Sometimes, you just have those nights. Nights so bad you just want to give up. Take all of the money you put into racing and just use it for something else. Maybe a new hobby. Boring traditional investments. Watching that race last night was just plain painful. There was so much hope and excitement going into it and that hope was dashed to bits within a matter of seconds. This keeps happening. Why do I keep putting myself through this? I’m not sure how much more I can take.
We were racing for $50,000 out at the Meadows near Pittsburgh. We drew well (post position #3). We had a horse that by all accounts was on top of his game. The field was tough and we weren’t necessarily thinking win, but In Over My Head was developing quite a knack for finding the winners circle lately. Three wins in his last five starts. One second place finish where he got beat by a half of a length. In his only bad race, he got knocked out by what we think was an inadvertent whip to the face. This meant more, though. It was a bigger purse and we were in need of additional earnings if we hoped to qualify for the two big Chicago races at the end of the season. This was one of our last chances to do that as the season is winding down. There was a lot riding on this race. We also wanted to see how Mo would do against a very good group of 3 year old horses. We THINK he’s good enough to beat all of them. Unfortunately, we never go the chance to find out.
The detailed run down of the race won’t take long. Eric Ledford got us off 5th, which was really a perfect spot to come 2nd over. The favorite got off 4th (Pangiorno). The guy driving Pangiorno (Doug Snyder), went to close the gap between him and the horse in front of him too aggressively. He ran Pangiorno into another horse causing him to make a nasty break. When he went on the break, he backed up into the horse behind him. Guess who that happened to be? In Over My Head! So, we make a break to avoid a collision and get knocked out of the race. Thanks Doug, that’s twice you’ve ruined us in a big race at the Meadows.
We put up $1,000 to ship to Pittsburgh and $400 to start in the race. For that, we got to race approximately 9 seconds before getting knocked out. Unfortunately, this isn’t bull riding. We finished last (8th), but the judges placed us 7th since Pangiorno caused us to finish last (he was placed 8th). We are now 14 hours removed from the race and I still feel sick. Our season is slipping away and it isn’t even Mo’s fault. This may sound stupid, but I just for once want to see him get beat on his own merit. No more having a driver run him into a wheel. No more wild whips. No more of the bs that happened last night. I want to see him in the stretch giving it all he has and seeing a horse or two pace away from him. That has only happened one time and the horse that paced away was Hypnotic Blue Chip, who has raced in 1.48 and change. I’m not saying we would have won last night. The first and second place horses put on an incredible display of speed and guts in the stretch drive. I don’t know if we could have beat them, but we would have had at least 3rd.
At the end of the day, the season is still going better than we probably expected when we bought him back in January. He’s banked over $75,000 and has a chance to make some more. He’s paid for himself and has generated enough for us to look to grow the stable by another horse at the yearling sale in Lexington this weekend and for that I am incredibly thankful. He really is the best horse I’ve ever had. BUT we are just leaving so much on the track and it isn’t his fault. It is just sickening. It is going to take awhile to get over this one.
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