult to do when facing such a tough field. Sometimes the best plans just don’t work out the way you hope.
The trip to Pocono Downs started with Laura and I heading back to some of the on site barns to see John Butenschoen and In Over My Head in his regular home. He looked ready to race by the time we got there as he was just about to head up to the paddock (where the go before the race). From there we headed back toward the track and grabbed an outside table near the finish line for a couple of pre race brews. I was surprised how calm I was for the first race or two. Maybe is was the fact we didn’t have as much to lose that night. I was very hopeful for a big race out of Mo, but I also knew he was up against a tough group with the worst post position. Maybe Laura kept me calm, I’m not too sure. I do know that by the start of the 3rd race (we were in the 5tt) all of that short lived calmness quickly disappeared. The pre race tension was back in full force and we headed down to find a spot right on the fence.
Just like every race, the nervous anticipation in the last 15 minutes or so is just crippling. It is hard to even put together a full coherent thought. All this buildup for 2 minutes of race and as an owner, you have no control over what is about to happen. There is lots of pacing back and forth and looking at the program, which in reality just is a jumbled mess of letters and numbers at that point. It is hard to process much information that close to the start of the race. Laura and I watched him warm up and chatted about how I hoped the race would unfold. Hope, unfortunately, is not a strategy.
So after 14 hours of driving and a few hours at the track, I knew within the first 5 seconds that we really had almost no chance to win. Kind of a bummer, huh? The horse inside of us (the #7 horse) was acting up going to the gate to the point that our driver couldn’t take the chance to charge at the gate and attempt to get toward the front like we had hoped to for fear he might get run into. What a horrible stroke of luck that was. He had to institute plan B, which was to simply fall to the back and hope to make up as much ground as possible. A few seconds into the race, we were already over 10 lengths off the lead. As they made their first trip past the grandstand (where we were standing), I got a quick hint of hope: Pavia had tipped Mo to the outside and he was really building up a head of steam. He went from 8th to 6th and was on the move. At this point I was thinking we had a tiny chance, but things need to pan out perfectly. We needed a horse from the inside (preferably a top one like River Shark) to also tip to the outside and we would follow them towards (and hopefully all the way) to the front. Well, that is kind of what happened. Unfortunately for us, the timing didn’t work in our favor. River Shark did, in fact, tip outside, but he did so at a much slower pace then we were currently going (remember, we had already began our charge and he was just starting his). This caused our driver to have to pull Mo up and break his momentum. Imagine driving down a two lane highway. There are two cars in front of you that you want to pass. Your plan is to build up a head of steam and go past both of them all at once. Then, at the last second, the second car also moves out to pass and you have to hit the breaks. That’s kind of what happened and it was the last straw in our chance to make a major move.
In the end, Mo raced big and finished strong in a time of 1.52.1 (his personal best) to finish 5th. Fifth is still good for 5% of the purse money, so at least that helped. In the end, Bunkmeister won it in 1.50.4. I truly believe that Mo can race with any of those horses, but he isn’t necessarily better, so things kind of have to break your way sometimes. It is like an old saying Barry Alverez used to use: good on good. When Wisconsin football was at its best under Coach Alverez, they won a lot more than they lost, but sometimes you would face another good team that would just beat you. Good on good. That night, he just got beat. It happens, but he’ll be back, that’s for sure.
The next stop in our journey will be back at The Meadows on July 16th for the 3rd leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Series. This is really a big one. After the first two legs, we are currently ranked 15th per my unofficial ranking. That would put us in the $50,000 consolation in mid September. The top 9 make the $200,000 final, with the next 9 in the consolation. We have some pretty serious work to do to have a shot at the final. In reality, we need a win. Hopefully, we will get a little race luck to go our way on the 16th.
In other news, Danny and is now the winningest driver in the history of Wisconsin…at least when looking at overall win percentage. He is one for one! He piloted Mr. Prince to victory at the Mineral Point Matinee on Sunday June 29th. After getting to the lead and going a blistering first quarter pace of 37 seconds (sorry Danny, I had to throw one jab about that), he held off a couple of challenges and coasted home for at 2 length victory. Nice work!
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