I admit, I’ve been hiding for the past week or so.
Early last week, I couldn’t find time to put together an
entry after Mo finished a respectable 4th in the Invite. I was going to talk about how he had a good
showing off of a two week break and how he just missed 2nd
place. I was going to talk about how Al’s
Hammered made everyone look slow, but that I was confident that Mo could return
the favor. I also had an interesting story
to tell (which I’ve included in this entry).
Then the week got away from me. I had some time on Friday, but there was a
problem. I couldn’t put a blog post up
on a Friday before a race for one simple reason. Superstition.
I can distinctly remember putting up a post late in the week
both times Mo suffered major injuries (in 2010 and 2012). While I’d be the first to admit that it is
just plain coincidence that those events happened, I just wasn’t going to risk
it. Taking that risk, my friend, would just
be plain stupid.
Horse racing, like any other sport people watch, is a
potential breeding ground for superstitions.
I don’t think that any of us at Team In Over My Head have any superstitions
that stick out. However, we do look at
patterns and follow our gut instincts sometimes when it comes to what might
happen in a race or a career arc. This
is kind of an offshoot of superstitious behavior. Sometimes we prove to be correct…other times
we get ourselves all worked up for absolutely nothing.
This exact situation played out for Mo’s race last Saturday
(December 7th). What is most
interesting is that Danny and I both had the same feelings of potential calamity,
but didn’t admit it to each other until after the race.
The night that Mo finished 4th was a very cold
night. The temperature at post time was
about 11 degrees and I’m assuming the wind chill made it feel closer to
zero. Mo had been off two weeks and he
always loses a bit of conditioning during that time because it is just hard to
train him this time of year with tracks being less than 100%. He was stepping up in class and facing some
very tough horses including Time To Roll, Al’s Hammered, etc. Fast competitors means that Mo will try and up
his game to beat them. In the freezing
cold. With less than perfect
conditioning. If you put all this
together, what you had was two extremely worried people named Danny and Shawn.
As I sat at my computer screen in our living room in
Atlanta, I watched the horses turn and go to the gate. The knot in my stomach was so tight it was as
if each end of the rope was tied to an elephant walking in opposite
directions. Something bad was going to
happen. I just knew it.
When anyone asks me why I’m involved in horse racing, the
first two answers that come out of my mouth are that (i) my family has been
involved since the 1950s and (ii) it is an absolute blast. I say that if you take the excitement
generated by being a fan of any team (pro, college, whatever) put a multiple of
100 on it and you have horse ownership. People
refer to ‘my’ team all the time, but it isn’t really ‘yours’ (Packer fans may
disagree), but if you own horses it is ‘yours’.
You are Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban, or Mark Attanasio! This is why you apply a multiple to being a
fan…and it can be so fun. However, at
that moment when In Over My Head’s nose got to the gate, it wasn’t fun. It was a million miles from fun. The only word I can use to describe it was
agonizing.
“Why do I do this to myself?”
“I don’t even want to watch this. Should I just turn it off? I can’t control what happens anyway.”
And then the haymaker
“I think I’m going to stop owning horses.”
I’m not kidding. That
thought ACTUALLY when through my head. I
was beside myself. And for the record, I
really hadn’t had that feeling in a long time.
This whole Mo comeback version 2.0 has really been much more fun for
us. We are in ‘we have nothing to lose’
territory. Don’t get me wrong, the
butterflies are always going crazy in my stomach before races, but that is the precise
reason why I own horses. That’s the fun
part! This was something else. It wasn’t fun at all.
Now take what I just talked about and double it (or triple it). That’s what Danny was dealing with at
Balmoral Park. It is so much more fun to
be at the track. Everything is just amped
up…but when something is amiss, that gets ratcheted up too.
Regardless of how we were feeling, the show must go on and
at about the half mile marker everything that we worried about was still in
play. Mo wasn’t looking all that
good. He was gapping quite a bit. My eyes were telling me that he might be a
bit off. Luckily a horse race only lasts
about 2 minutes because about 30 seconds later, the horses turned for home and
good old Mo came charging down the lane to finish a respectable 4th,
just missing 2nd by about a half-length. He came out of the race fine and all was
well. We were all worried for nothing. Well, kind of.
When Danny got a chance to talk to Casey after the race,
Casey said that Mo was feeling a little bit off. He was struggling a bit on the backstretch,
like he just couldn’t shift gears for some reason. It was because of that Casey kept him on the
rail and waited until the homestretch to let Mo open up and even then he didn’t
have the rocket fuel finish that he usually has. It was, in my opinion, a very professional
drive. He put In Over My Head in the best
position to finish as close to 1st as possible, but also didn’t do anything
overreaching that, quite frankly, could have led to injury. So am I saying that Casey saved Mo from
injury that night? No, I can’t say that
with any certainty, but something felt off that night and it was kind of
confirmed that we were not totally crazy to be worried. For whatever reason we came out of it just
fine. Sometimes it’s best to not ask too
many questions why.
Once the whole thing was over, I let out a big exhale and basked
in the satisfaction of a solid 4th place finish for our old boy. This was followed by an hour + conversation
with Danny as he drove back to Madison where we rehashed all of it over and
over again.
I’m so glad that I own race horses.
Onto Mo’s race this past Saturday.
Much like the week before, we were in tough. Al’s Hammered was back and ready to hammer
everyone again. Time To Roll was
replaced by Fort Silky, the current king of the city. We were once again picked for 3rd,
which made a lot of sense considering those top two. Because Casey is Fort Silky’s regular driver,
we were in a strange position: we needed
a driver for Mo. Luckily, Casey’s
brother Ross is back in Illinois (he usually drives down at Hoosier, but they are
closed for the year). While you never
like to have to switch drivers, picking up a brother is about the best you can
do.
Unlike the race before where I was mired in feelings of
impending doom, this was a fun one. It
was a race where the competitive juices were flowing. We had escaped the race before without anything
bad happening so this was different. Mo
would be sharper with just a week off instead of two. It wasn’t bitterly cold. It was a week that I thought Mo might be able
to surprise. After seeing Al’s Hammered
blow by in a sick mile the prior week, I had another thought on my mind.
It was time to be the hammer instead of the nail.
There was some chatter before the race about it being an Al’s
Hammered vs. Fort Silky duel. No one was
talking about Mo, which was exactly where we like to be.
Here is a piece that talked about the showdown:
The way the race shook out, Mo was in prime position second
over with Al’s Hammered on his back. For
the record, the last time this happened was in the summer of 2012. Really the exact same situation. The result was that Mo won the race and the
speedy Al’s Hammered never got any closer.
This time, however, Al was just too sharp. He went by to win by a length + and Mo came
up just short of 2nd to a gutty Kanaris.
This is where I can give you a little more insight into the
mind of a horse owner. Where you finish
is relative to your expectations going into the race. I was listening to this interesting podcast
this week and one of the speakers was talking about the key to happiness. His suggestion: set low expectations. It made me laugh when I heard it partially because
it is 100% true. To apply that lesson to
this race, if I had expected Mo to finish 5th, I would have been
thrilled with 3rd. For a
horse like Mo, that’s just setting the bar too low.
When the race was over, my 100% honest reaction was that I
was ticked off. Not because of anything
anyone did or did not do. His trip was
perfect and he raced hard. I wasn’t mad
at Mo. I was mad because Al’s Hammered
just buzzed by In Over My Head for the second week in a row. I was watching the race with Laura and I told
her that “yeah, 3rd place is good…Mo raced well..” but I didn’t mean
it. The competitor in me couldn’t’
accept it. As I sit here 3 days later, I
still feel the same way. I know that Mo
is just as fast as Al’s Hammered.
The fact of the matter is that we may not get a chance to
prove that until 2014. There is a chance
that we may race Mo next week (we usually don’t go 3 in a row), but if we don’t,
he’ll be done until February. Mo may
just need a little break to sharpen up.
Heck, he’s gone 13 races. He hasn’t
gone more than 7 since he was 3 years old!
He might just need a little time to work out some soreness in his muscles
and joints. Regardless of any
competitive fire burning, we will do what is right for him. I’m pretty sure he’ll come back his blazing fast
self next year. So unless we line up
next week, enjoy it Mr. Al, because we’ll be gunning for you in February.
One other little tidbit.
Mo now sits right on the cusp of $300,000 in career
earnings, which is quite an accomplishment and something that certainly makes
his owners happy. Not only has he been a
source of excitement, fun and inspiration, he has been the economic engine to
our little stable for over four years now.
The old boy just keeps on going.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We are so lucky to have him.
Look for a recap of a race (if we race this weekend) or a
year in review coming soon.
Let’s go Mo!
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