A Good Fifth and a Trip Back Home

I’m not sure exactly why, but I was thinking good things were going to happen on Saturday afternoon when In Over My Head raced at the Meadowlands. Due to planned trip to the Door County area with family, I was unable to watch the race and depended on the always timely calls/ texts from Danny as to what was going on. When I got the text that he finished 5th, I was noticeably bummed out. Not upset, but just bummed out. I thought a top 3 was clearly in the cards that day, but it just didn’t play out as we hoped.

The beginning of the race was a flashback to the early days of Andy Miller driving Mo from a far outside post as he swept quickly toward the front, eventually giving up the lead to the #10 horse that was also rushed out quickly. That two hole trip would normally be a thing of beauty, but the problem was as they turned for home. Mo was absolutely loaded with pace, but the horse he was following was on the last legs of his bid to be the first to the wire. As he began to give up ground to the charging pack on the outside, Mo also got pushed back. He did sneak through on the rail, but the outside momentum was too much. He finished a very game 5th, only getting beat 3 legnths and clocked his quickest lifetime mile in 1.51.2.

With that, we leave the eastern USA for a trip back to the Heartland. It will be Mo’s first trip back to the Land of Lincoln since he was shipped out east back in December of 2008 when he prepped for the January sale where we purchased him. The plan will be for him to go three starts: The Review Stake in Springfield for open 3 year olds, an expected overnight at Balmoral and the Hayes Stake in DuQuion for open 3 year olds.

Those three races should give him legit opportunities to do something he hasn’t done a lot of in the past few races: exceed expectations. He did plenty of that this winter and when he first came back in June, but we’ve left some better finishes on the track in the last few starts. In reality, none of it has been In Over My Head’s fault. Some bad breaks, bad draws and bad race luck have kept our hopes of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes under wraps. That’s the way it goes. As I talked about with Greg, one big race can change that in a hurry. John continues to keep Mo sharp and I really think we will pop for a big one soon. Springfield next Tuesday would be a great place to start a big run. Only time will tell.