Let It Fly

x

After I printed the program for last Saturday’s American National at Balmoral Park, I called my Dad to see if he wanted to place a bet on In Over My Head. Despite the #1 post position, we were the long shot in the stacked race, but I thought it might be worth taking a chance on a show bet or maybe mixing In Over My Head into some trifectas. Dad’s response was somewhat surprising: he wanted to bet $10 to win, place and show. I asked if he was serious. In Over My Head would probably go off at about 50-1 odds and you really didn’t need to be that much to make some good cash if he shocked the world. “Let it fly,” was his response.

Let it fly is Dad’s way of saying ‘let it all hang out’ or ‘roll up your sleeves and go to Vegas’ or ‘I didn’t come here to knit’. It is a way to show confidence, even if it doesn’t always make logical sense. He figured we had been hoping to make it in the American National all year long. We had a good horse that had some bad luck throughout the season. We had post position #1 and even though it was clear that a number of horses were better on paper (some far better), if we were going to support Mo, then support him. Don’t do it half assed. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way we hoped. The race rundown was rather simple. Mo got away second behind Standupnkissme. He followed him all the way to the stretch and for a brief moment, it looked like he was going to be in the mix for a place as high as 3^rd. However, the outside speed was just too much and Mo (coming off a week of being sick remember) hit a bit of a wall. In the end, he finished with the fastest time of his life (1.51.2), but finished 8^th. Regardless, I was thankful of Dad’s unwavering support.

Let it fly is kind of a good way to describe what we are doing this Friday in what will be In Over My Head’s last race of 2009 when we take on a number of the same horses in the Windy City Pace. The ‘Windy City’ is the richest event raced at Maywood Park with a purse of $225,000. What makes this race interesting is that unlike the American National where places 6-10 were paid 2% of the purse amount, only the top five make money in the standard 50%, 25%, 12%, 8%, 5% payout. So why, you might ask, would an owner pay $3,000 to enter a race where he is probably no better than the 5^th best horse on paper, with little to no chance at winning and a legitimate shot at walking away with nothing that night? There are some legit reasons. We only got beat 6 lengths in the American National. Mo is as quick as he is fast, which can be a big advantage on a half mile track (Maywood is a half mile track). He should be over his sickness for sure this week. However, when you look at the program filled with monster horses, those logical steps don’t quite take you to the point where you can unequivocally say “yep, I’m going to risk three grand!” Logic simply won’t take you there. You need to look to a blind confidence in your horse and your team that can sometimes lead you make moves that may not be ‘by the book.’ You need to consider the fact that we’ve made it this far and in reality, there is only ONE thing we CAN do at this point. I think by now you know what that is…we need to let it fly. Cross your fingers, we’ll need all the luck we can get on Friday night.

Lastly, enjoy a couple of pictures from American National night.