Reaching New Heights

None of us thought Saturday’s race would produce any new milestones. Our expectations were rather simple. Drive down to Balmoral Park for a fun night at the track, spend some time with In Over My Head (we hadn’t seen him in awhile), watch him race, then head home. We expected him to race well, but weren’t sure how much the 3 month layoff would affect his performance. Much of that would depend on the rest of the field (which was rather tough) and how the race set up. We watched Chicago’s unofficial champion Well To Do Guru finish a hard closing 3rd in the Invitational early in the night and thought that it might be a potential preview of what Mo’s race might be like. As it turned out, it was.

The fun of the night started back at the barn when we stopped in to see Mo. We hadn’t seen him in weeks and weren’t sure what kind of reception we would get, but our questions were answered immediately. I think he actually heard us before he saw us and instantly tried to climb over the gate and get our attention. I’m not sure who was more happy to see each other: us to see Mo or Mo to see us!

Thanks to the wonders of technology (and Danny’s new mini video camera), we can give you all a view into what Mo is like before the race during our visits (this snippet was when Laura told me to pose for a picture in front of his stall…he obviously wasn’t in the mood to stand and pose.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMUkizm60kI&context=C4d5a840ADvjVQa1PpcFPtFWz-L93RvtS3Iqv6YZb4tT-oS9NWA04=

And in the midst of that all, Laura got the included picture, which instantly became a favorite:

We decided to leave shortly after so Gary could get him ready to warm up…and so he didn’t hurt himself.

When it finally came time for his race, the mood was very upbeat with out little on track group (Danny, Kacy, Laura and I). The pre-race nerves provided the standard tension, but we had fun with it. All we really wanted was for him to race well since it was his first start. The primary hope was that no matter how the race unfolded Mo would be closing hard at the end much like Guru was. The secondary hope was that the speed would beat each other up on the front end and Mo would be there to pick up the pieces…which could lead us right into the winner’s circle.

The race did end up unfolding like we hoped it would. Unfortunately for us, the leader (and eventual winner) was on some sort of mission from god and won in 1.49.3. Mo wasn’t ready to go that fast and we finished a very respectable second with a snappy 26.2 last quarter. Team In Over My Head was very happy, but there was much more to the story and it goes back to the title of this entry of ‘Reaching New Heights’. Below is a breakdown of the new heights that were achieved on Saturday night.

Speed – Mo’s final time was 1.50.3, which is his fastest time ever. His previous fastest time (which was also a winning mark) was 1.50.4 at the Meadowlands to start his 4 year old season. We’ve always thought that Mo had sub 1.50 mile ability. He pulled off a 1.50.3 time in his first start of the year on a nice, but cool night (51 degrees by post time of the 9th race). That makes me think that a sub 1.50 clocking is in his not too distant future.

Heart – The reality was we were hoping the race wouldn’t go that fast. That class can be a bit of a crapshoot, but on Saturday I think it was a little on the tougher side of normal. We thought the winning time would be a couple ticks below 1.52, which would have been nice. In racing, however, things rarely do as planned and he ended up having to chase that shockingly fast winner. Marcus Miller said he was starting to fatigue at the end of the mile, but just wouldn’t quit. He had ever reason to fade in the final strides given it was his first start back, but true to form, he didn’t kept on fighting.

Respect and Admiration – We all have talked about this together, but I didn’t think it was possible to be more impressed with In Over My Head than we already were. However, when thinking back on the night we did reach a new peak in this category as well.

While we would like to roll this great weekend right into another race, we are giving Mo the week off. Instead of being on the track, he’s going to swim a few hundred laps in the pool. He’s gone a lot of miles getting trained down, then two qualifiers and a very fast race mile, so we all think it is the best move for him. We are optimistic he will have a long healthy season this year, but want to make sure we take the steps necessary to keep him healthy. Look for him back at Balmoral the Saturday before Easter.

We have once again been remained how lucky we are to have him. Mo makes a positive impact on everyone he comes in contact with. He truly is a special horse and just had a great start to his season. Hopefully there are plenty of more great memories to be made.

Let’s Go Mo!

Keep On Dreaming

It’s almost race day. Tomorrow night we start a season that holds a lot of promise for us at team In Over My Head. We know that we have a healthy horse. We know he is equally blessed with speed and heart. We know he would score rather high on a horsey IQ test (if one existed). We know we’ve been through a lot to get here, but it is nice to talk about the future for once instead of the past. The future appears to be bright for our friend Mo. Appropriately bright is probably the best way to describe it. We don’t have any grand plans for him at this point. No planned trips to take on the top level open horses in the country. We are going to start here in Chicago and not even really think about racing anywhere else. If he turns out to be great, we could consider doing something different. That would be a good problem to have. For now though, we are just thankful he’s a healthy and happy horse. We can figure out the rest when the time comes.

So as a kick off to the start of the year, here is a link to a song we stumbled upon that really hit home. I could write and write about our story with Mo, but this knocks it out of the park. The subject matter is slightly different of course (dream of becoming a musician), but if you wanted to write a theme song to our little adventure this is it. Enjoy and check back to see how we did in Saturday’s race!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWiP7ciuGRo

LET’S GO MO! HERE’S TO A GREAT 2012!!!

All Systems Go, Prepare for Takeoff

Mo is ready to go.

We hoped that Wednesday would be the final tuneup In Over My Head needed before starting his racing season. He would show us how ready he was based on a few things: his actual time, how driver Marcus Miller thought he was and how he came off the track in terms of health.

We are happy to report that all three of those items can be checked off the list.

His time was 1.55.0 with a great 27 second last quarter. Marcus said he did it very comfortably and felt very strong. Gary Rath told us that when he came off the track, he was great. No signs of soreness. The report really couldn’t have been any better.

Thanks to the wonders of online video (and Danny’s constant reminders that these videos are available), you can even watch the replay here (go to March 14 qualifers in dropdown box and then race 9):

http://www.balmoralpark.com/Video.cfm?Cat=R

So after a nice little break (Mo’s last race was on December 17th), it is time to race again. I remember when we went back to the barn after the race that night and it was a little bitter sweet. Mo had raced great, but ended up with a tough trip and still only got beat by just over a length. At the time, the thought of ‘one more week’ was stuck in my head, but we did the right thing by giving him a break. Winter was setting in and he had been through a number of tough months. Just think about the strain he had to endure with all those training miles while fighting through various forms of soreness to finally make it back from his injury. Now he is in great shape and feeling fresh and strong.

The plan is to race him on March 24th at Balmoral Park. I think we will have a nice little contingent of fans heading down for that one. Hopefully we can get 2012 off to a great start.

Let’s go Mo!

Mo Takes Another Step and We Remember a Fan

We are one step closer to the first race of 2012. Last Wednesday In Over My Head got his first race-like work of the year by finishing a qualifying mile in 1.58.2. While the time wasn’t quite what we had planned, he was battling gale force headwinds that swallowed about 2 seconds from his last quarter. Since it was his first real speed work of the season, we had Dr. Tony come out the next day to check him out and the news was good. He said to put him right back in for his second (and likely final) qualifier this Wednesday. Assuming that goes well, we will be back racing the week after.

In what is hopefully our last quiet week before the start of the season, I wanted to take a second to remember one very small member of Team In Over My Head. Our bandwagon welcomes all, even creepy, crawly spiders and this particular one had a rather strange story that can be found here:

http://www.inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2012/01/update-and-story.html

Below is a little obituary I put together. Let’s hope Spidey is enjoying that big cobweb in the sky:

Spidey (2011-2012) – Spidey died peacefully in his web/ home above the Swenson garage window in February. A lifelong supporter of horse racing, Spidey was especially fond of the harness horse In Over My Head. “His story was truly inspiring,” Spidey would often tell fellow arachnids and insects. “He faced nearly insurmountable obstacles, but never gave up and kept a positive attitude throughout.” Spidey could potentially be survived by his or her offspring if they happen to emerge from the web-like cocoon that was placed in the tree outside the garage. In a way he is also survived by In Over My Head as he chose to transfer his life force to him at death. “This is a choice that animals have and I chose to pass it to Mo. I’m expecting a big season this year from him.”

In Over My Head released the following statement through his agent upon hearing the news, “I never met Spidey, but he/ she feels like a brother/ sister to me despite the fact we are not of the same species. I like to thank Spidey for his/ her support and will dedicate the 2012 season to him/ her.”

The Season Starts on Wednesday!

We are still a couple weeks away from a real race, but In Over My Head will qualify on Wednesday morning at Balmoral Park. A qualifying race doesn't have the monumental feel it did after he was coming off his long injury layoff, but it does mark the start of 2012 and we are quite excited about it.

I'll post again after the race, but just wanted to get a quick post up with the good update.

Let's go Mo!