Usually I will only put a new post up after a race, but going into the $88,000 Exit 16W final this Saturday, I thought a little story about a mid week happening might be fun. It is the draw. For a race on Saturday, you have to enter your horse by calling the track race office on a designated day. Entries for Saturday were due today by 9am. John Butenschoen always calls our entries in, so we just wait for them to be posted. In today’s world, the easiest way to see the final entries is on the internet. In the olden days, you’d have to call the race office. If they didn’t answer, some people would just let it ring…but that’s another story for another day. It can be kind of nerve-racking because a bad post can spell doom, or at least a much tougher race. You want to avoid outside posts. It is all luck of the draw. Here is some insight as to what it is like to find out in a rather big race (at least it is for us) where we very well might be the favorite to win:
It started rather tame at about 11am on Wednesday morning. In past weeks, draws became available around 11am in the morning. It isn’t always at that time, but usually pretty close. So I logged onto ustrotting.com. Nothing up yet. Then checked thebigm.com (the Meadowlands site). Nothing there either. O, well, it will probably be a few more minutes. Back to work for awhile. Send some emails to Danny about various horse related topics. Ten minutes or so pass. Head back to ustrotting.com. Nothing. Back to thebigm.com. Not yet. Back to work for a little bit shorter time than last time. A quicker email to Danny…and so on and so on. About 40 minutes later, I had ustrotting.com constantly on my web browser and was just hitting refresh over and over again. No work was getting done, but I had to make a phone call. Pick up the phone, hit refresh, dial one number, hit refresh, dial a second number, refresh, phone starts beeping because I’m taking too long to dial, refresh, slam down the phone and begin pounding on my mouse button…WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING THEM SO LONG TO PUT THE DAMN DRAW UP ON THE WEBSITE!!! It was like Harry in Dumb and Dumber when he was trying to get that lady’s number at the gas station after he lit his leg on fire. She looks for a pen. Can’t find one. He tries to be calm, “you can just tell it to me…I have a really good memory”, she starts with the “Ok…its 555, wait, that’s my old number…” and Harry finally snaps “FOR GOD SAKES JUST GIVE ME THE DAMN NUMBER!” I was Harry. Eventually you have to get to the point where you give up and stick your flaming leg in the bathroom toilet, saving Lloyd from unwanted intimate time with Cam Neely. For me, the bathroom was instead lunch with Laura….a much better option. (And if you haven’t seen Dumber and Dumber 100+ times like I have, that last reference will make no sense. If you have, you will laugh. Sorry to those who haven’t seen it.)
Normally when something like this happens, I can count on Danny to sit patiently at his computer and text me when the draw comes out. Unfortunately, Danny had to waste his time going to class. Midway through lunch, I was very proud at how calm I was. Laura and I were having a nice conversation about how tasty the offerings from Panera Bread were and SHE asked about the draw. I said it hadn’t come out yet to which she replied, “Why don’t you check it on your phone?” I’ll take that opening. I pull it up on the phone and wouldn’t you know it…ustrotting.com finally had the entries up. We got to a point where I was one IPhone screen touch away from finding out what post position Mo would be racing from on Saturday night. Deep breath. Touch the screen. Wait a good 30 seconds (I thought 3G was suppose to be fast???) and finally the page pops up. From this point, though, I could only see the top of the page and no post positions were revealed. I had to scroll down. Another deep breath. Laura figures that since this is taking so long he has to be at the bottom of the page in position nine or ten. Much like someone would take a band aide off a hairy part of their body, I made one big aggressive scroll to reveal the entire field at once…and…AND…post position #6! Whew. What a relief. We would have a fair shake at this thing and not get stuck outside.
I immediately texted Danny and then called Greg. The old heart rate was still pretty high, which apparently also causes my ‘inside voice’ to become an ‘outside voice’. Laura politely gestured that maybe I should continue the conversation in the car because people were wondering who the idiot was talking on his cell phone about ‘six holes’, ‘Woodstock Hanover’, ‘inside posts’ and ‘Pacinello’, but we got through it.
So there you have it. A story of post position draws. If you go waaaay back in the blog, last year I got to write about In Over My Head’s draws in the Junior Trendsetter legs and final. They were: 10, 9, 10. This was after he drew post 10 in a tune up race before the first leg. I guess you could say we were due. So far this year we have: 2, 1, 6. Not too shabby. The draws always seem to find a way to even out over time, but in a vacuum, it can sometimes feel like every draw is bad. We’ve been lucky so far this year and with post position 6, we will have a fair shake at this thing on Saturday. We will see what Sears wants to do with him from there. I can’t wait to watch.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Not quite a marathon...but that's a good thing
Have you ever seen those little oval bumper stickers that say 26.2 on them? Have you ever wondered what they meant? I have for quite some time and finally used “The Google” to find the answer. It is a reference to a marathon, which is 26.2 miles long. Apparently, marathoners put those things on their bumpers as a way to let people know they have completed the grueling feat. It is actually a pretty cool idea. I was a little embarrassed when I found out what it meant. Despite the fact I’ve never done a marathon, I do enjoy running, but apparently not a much as I enjoy harness racing. When I see those stickers I always think one thing. Can you guess what it is? If you are reading this it is actually pretty easy to figure out. 26.2 is pretty snappy last quarter! 
We learned something new about In Over My Head this last Friday in his division of the Exit 16W series. We learned that he can rip off a 26.2 last quarter when he needs to and on Friday, he needed to accomplish that and then some. I went back to look at his fastest last quarters. Last year, he had two 26.3’s last year as well as a 26.4. When talking with Greg and Danny, we continue to be amazed with this horse. Every time we think he has shown us everything he has in his racing bag of tricks, he shows us something more.
The saga of the second leg of this series actually started mid week when the draw came out. We had drawn the rail and obviously put down Brian Sears to drive after he won with us the week before. Unfortunately, another Sears horse was also in our race, Majestic Jackpot. Jackpot was a very worthily adversary, who had made five starts in 2010 which included three wins, two seconds and over $50,000 in purse money. We simply assumed that Sears would take him over us and we were discussing who to get in his place. However, when the program came out on Wednesday morning, we were pleasantly surprised: Sears had chosen us over Majestic Jackpot. Even Dave Brower was taken back. His race comment was: “What a mile and what a drive last week! It was so good that Sears opted for this guy over the #7. A surprise there. Talented colt.”
Unfortunately, our team of Greg, Danny and I were not going to be able to watch this race together due to various conflicts. Greg was going to hold down the fort at the South Beloit betting parlor, Danny was watching the race at home before showing up late to the Tim McGraw concert (Tim was going to have to wait…I love Danny’s dedication) and I was going to be watching the race from the computer in a math classroom. That’s correct, after finishing up my assistant coaching duties for our sophomore team at Memorial High in Madison, another coach/ friend Jeremy Schlitz was nice enough to take me to his classroom so I could watch the race. Our team had just won by eighteen points against an opponent that beat us earlier in the season, so I was feeling good going into the race.
Due to the game/ concert, Danny and I were not able to enjoy the pregame show that the Meadowlands puts on. Greg saw it and said we received some pub from the guys as they mentioned Mo’s Windy City Pace win and the Wisconsin connections. I don’t think any of us are used to the publicity. We generally watch those things and hear about other horses/ owners/ trainers and now they are talking about us! Pretty fun stuff.
From our three different spots, we were all locked onto our respective TVs/ computers as post time arrived. My little group consisted of Laura, her little sister Queshawna from Big Brothers Big Sisters and myself. Knowing my general level of excitement when watching races and the fact that sometimes no so nice words fly out of my mouth in the heat of the moment, Laura whispered to me right before the race “no swearing” and gestured to Queshawna. It was a much needed reminder. It was The Q’s first horse race…we didn’t want it filled with a bunch of bad words. When the gate closed and the horses took off, Sears left well, but not overly aggressively. He protected the rail with In Over My Head as the favorite, Woodstock Hanover and Majestic Jackpot fired for the lead. At the quarter pole, we were sitting third on the rail.
Unlike some other races, the next half mile was rather uneventful. Sears did have a shot to take Mo first over past the half, but chose to stay on the rail. I’m guessing he was thinking that the two in front of him were good horses and there was little chance they would fade and lock us up on the rail. No sense in working any harder than you have to. After getting stuck too far back last week, Tetrick had Pacinello on the move and was first over. As they came out of the last turn, I could see that In Over My Head was just loaded with pace. At that point, however, there was still no place to go and I was thinking that a win was beginning to look unlikely.
When Mel Kiper talks about college players entering the NFL draft, he sometimes references a ‘non-stop motor.’ I believe his definition is simply a player that never stops working and is constantly grinding to find a way to make a play. During the stretch drive on Friday, In Over My Head looked like he had a motor that just doesn’t stop. Majestic Jackpot was sitting in the two hole behind the leader Woodstock Hanover and pulled out to challenger the leader. Between that and the horses fanning out somewhat to the middle of the track, some room finally opened up for us on the inside. As soon as there was room, Sears and In Over My Head were on the move. It didn’t take long before he was even with Woodstock Hanover. Pacinello was still working on the outside, Majestic Jackpot was looking like a potential winner, Woodstock was fading a bit and we continued to fire up the inside. We were running out of track, but Mo kept grinding away. Just before the wire was about to hit, he got to the front, crossing the finish line a half length in front of Majestic Jackpot and a length in front of Pacinello. He needed just about ever inch of track to get there in time and did it with a jaw dropping last quarter: 26.0. That may be two ticks less than a marathon, but on this night, 26.2 would have only gotten him third or fourth place.
We now have two starts off a two month layoff with two wins. Both wins in times that are faster then he had won previously. I think it is safe to say that In Over My Head is better than ever. The only somewhat painful part of the whole thing was watching Sears take him to the winner circle where they was a little trophy presentation and we weren’t there to accept the trophy, but I guess it is what it is. Prior obligations need to be honored despite the fact it would be such a fun time to be out there.
Luckily, our team will have representation this Saturday for the $73,000 final. Greg and Danny have booked their flight and will be in attendance. It would be incredible if they could find their way into the winner circle. I guess we can only hope for a good draw and from there we will see what happens. Greg and I joke that in the winner circle after we won the Windy City Pace, they turned to him for the owner interview. Instead of taking the question from Tom Kelly, he just pointed at me to take the questions. If we win on Saturday, Greg is going to have to do the talking! That will be a good problem to have. As for me, as much as I’d absolutely love to be there, prior obligations call. We are in the final throws of our basketball season and wouldn’t you know it, we have a game on Saturday night. I did quite a bit of reflecting as to what to do on this one. Skip the game and go to New Jersey? It would probably be more fun. Heck, we may very well be favored to win. Our game on Saturday is against a team we should take care of anyway. In the end, though, it just didn’t feel right. I can’t talk to the kids about dedication and commitment, then turn around and bail on them as our season winds down. The right thing to do is stay. So, I’ll be back in that classroom watching the computer and hoping against all hope that I’ll get to see two things Saturday night: another win by In Over My Head and a chance to see Greg and Danny get interviewed in the winner circle!
Last week's race can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIIAWVSXWPo
We learned something new about In Over My Head this last Friday in his division of the Exit 16W series. We learned that he can rip off a 26.2 last quarter when he needs to and on Friday, he needed to accomplish that and then some. I went back to look at his fastest last quarters. Last year, he had two 26.3’s last year as well as a 26.4. When talking with Greg and Danny, we continue to be amazed with this horse. Every time we think he has shown us everything he has in his racing bag of tricks, he shows us something more.
The saga of the second leg of this series actually started mid week when the draw came out. We had drawn the rail and obviously put down Brian Sears to drive after he won with us the week before. Unfortunately, another Sears horse was also in our race, Majestic Jackpot. Jackpot was a very worthily adversary, who had made five starts in 2010 which included three wins, two seconds and over $50,000 in purse money. We simply assumed that Sears would take him over us and we were discussing who to get in his place. However, when the program came out on Wednesday morning, we were pleasantly surprised: Sears had chosen us over Majestic Jackpot. Even Dave Brower was taken back. His race comment was: “What a mile and what a drive last week! It was so good that Sears opted for this guy over the #7. A surprise there. Talented colt.”
Unfortunately, our team of Greg, Danny and I were not going to be able to watch this race together due to various conflicts. Greg was going to hold down the fort at the South Beloit betting parlor, Danny was watching the race at home before showing up late to the Tim McGraw concert (Tim was going to have to wait…I love Danny’s dedication) and I was going to be watching the race from the computer in a math classroom. That’s correct, after finishing up my assistant coaching duties for our sophomore team at Memorial High in Madison, another coach/ friend Jeremy Schlitz was nice enough to take me to his classroom so I could watch the race. Our team had just won by eighteen points against an opponent that beat us earlier in the season, so I was feeling good going into the race.
Due to the game/ concert, Danny and I were not able to enjoy the pregame show that the Meadowlands puts on. Greg saw it and said we received some pub from the guys as they mentioned Mo’s Windy City Pace win and the Wisconsin connections. I don’t think any of us are used to the publicity. We generally watch those things and hear about other horses/ owners/ trainers and now they are talking about us! Pretty fun stuff.
From our three different spots, we were all locked onto our respective TVs/ computers as post time arrived. My little group consisted of Laura, her little sister Queshawna from Big Brothers Big Sisters and myself. Knowing my general level of excitement when watching races and the fact that sometimes no so nice words fly out of my mouth in the heat of the moment, Laura whispered to me right before the race “no swearing” and gestured to Queshawna. It was a much needed reminder. It was The Q’s first horse race…we didn’t want it filled with a bunch of bad words. When the gate closed and the horses took off, Sears left well, but not overly aggressively. He protected the rail with In Over My Head as the favorite, Woodstock Hanover and Majestic Jackpot fired for the lead. At the quarter pole, we were sitting third on the rail.
Unlike some other races, the next half mile was rather uneventful. Sears did have a shot to take Mo first over past the half, but chose to stay on the rail. I’m guessing he was thinking that the two in front of him were good horses and there was little chance they would fade and lock us up on the rail. No sense in working any harder than you have to. After getting stuck too far back last week, Tetrick had Pacinello on the move and was first over. As they came out of the last turn, I could see that In Over My Head was just loaded with pace. At that point, however, there was still no place to go and I was thinking that a win was beginning to look unlikely.
When Mel Kiper talks about college players entering the NFL draft, he sometimes references a ‘non-stop motor.’ I believe his definition is simply a player that never stops working and is constantly grinding to find a way to make a play. During the stretch drive on Friday, In Over My Head looked like he had a motor that just doesn’t stop. Majestic Jackpot was sitting in the two hole behind the leader Woodstock Hanover and pulled out to challenger the leader. Between that and the horses fanning out somewhat to the middle of the track, some room finally opened up for us on the inside. As soon as there was room, Sears and In Over My Head were on the move. It didn’t take long before he was even with Woodstock Hanover. Pacinello was still working on the outside, Majestic Jackpot was looking like a potential winner, Woodstock was fading a bit and we continued to fire up the inside. We were running out of track, but Mo kept grinding away. Just before the wire was about to hit, he got to the front, crossing the finish line a half length in front of Majestic Jackpot and a length in front of Pacinello. He needed just about ever inch of track to get there in time and did it with a jaw dropping last quarter: 26.0. That may be two ticks less than a marathon, but on this night, 26.2 would have only gotten him third or fourth place.
We now have two starts off a two month layoff with two wins. Both wins in times that are faster then he had won previously. I think it is safe to say that In Over My Head is better than ever. The only somewhat painful part of the whole thing was watching Sears take him to the winner circle where they was a little trophy presentation and we weren’t there to accept the trophy, but I guess it is what it is. Prior obligations need to be honored despite the fact it would be such a fun time to be out there.
Luckily, our team will have representation this Saturday for the $73,000 final. Greg and Danny have booked their flight and will be in attendance. It would be incredible if they could find their way into the winner circle. I guess we can only hope for a good draw and from there we will see what happens. Greg and I joke that in the winner circle after we won the Windy City Pace, they turned to him for the owner interview. Instead of taking the question from Tom Kelly, he just pointed at me to take the questions. If we win on Saturday, Greg is going to have to do the talking! That will be a good problem to have. As for me, as much as I’d absolutely love to be there, prior obligations call. We are in the final throws of our basketball season and wouldn’t you know it, we have a game on Saturday night. I did quite a bit of reflecting as to what to do on this one. Skip the game and go to New Jersey? It would probably be more fun. Heck, we may very well be favored to win. Our game on Saturday is against a team we should take care of anyway. In the end, though, it just didn’t feel right. I can’t talk to the kids about dedication and commitment, then turn around and bail on them as our season winds down. The right thing to do is stay. So, I’ll be back in that classroom watching the computer and hoping against all hope that I’ll get to see two things Saturday night: another win by In Over My Head and a chance to see Greg and Danny get interviewed in the winner circle!
Last week's race can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIIAWVSXWPo
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Welcome and What a Race!
What a night last night. In Over My Head made it 2 for 2 on the season with another exciting win in the Exit 16W series. As I was reading the articles on thebigm.com and ustrotting.com, I noticed that they put a link to this blog. The publicity is great but if you are new here, please keep in mind that I've been writing this for about a year and really the only people that read it are family and friends...in other words, the proofreading leaves a lot to be desired! I'll try and go back and clean some stuff up.
If you do stop in to get some back story on In Over My Head, I hope you enjoy the posts. I'd direct you to the Windy City Pace victory recap as it was really a night to remember. And in case you are curious about the cast of characters, the regulars who are involved with our horse are Greg (we own In Over My Head together and he is my uncle), his son and my cousin Danny (who is an up and coming young horseman...he also warms In Over My Head up sometimes, which is very cool), or trainer John Butenschoen, his wife Jackie and last, but certainly not least, my girlfriend Laura.
I'll put up a summary of last night later today or tomorrow, but first wanted to welcome any newcomers.
If you do stop in to get some back story on In Over My Head, I hope you enjoy the posts. I'd direct you to the Windy City Pace victory recap as it was really a night to remember. And in case you are curious about the cast of characters, the regulars who are involved with our horse are Greg (we own In Over My Head together and he is my uncle), his son and my cousin Danny (who is an up and coming young horseman...he also warms In Over My Head up sometimes, which is very cool), or trainer John Butenschoen, his wife Jackie and last, but certainly not least, my girlfriend Laura.
I'll put up a summary of last night later today or tomorrow, but first wanted to welcome any newcomers.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Who Dat? Not the Saints…it’s In Over My Head!
See the race in the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzKtLxZL-Mo
Sports celebrations are all relative. A few times a year, the nation or even world will get a feeling what it is like for a fan base to reach the highest levels of excitement. Last night at about 10:30 pm, a set of bright green beads hit my patio window, which tells me that the Saints fans in the French Quarter were so excited they were able to throw those things about 1,500 miles.
While our fan base is somewhat smaller than that of the Saints, Team In Over My Head was also celebrating this weekend…all 12 or so of us. Actually that number may be growing based on the congratulations we received in person, on the phone and on various internet sites. We may be 25 strong at this point and if Mo keeps doing what he is doing, that number could continue to grow.
It had been about roughly 77 days since In Over My Head last raced and we were very excited to get the season started. He had a wonderful break in both Mineral Point and later in New Jersey. That time allowed him to rest both physically and mentally. Greg told me it was about week three in Mineral Point that he could tell Mo was ready to start training again based on his more aggressive behavior in the barn. It didn’t take him long at all. Nonetheless, we stuck with our plan to give him about two months off (roughly one away from the track and one training down into racing shape). Going into the race on Friday night, he had qualified twice and he had done exactly what we hoped he would in each one. It was finally race time again.
In Over My Head was entered into the Exit 16W series at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The series is based on horses with less than four lifetime wins or less than $100,000 in total earnings as of 11/15/2009. Since Mo won the Windy City on 11/20/2009, we just snuck in. Having that said, the field was not going to be easy. It consists of two legs that go for $20,000 each where participants accumulate points. The horses with the most points after the two legs make the $73,000 final. We had been tracking our competition since the Meadowlands opened in early January and when the draw came out, we knew we would be facing one of the early 2010 stars in a horse called Pacinello. Two weeks before, Pacinello had won a $90,000 race in 1.52.0 and was installed as a 2-1 morning line favorite. Also, we were trying to strategically pick a driver who could stick with us throughout the entire series. We had picked Tim Tetrick, but as luck would have it, it was Tetrick who drove Pacinello in his big victory. We couldn’t go with Andy Miller, a favorite driver of ours last year as he was driving another one of the series favorites named Real Joke. We decided to go for broke and put down Brian Sears, the top driver in the county a number of years running. He also had a top horse in the series, Majestic Jackpot, but Jackpot was in a different division, leaving Sears without a horse to drive in ours. We learned last Wednesday that Sears had chosen our horse over another one of our competitors. We were obviously quite pleased.
When race day arrived on Friday the 5th, there was something missing from race days last year. I was much less nervous. I’m not sure if it was all of the distractions this time of year (mainly coaching), but as I drove to the park and ride to pick up Danny, I was more excited than nervous. There were a couple of reasons that came to mind as to why:
- The Windy City win had taken the monkey off our back so to speak. Throughout the season in 2009, we always thought we had a great horse, but it wasn’t until the Windy City that we finally proved it. Before that time, every race had a knock on it. We won in Springfield, but the time was a non impressive 1.57 (the track was off), we had a strong second in DuQuoin, but again the time of 1.52.4 was just average on a historically lightening fast track, we took second in a leg of the Pennsylvania Sire sires, but had a 2 hole trip to a good, but not great horse, we won the Open at Maywood, but didn’t really beat any big names. And then there were the breaks. All three of them in big races. Then there was the time he was sick and faded badly in the Free For All at Balmoral followed up by an 8th place finish in the American National (he was still kind of sick). If I was an outside observer, I’d say that we certainly have one heck of a lot of excuses…at least until the Windy City when it all changed.
- The Windy City gave our family a ‘Signature Win’. Thinking back (and I’m just doing this from memory), the last time our family had a win in a race of over $100,000 was probably Wayne Eden back in the early 1970s. He was the 2 year old trotter of the year in New Jersey that year. Since then, Grandpa and Greg had some very good horses that won some very good races (Thrifty Kirk, Race Time Carey, Race On Carey, Carey’s Card Shark, Carey’s Express, Richess King and so on), but there was no signature win. Even my smaller ownership in Butenschoen’s partnerships never had that big win. I think Westside Gritty was good enough, but it never panned out. Scoring that Signature Win takes away some of the pressure for success. In a way, it validates this crazy pursuit we call horse racing.
- Financially, there was obviously much less pressure. In Over My Head had paid for his purchase price of $28,000, all of his expenses in 2009 and built a nice reserve for himself and Showtime Shark for 2010 with some to spare. We are officially playing with house money. There were times I never thought we’d get there, but much like those times when your $200 stack of chips grows to $500 at a blackjack table after a hot streak, the game is a little more fun and the drinks flow just a little bit easier.
The ride down to South Beloit was fun for Danny and me. We rehashed last year for the 15th time, talked about our hopes for 2010 as well as our hopes for that evening’s race. A quick summary was simple: it would be very hard to beat Pacinello our first start back. He was sharp and we probably needed a start or two to be at our best. There were a number of other worthy horses in our race that had also been racing. In the end, we agreed that a nice 3rd place finish would be a great way to start the season. After arriving in Beloit and sitting down with Greg, I think we all agreed that a strong 3rd would be a successful night.
After feeling like a changed man who had cast the days of nervous races aside on the ride down, I was snapped back into reality as we approached our race (race #5). Tightening stomach, nervous tapping on the table, lots of standing up and then sitting down. I guess not much ended up changing after all. The Meadowlands does a great job with their show in terms of analysis and spotlighting horses. We were not featured in any spotlight segments, but we did get a nice comment form the Meadowlands top handicapper Dave Brower in the program comments: “Last seen upsetting If I Can Dream in the Windy City, so keep in mind. Hopes obviously high. Is he ready? Yes.” Dave had us picked for 3rd as well. Despite that fact, the bettors must not have agreed. After being set at 9-2 in the program, our odds as the race began were 8-1.
There is a moment as the race starts that you are trying to channel your thoughts through a tiny TV screen into the mind of the driver. “Leave with him…fall back…etc.” but as they took off we all took a different approach. We have Brian Sears driving today, so whatever he wants to do, that’s fine with us. Sears ended up taking In Over My Head off the gate rather cautiously and after a quarter of a mile, we were sitting about 6 lengths off the lead in 4th place. Two of the long shots were flying out front and the race favorite, Pacenello, was sitting in 6th place, waiting for the right time to move and use his blistering closing speed. Sears masterfully tipped Mo off the pylons just past the half mile mark and sat outside briefly, forcing the horse in front of him, Pantastic Dream, to go first over to challenge the leaders. As many expected, the long shot leaders were already starting to show signs of tiring and it was time to get off the rail as to not get stuck behind them as they faded. As Pantastic Dream pulled up alongside of the leader, we were right on his back. Pacinello was on the move too, two lengths behind us. The top of the stretch approached and Sears gave In Over My Head a little tap with the whip. It was time to put the petal down. He fanned him three wide just past the ¾ mile mark and the final stretch drive was on.
By this point, the early frontrunners were toast and were fading badly. Our cover, Pantastic Guy, was just to our inside, but it didn’t take long for In Over My Head to power past him. The real threat was coming from behind us. Tetrick had Pacinello revved up and behind him was Lisagain, a very talented horse who had tipped to the center of the track in a bid to swallow up both Pacinello as well as In Over My Head. As the horses reached mid stretch, Sears was going to work on Mo and he wasn’t responding like a horse that had been on the shelf for two months. He was chewing up racetrack with each powerful stride and his challengers remained behind him, unable to make up much ground on him. With just about a 1/16th of a mile to go, Sears put the lines in his hand and took a peak behind him and saw…nothing. Despite this being his first start back and facing a group of well tuned up horses, In Over My Head and Brian Sears coasted home and crossed the wire first, a full length and a quarter ahead of Pacinello and Lisagain. As they crossed the wire Greg said, “watch this time” and a moment later the official time was posted: 1.50.4. On a February night with the temperatures in the low 30s and coming off of a two month layoff, In Over My Head had just shattered his previous personal best winning time by nearly two full seconds.
To say that the season opened with a bang, would be quite and understatement. Just when we thought we hit a point where In Over My Head ‘maxed out’ or ‘found his bottom’ as they say in racing, we are treated to a new lifetime mark and find ourselves asking the question, just how good is this horse? He will be back in again this Friday and with the victory last week, we have been guaranteed a spot in the series final on February 20th. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a better read as how much he has improved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzKtLxZL-Mo
Sports celebrations are all relative. A few times a year, the nation or even world will get a feeling what it is like for a fan base to reach the highest levels of excitement. Last night at about 10:30 pm, a set of bright green beads hit my patio window, which tells me that the Saints fans in the French Quarter were so excited they were able to throw those things about 1,500 miles.
While our fan base is somewhat smaller than that of the Saints, Team In Over My Head was also celebrating this weekend…all 12 or so of us. Actually that number may be growing based on the congratulations we received in person, on the phone and on various internet sites. We may be 25 strong at this point and if Mo keeps doing what he is doing, that number could continue to grow.
It had been about roughly 77 days since In Over My Head last raced and we were very excited to get the season started. He had a wonderful break in both Mineral Point and later in New Jersey. That time allowed him to rest both physically and mentally. Greg told me it was about week three in Mineral Point that he could tell Mo was ready to start training again based on his more aggressive behavior in the barn. It didn’t take him long at all. Nonetheless, we stuck with our plan to give him about two months off (roughly one away from the track and one training down into racing shape). Going into the race on Friday night, he had qualified twice and he had done exactly what we hoped he would in each one. It was finally race time again.
In Over My Head was entered into the Exit 16W series at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The series is based on horses with less than four lifetime wins or less than $100,000 in total earnings as of 11/15/2009. Since Mo won the Windy City on 11/20/2009, we just snuck in. Having that said, the field was not going to be easy. It consists of two legs that go for $20,000 each where participants accumulate points. The horses with the most points after the two legs make the $73,000 final. We had been tracking our competition since the Meadowlands opened in early January and when the draw came out, we knew we would be facing one of the early 2010 stars in a horse called Pacinello. Two weeks before, Pacinello had won a $90,000 race in 1.52.0 and was installed as a 2-1 morning line favorite. Also, we were trying to strategically pick a driver who could stick with us throughout the entire series. We had picked Tim Tetrick, but as luck would have it, it was Tetrick who drove Pacinello in his big victory. We couldn’t go with Andy Miller, a favorite driver of ours last year as he was driving another one of the series favorites named Real Joke. We decided to go for broke and put down Brian Sears, the top driver in the county a number of years running. He also had a top horse in the series, Majestic Jackpot, but Jackpot was in a different division, leaving Sears without a horse to drive in ours. We learned last Wednesday that Sears had chosen our horse over another one of our competitors. We were obviously quite pleased.
When race day arrived on Friday the 5th, there was something missing from race days last year. I was much less nervous. I’m not sure if it was all of the distractions this time of year (mainly coaching), but as I drove to the park and ride to pick up Danny, I was more excited than nervous. There were a couple of reasons that came to mind as to why:
- The Windy City win had taken the monkey off our back so to speak. Throughout the season in 2009, we always thought we had a great horse, but it wasn’t until the Windy City that we finally proved it. Before that time, every race had a knock on it. We won in Springfield, but the time was a non impressive 1.57 (the track was off), we had a strong second in DuQuoin, but again the time of 1.52.4 was just average on a historically lightening fast track, we took second in a leg of the Pennsylvania Sire sires, but had a 2 hole trip to a good, but not great horse, we won the Open at Maywood, but didn’t really beat any big names. And then there were the breaks. All three of them in big races. Then there was the time he was sick and faded badly in the Free For All at Balmoral followed up by an 8th place finish in the American National (he was still kind of sick). If I was an outside observer, I’d say that we certainly have one heck of a lot of excuses…at least until the Windy City when it all changed.
- The Windy City gave our family a ‘Signature Win’. Thinking back (and I’m just doing this from memory), the last time our family had a win in a race of over $100,000 was probably Wayne Eden back in the early 1970s. He was the 2 year old trotter of the year in New Jersey that year. Since then, Grandpa and Greg had some very good horses that won some very good races (Thrifty Kirk, Race Time Carey, Race On Carey, Carey’s Card Shark, Carey’s Express, Richess King and so on), but there was no signature win. Even my smaller ownership in Butenschoen’s partnerships never had that big win. I think Westside Gritty was good enough, but it never panned out. Scoring that Signature Win takes away some of the pressure for success. In a way, it validates this crazy pursuit we call horse racing.
- Financially, there was obviously much less pressure. In Over My Head had paid for his purchase price of $28,000, all of his expenses in 2009 and built a nice reserve for himself and Showtime Shark for 2010 with some to spare. We are officially playing with house money. There were times I never thought we’d get there, but much like those times when your $200 stack of chips grows to $500 at a blackjack table after a hot streak, the game is a little more fun and the drinks flow just a little bit easier.
The ride down to South Beloit was fun for Danny and me. We rehashed last year for the 15th time, talked about our hopes for 2010 as well as our hopes for that evening’s race. A quick summary was simple: it would be very hard to beat Pacinello our first start back. He was sharp and we probably needed a start or two to be at our best. There were a number of other worthy horses in our race that had also been racing. In the end, we agreed that a nice 3rd place finish would be a great way to start the season. After arriving in Beloit and sitting down with Greg, I think we all agreed that a strong 3rd would be a successful night.
After feeling like a changed man who had cast the days of nervous races aside on the ride down, I was snapped back into reality as we approached our race (race #5). Tightening stomach, nervous tapping on the table, lots of standing up and then sitting down. I guess not much ended up changing after all. The Meadowlands does a great job with their show in terms of analysis and spotlighting horses. We were not featured in any spotlight segments, but we did get a nice comment form the Meadowlands top handicapper Dave Brower in the program comments: “Last seen upsetting If I Can Dream in the Windy City, so keep in mind. Hopes obviously high. Is he ready? Yes.” Dave had us picked for 3rd as well. Despite that fact, the bettors must not have agreed. After being set at 9-2 in the program, our odds as the race began were 8-1.
There is a moment as the race starts that you are trying to channel your thoughts through a tiny TV screen into the mind of the driver. “Leave with him…fall back…etc.” but as they took off we all took a different approach. We have Brian Sears driving today, so whatever he wants to do, that’s fine with us. Sears ended up taking In Over My Head off the gate rather cautiously and after a quarter of a mile, we were sitting about 6 lengths off the lead in 4th place. Two of the long shots were flying out front and the race favorite, Pacenello, was sitting in 6th place, waiting for the right time to move and use his blistering closing speed. Sears masterfully tipped Mo off the pylons just past the half mile mark and sat outside briefly, forcing the horse in front of him, Pantastic Dream, to go first over to challenge the leaders. As many expected, the long shot leaders were already starting to show signs of tiring and it was time to get off the rail as to not get stuck behind them as they faded. As Pantastic Dream pulled up alongside of the leader, we were right on his back. Pacinello was on the move too, two lengths behind us. The top of the stretch approached and Sears gave In Over My Head a little tap with the whip. It was time to put the petal down. He fanned him three wide just past the ¾ mile mark and the final stretch drive was on.
By this point, the early frontrunners were toast and were fading badly. Our cover, Pantastic Guy, was just to our inside, but it didn’t take long for In Over My Head to power past him. The real threat was coming from behind us. Tetrick had Pacinello revved up and behind him was Lisagain, a very talented horse who had tipped to the center of the track in a bid to swallow up both Pacinello as well as In Over My Head. As the horses reached mid stretch, Sears was going to work on Mo and he wasn’t responding like a horse that had been on the shelf for two months. He was chewing up racetrack with each powerful stride and his challengers remained behind him, unable to make up much ground on him. With just about a 1/16th of a mile to go, Sears put the lines in his hand and took a peak behind him and saw…nothing. Despite this being his first start back and facing a group of well tuned up horses, In Over My Head and Brian Sears coasted home and crossed the wire first, a full length and a quarter ahead of Pacinello and Lisagain. As they crossed the wire Greg said, “watch this time” and a moment later the official time was posted: 1.50.4. On a February night with the temperatures in the low 30s and coming off of a two month layoff, In Over My Head had just shattered his previous personal best winning time by nearly two full seconds.
To say that the season opened with a bang, would be quite and understatement. Just when we thought we hit a point where In Over My Head ‘maxed out’ or ‘found his bottom’ as they say in racing, we are treated to a new lifetime mark and find ourselves asking the question, just how good is this horse? He will be back in again this Friday and with the victory last week, we have been guaranteed a spot in the series final on February 20th. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a better read as how much he has improved.
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