The Quest for Double Digits

This is a big weekend for harness racing.  The eyes of the harness world will be on the Meadowlands this weekend and for good reason.  Our sport’s most prestigious (and important) event, the Hambletonian, will be contested on Saturday afternoon.  The $1.2 million trotting classic has returned to its roots and has brought back heat racing.  I’ve always been a proponent of heat racing as a way to promote our sport.  For those that don’t know what heat racing is, the general gist is that for a horse to capture the Hambletonain crown, they have to win twice in one day.  It is a monumental task and one that is uniquely harness racing.  Like harness racing fans all over the world, I can’t wait to watch the “Hambo” as well as the awesome undercard.

But there is more to this weekend than just the Hambo.  At least for Team In Over My Head.

In a much less publicized event (unless you are a loyal blog reader), In Over My Head will make his return to racing after just over 12 months on the sideline.  His last race was in July of 2012.  We made t-shirts and brought down a crew of about a dozen people to watch Mo try and make it 6 in a row.  It obviously didn’t go well, but as I texted our friend Brett Wheeler (who was there that night to watch his first ever horse race) it was time to bust out the t-shirts…Mo is racing again.  His response was great, “I never stopped wearing it!”  That’s a true fan.

We aren’t quite sure what is going to happen when Mo gets back on the track.  Based on his qualifier, he has all the speed he ever had.  He came down the Maywood stretch like a bolt of lightning.  Danny was down watching and said it reminded him of the Windy City Pace and a long forgotten night nearly 5 years ago when he also flew home on that same piece of dirt as a 2 year old.  In looking at the race lineup, he certainly has the credentials to win.  It is just a question if he is in sharp enough racing shape to pull it off.  He may need a tune up.  The number 4 horse certainly has some back class.  His lifetime mark is 1.50.0.  We will see what happens.

Beyond this race, though, there is another goal that I am going to throw out there.  I was looking back at Mo’s career starts per season and one thing really stood out.  Here is what we have.

8, 23, 3, 7, 7

Only one time in Mo’s career has he raced more than 8 starts in a season (when he was 3 years old).  This time around, I’m not going to apply pressure on the old guy to win races.  The fact of the matter is that if he is healthy, he will win.  He’s just that good.  This year we will have a different goal…I’ve even given it a catchy name:

The Quest for Double Digits

Double digit starts that is.  At least 10 in 2013.  If he stays healthy that shouldn’t be a problem.  Then he can turn around and put up another double digit in 2014.  Now that would be sweet?

Friday night at Maywood Park isn’t only special because Mo is back.  Friday night also marks the first time in multiple decades that our family has 2 horses racing on the same night at the same track.  Don’t Tell Wayne is making his 3^rd lifetime start in race number 5.  He’s facing a much tougher group than he did for his first lifetime win two weeks ago.  That’s OK though, it is time to test him just a little bit.  In case you are wondering when the last time was we had more than one horse racing, we would have to go back to a time when Thrifty Kirk, Race On Carey and Race Time Carey all battled on the Sportsmen’s Park 5/8 mile oval in the early 1980s.  While I’d love nothing more than to be there, I’ll likely be watching from Atlanta (baring a good last minute flight).  Luckily, Danny will be on the ground.  It will be exciting to see him in the winners circle…twice ;)

Let’s Go Mo!

Shake and Bake

We seem to have quite the little racing team forming here.

Last week, we asked for another good week and guess what we got.  An even better one! 

In Over My head went out and put up a mile in 2.04 with a 30 second last quarter to kick off the week.  Came off the track perfect and is ready to step right into a qualifier this Thursday (tomorrow).

Don’t Tell Wayne followed that up with his first lifetime win in only his second start.  I enjoyed watching that one on my phone in the backseat of my buddy’s car while cruising down the Interstate in Houston.  That was a first.  The best comment from driver Casey Leonard after the race was that coming into the stretch Don’t Tell Wayne wasn’t going to let the other two horses near the front beat him.  Gotta love a horse with a good racing attitude.  Sounds like someone else we know…

Much like last week we have some very positive tangible results, but we don’t want to get too carried away.  Mo put in a very nice training mile, but it was still just a training mile.  Lil Wayne posted his first win (made even more impressive as it was against all 3 year olds), but he did it in 1.59.1.  While we think he as more in the tank (quite a bit more) we need to keep expectations under control for our little racing team.

We are extremely thankful that the Franchise (Mo) and the Rookie (Lil Wayne) are both racing.  So thankful that when we got together for dinner last weekend, we sat down and said a special prayer.  I thought it would be a good idea to share it with the blog readers since I think it does a great job summarizing how we are feeling right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuAUI_0knfk

Shake n Bake baby!  After watching that I think we need to get Mo some sponsors. 

In other news, we hit a nice milestone on the blog sometime in the past week.  We are now over 8,000 views from over a dozen countries.  I hope you are enjoying the story.  I also hope that you enjoy what’s to come.  I have a feeling we have a nice little run ahead of us.

Let’s Go Mo!

May We Have Another

Another good week that is.

Last week, we were finally treated to some tangible success.  Tangible success for an owner is something that you can see with your own eyes…and usually involves some sort of purse money.  It can also refer to an important positive change that is easily measurable.  I think both of the following count as tangible successes:

 -  In Over My Head took part in his first on track training mile in over a year.  The result was just what Casey Leonard wanted.  He went in about 2.10 and came off the track perfect.

 -    Don't Tell Wayne made his first lifetime start and despite going up against all older horses (he was the only 2 year old in the field) he finished with a very solid 4^th place finish and took another positive step in his development. 

So we didn’t get rich last week, but we did pick up a $360 purse check and stepped forward with BOTH horses.  It was our first check in over a year.  We’ll take it! 

If you enjoy reading about what it is like to own a racehorse, Bob Carson wrote a really fun series of articles for the US Trotting Association and Hoof Beats.  It takes readers from purchase through the end of the horse's racing career.  You can find the link below:

  

http://xwebapp.ustrotting.com/absolutenm/templates/?a=46815&z=92 

You will notice a lot of the same positive and negative experience that you have read about with In Over My Head.  One thing he that I found interesting was he summarized each article with a well-known song.  “Money for Nothing” from Dire Straits was at the top of his article about stakes payments for example. 

So what song would best describe our current place?  First we need to describe our current place.  While we did have some tangible accomplishments last week, it really just left us wanting more.  That desire to see more success has actually led to some impatience and stress (at least it has for me).  After spending a decent amount of time looking at various songs, nothing seemed to fit.  Until I came across the very catchy tune by Bobby McFerrin from back in 1988.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

At long last we are in the fun zone of horse racing.  Those long months of nothing but bills and limited progress are over.  Sure each race could produce a better than or worse than expected outcome, but who cares…we’re racing again!  Don’t worry, be happy.

This week is very much like last week.  Mo will be headed back to Maywood for another training mile and assuming it goes well, he will be in to qualify the week after (a stunning accomplishment when you stop to think about where we were last year at this time).  Lil Wayne is back in the nw1 at Maywood.  Again he is facing older horses, but he should continue to get sharper with each start.  We think he has some pretty decent talent.  It will be fun to see how he does.

Will our horses take another step this week?  We certainly hope so.  Either way we will have fun with it.

Let’s Go Mo!

Guess Who's Back?

The old horse barn up in Mineral Point is loaded with memories.  Grandpa built is years ago and it remains functional today.  It’s where In Over My Head has hung out for a couple of his rehab assignments.  The walls still hold memories of the Golden Days of the Carey Racing stable.  Faded pictures of Wayne Eden, Ironworks and other horses from the 60s and 70s still hang on the walls.  Most of the old racing gear and mementos have been cleaned out over the years, but once in a while a gem can be found in among cobweb covered old feed bags and broken jog carts.  Danny found one this weekend and brought it back home with him.  It was an old folding studio chair with the name “Carey Stables” on the backrest.  It was a little dirty so he put it in his garage until he could find time to clean it up.  What he didn’t realize is that he brought something else back with him…or should I say someone else.

Like many families, our interest in harness racing is generational.  From Grandpa to Greg to myself and now Danny.  This is an exciting week for us.  Mo is planning on heading into Maywood for a training mile.  Don’t Tell Wayne, who is Danny’s first foray into horse ownership, will be making his first lifetime start on Friday.  Apparently another family wanted to get involved in this big week and this visitor came unannounced…and gave Kacy a bit of a scare since she was the first to see him.

In the four + years of writing this blog, one of my favorite stories had to be that of our friend Spidey.  Spidey was a spider who showed up in our garage in Madison and had a strange tie to In Over My Head (the full story can be found here:  http://inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2012/01/update-and-story.html).  Well, as of Wednesday evening, Spidey is back…or maybe Spidey’s offspring is back and is living in a web that connects to the old piece of memorabilia from the horse barn.  Here is a look at Spidey II is his new natural habit:

I have to say that he resembles his old man (we just officially moved forward with the assumption he is Spidey’s son).  When I showed Laura the picture of Spidey II that Danny sent me, her immediate reaction was, “Wow, that’s weird.”  He’s a chip off the old block!  He also has an impeccable sense of timing.

This is really our first big week since last July.  Obviously it is a big deal that Lil Wayne is racing in his first lifetime start, but let’s also not overlook the importance of Mo’s planned training mile.  He has worked himself into a position to go a mile in 2.05+ at Maywood with virtually no issues.  No soreness.  Nothing.  If you’d ask Tyler Butenschoen to compare this comeback to the last one he’d tell you there is simply no comparison.  Last time was a constant struggle.  This has taken a long time, but has basically been a breeze in comparison.  It gives us a ton of hope that he could very well be back to his old self.  The Leonard’s have done a terrific job getting him to this point and for that we are very thankful.

So what is the lesson in all of this…and why am I bothering to look for a lesson?  You could simply say that we have a couple of healthy horses and an appearance from a spider who in all reality has no affiliation with the former Spidey.  Not to mention the fact that the original story of Spidey was a bunch of nonsense in the first place.  To those naysayers I simply say this:  Take your negative cynicism elsewhere.  We choose to believe.  To believe in goofy little things such as the appearance of spiders is a sign of some sort of near future good fortune.  Heck at the very least it makes the journey more fun.  We also choose to believe that patience is generally rewarded…and we have been very patient.  We believe that staying positive and not giving up leads to a brighter future.  Luckily for us, I think that future his finally upon us and you know what that means. 

It’s time to get racing again.

Refresh, refresh, refresh……

The whole experience of of harness horse ownership has changed dramatically since the back in the late 1950s when Grandpa purchased his first racehorse.  From that point up until probably the early 1990’s you had two options to find out how your horse did in a race:  go to the racetrack or wait for a call from your trainer.  Even making a phone call was more hit or miss.  The trainer had to make his way to a pay phone and likely call the owner's home phone number....and the owner had to be home.  Lots of chances to miss each other.

In the early 90s the advent of Off Track Betting parlors became popular.  Oftentimes that would be the place to watch a race, which was particularly true for us Wisconsinites given the OTB that used to be in Rockford, IL.  It was a much shorter drive than going all the way to Maywood or Balmoral Park.  Despite the fact it was easier going to watch a race still involved an hour + drive each way.

In 2013, staying on top of your horse’s success (or lack thereof) couldn’t be easier.  We have the internet, cell phones, text messages and so on.  This is great, particularly for those owners like myself who currently live hundreds of miles away from the tracks their horses are racing.  It can, however, also lead to some rather obsessive habits. 

Take last night for example.

Our 2 year old was making his first start in a qualifier at Maywood Park.  A first qualifier is nothing to get too excited about, but after waiting since last October to see the youngster on the track it is worth paying attention to.  Since you can’t see the qualifiers live, you just have to go to ustrotting.com or maywoodpark.com and wait for the results to be posted.  Now, you could be patient and check back every 20 minutes or so.  Or you could be like Danny and I:

Refresh, refresh, refresh…..

Let’s just say our web browsers got a workout last night.  And you can’t blame our trainer/ driver Casey Leonard for not getting back to us.  I think he drove every single race last night.  Not a lot of time for phone calls to owners.

When the web page finally revealed the results, Don’t Tell Wayne (or Little Wayne as he’s now been called by Danny) had a very solid first effort.  He posted a 2.00.3 mile after getting impeded in the stretch (impeded means that another horse got in his way, thus impeded his progress).  Little Wayne showed good manners handling that less than smooth stretch run.  After watching the replay this morning, he was revved up and really rolling before getting backed into.  This was also against horses much older than him.  All in all, we were very happy.

And how is Mo doing?  He continues to move forward.  He trained in   My last prediction was a little aggressive.  We are still likely a month or so out from a qualifier.  He trained in 2.24 this week.  No issues to report, which is great news.  It shouldn’t be long now…

Let’s go Mo!

Ready for New Content

When I sat down today to write in a new entry, my first plan was to go back to the big night we had a year ago.  On Wednesday of last year, we had Grandpa Carey’s funeral.  On Saturday, In Over My Head gave us a night to remember by winning his first Invite at Balmoral Park.  It was honestly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had at a racetrack.  I started thinking about reflecting on that night and then I stopped.

We’ve already told that story.  As a matter of fact, if you’d like to read about it, here’s the link:

http://inovermyheadracehorse.blogspot.com/2012/06/very-special-night.html

We are ready to move forward.  We are ready for new content.  If Mo’s training is any indication, we are going to get that opportunity.  He is still about a month (or a bit more) away from getting a chance to qualify, but at this point all systems are go.  Even as his training miles begin to quicken, his leg is holding up extremely well.  No signs of any discomfort.  He is loving every step.

If we continue along this path, it won’t be long until we can write about more races.  Stories of competition, redemption and hopefully winning.  Last weekend was Danny’s bachelor party and we spent a decent amount of time talking horses with the group.  Someone said that I should turn this blog into a book.  I told him that I can’t do that.  When he asked why, I said because the story isn’t over yet.  I just know we have another act to this play.  I’m not going to predict what it entails or how it ends, but there is more…and it involves racing.  And we are close.

As I’ve said before, Mo won’t let me say too much about the youngster in the stable (it’s reasonable to give Mo some say since he basically bought the horse with his earnings from last year).  We planned to do a little feature story and when I sent the draft to Mo, here is what he emailed back to me.

“Nice story, but so what.  He’s training well.  Good for him.  Wait until he proves it on the track.  By the way, who do you like, the Spurs or the Heat?”

The Spurs and I get the message Mo.  It is pretty common for old veterans to not want to ‘crown’ anyone until they actually deserve it.  Heck, even Denny Green gets upset about crowning people prematurely:

(sorry, I couldn’t resist…this is an all-time favorite):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmQbk5h86w

With that, we will adhere to the following blog rules until further notice:

1.      Look forward, not backward

2.      No crowning of anyone

3.      Verify all stories with Mo before going to print

4.      Absolutely, positively, no talking about the playoffs

We don’t want Mo having to give one of these types of press conferences:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fjDS0jKiE

I can feel the excitement brewing.  It is so close to being within reach.  Stay tuned.  For the record, In Over My Head likes the Spurs too.

Let’s Go Mo!

 

 

Plans for the Season

This is an exciting time of the year for many people in the horse racing industry.  After months of work and hundreds of jogging/ training miles, this year’s crop of 2 year old horses are getting close to “go time”.  Like a rookie who has showed their stuff in minicamp and training camp, the time is near to get out on the field (or track) and see what you can do when the lights are on.

We here at Carey-Swenson stable are in a unique situation where we have a two year old who is getting close (Don’t Tell Wayne) and a tough veteran coming off injury who has a timetable that is nearly identical (Mo).  Both of our horses are on track to hit the track for qualifiers in early July.  For us, it can’t come fast enough.

Since we are getting close to the start of the season we can start thinking about what our schedule might look like.  I written about scheduling in the past, but each year is different.  This year, we also have another horse to consider.

For Mo, it is pretty easy.  We will start him in Chicago and based on his success, we can go from there.  Where we start in Chicago is determined by what he is eligible for.  Almost all horse races are written based on certain conditions.  Here is an example of a race where Mo might start his season this year.

“Non-winners of $5,500 in their last 5 starts OR Non-winners of 5 races or $25,000 lifetime OR Non-winners of a race with a purse of more than $5,800 or more since October 12, 2012.  The purse for this race is $7,500.”

At first glance, it looks rather confusing. However, if you just take it line by line, it isn’t really confusing at all.  Walking through the conditions, we can see whether or not Mo would be eligible:

-          “Non-winners of $5,500 in their last 5 starts.”  This won’t work.  Mo made $30,500 in his last 5 starts dating back to last summer.

-          “Non-winners of 5 races or $25,000 lifetime” This won’t work either.  Mo has 19 career wins and $270,000 in earnings.

-          “Non-winners of a race with a purse of more than $5,800 or more since October 12, 2012” – Bingo.  Given his time off, he fits this condition.

 So that is where he will start.  That race is offered at both Maywood Park and Balmoral Park.  So what happens when he wins?  Then he will have to move up in class.  Take a look at the next level on the Chicago circuit.

Non-winners of $9,500 in their last 5 starts OR Non-winners of 6 races or $35,000 lifetime OR Non-winners of a race with a purse of more than $9,200 or more since October 12, 2012. - $10,000 purse

As you can see, each of the conditions was made a little more open.  This allows better horses to enter and ideally keeps the playing field level.  It also offers a higher purse, which makes sense.  Since you are facing more challenging competition you should be racing for a larger purse. 

 I know what you are all thinking.  Mo will win both of those pretty quick, so what comes next?  To that I say, hold your horses for a second.  We have to think back to two years ago when Mo was coming back from his first major injury.  It actually took him 3 tries to win at the first level and two tries to win at the second level.  If he is his old self, he will eventually win his way up to the next level and the condition looks like this.

Invitational (may be handicapped) - $17,000 purse

Pretty simple.  If you are too good for all the rest of the conditions, you get put in the invitational.  If you are winning a lot in the Invitational, you may be assigned an outside post position (that’s what ‘may be handicapped means’).  At this point you are going against the best of the best for that racing jurisdiction and it also offers the best purse.

Last year I talked quite a bit about this, but never really explained what it all meant.  Hopefully this was a good little lesion in how you enter a horse in a race.

You also might be wondering what other options we might have with Mo.  Well, in Chicago there aren’t any.  Our only other option would be to take him to another track that offers more conditions.  We don’t need to worry too much about that now.  One step at a time.    

Now we move on to our two year old.

It has been awhile since we’ve had a young horse and they are much more fun to schedule.  Generally speaking, they will all start out in the same type of race that is open to horses that have never won a race before.  They are sometimes referred to as a ‘Maiden’ race. 

The huge wild card with young horses are stake races.  Mo raced in a number of stakes races as a three year old with some pretty good success.  Here is a quick listing to jog your memory:

-          Pennsylvania sire series first leg – Purse of $42,000 – finished 2^nd

-          Pennsylvania sire series leg two – Purse of $42,000 – finished 5^th

-          Review Stake at Springfield – Purse of $34,000 – finished 1^st

-          Hayes Stake at DuQuoin – Purse of $46,000 – finished 2^nd

-          Keystone Classic – Purse of $50,000 – finished 7^th

-          American National – Purse of $265,000 – finished 7^th

-          Windy City Pace – Purse of $225,000 – finished 1^st

(full stories of each race can be found in the blog archives)

You probably noticed that the purse money that we were racing for was much higher than what you get in general conditioned races.  So how do you get into those races?  In short, you have to pay to stay eligible.  Part of the reason the purses are bigger is that payments made months before (in February, March, April and May) are used to boost the purses.  You also have to pay a starting fee.  General conditioned races like the ones Mo races in do not have starting fees.    

Instead of walking through the stakes process, I’ll send you over to a very good YouTube video put together by Tom Janes of VIP Stable.  VIP Stable puts together horse partnerships out east and also uses John Butenschoen as one of their trainers.  I’ve talked to Tom many times at the horse sales in Lexington and he does a great job walking through the process.  Our situation isn’t exactly the same since Don’t Tell Wayne is a New Jersey bred and the example in the video is a New York bred, however, you’ll get the general idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xImKFnifjo

We decided to make Don’t Tell Wayne eligible to a few stakes races in the Midwest, but kept his schedule pretty light.  As you can see in the video, there is a lot of risk vs. reward decisions to make when staking.

That’s a lot of information.  While many of the entries in this blog are fun stories about our times with In Over My Head, I also like to add some ‘what is it like to own a racehorse in general’ posts.  Hopefully some of you got something out of it.

Now back to Mo.

Today is May 23^rd.  It is very conceivable to think that just two months from now, Mo will be back on the track.  I’m not kidding when I tell you that I’ve been hearing “his” songs a lot more lately.  Optimism is running high at team In Over My Head.  I’ll admit I am prone to reading more into something than is actually there, but it is strange that after all these months of downtime I’m seeing little signs here and there that make me think we may be in for another fun ride with Mo. 

With that we are officially making an important shift.  No more ‘stay patient and stay positive’.  It’s time to bring back his familiar battle cry.  Talk to you all soon and say it with me:

LET’S GO MO!!!