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!