Carrying a Heavy Load

Is it possible to write a blog about one horse for over five years and still feel like you aren’t giving him enough credit?  I’ve created 130+ entries about In Over My Head.  Most of the time I write about how great he is, how much fun he has been for our family and his resiliency.  At times, I’ve touched on the additional fact that he’s been the horsepower (pun intended) behind our entire operation.  He IS the revenue generator.  I’m going to expand that line of thinking with a new analogy.  Try this on for size:

XYZ Company is lucky.  They have this old salesman (let’s call him Mort) that has been with the company or years.  Mort is not only experienced, but he’s a hell of a salesman.  When he working, he literally moves the needle for company revenue.  The only issue over the years is that Mort has had to deal with some health related issues and has taken a leave of absence on a couple of occasions.  The owners of the company originally thought it was no big deal…they’d just find another salesman.  Sounds easy right?  Well it wasn’t. 

The first new hire turned out to be a hothead who was a solid employee, but couldn’t close any big deals.  The second just didn’t pan out at all.  The third showed promise, but had issues of his own to deal with and didn’t make much money.  It all came back to Mort time and time again.  Despite numerous efforts to find Mort’s replacement, each effort has fallen flat on its face.  The company has reached a point where there is legitimate concern.  When Mort finally retires, do we even have a company left?

You can probably guess that Mort = Mo in this little analogy.  Just when I think I may have my hands on another horse that could move the revenue needle, something knocks it off its feet.  Who steps in to pick up the pieces?  In Over My Head.  Like clockwork, the old boy just keeps doing the heavy lifting.  It happened again last week.

Last fall, bought into a yearling (mainly due to Mo’s success) with John Butenschoen and a couple other partners.  As the winter went along our hopes for him continued to grow.  He was good.  Good enough to possibly add a decent amount to the revenue line of the horse business.  Unfortunately, he suffered an injury that will knock him out for the year.  News like that is never fun.  We were all disappointed. 

I heard the news of the young horse’s injury last Saturday afternoon.  Mo was scheduled to race on Saturday night at about 9:30pm.  He made sure that I wasn’t going to have to sulk for very long.

Mo had been off for three weeks and was again facing the ever powerful Al’s Hammered.  He also had a new driver, Hall of Famer Dave Magee, in the bike.  Things weren’t lining up to be a week were Mo was going to finally break through and get his first win over Al in 2014.   While we ended up being right, Mo still managed to put on a performance that made it feel like he won.

The field was small with only six horses and when the gate closed three horses shot to the front.  Dave took Mo to the fence with Al’s Hammered falling in behind us.  Just past the half, Bobby Smolin decided it was time to roll and Al took off.  We ended up following him and by mid-stretch Al had opened up three lengths on us and we were still in fourth.  That was when good old Mo finally hit his top speed (after he appeared to take a look at the tote board for some reason) and fired into 2^nd place.  By the time they hit the wire he was just ¾ of a length behind Al’s Hammered.  We were thrilled with the performance until we saw his last quarter time.  25.2. The fastest of his life.  Off a three week break.  Wow.  Extra thrilled.

Once again, In Over My Head stepped up when he was most needed.  He never gets tired of carrying the load.  We wish he could do it forever, but obviously he can’t.  Finding a replacement is necessary.   If we fail to find a replacement the business could shrink or slowly fade away.  Luckily we don’t have to worry about that yet.  As of now we can just continue to recite one simple acronym:  TGFM.  Thanks goodness for Mo.   

Mo is getting another week off since the Invite didn’t fill at Balmoral Park.  I’m guessing he will be in next week.  Until then he can enjoy running around and eating grass.  He’s earned it.

Let’s go Mo!