The Parents From Hell
Some of you didn’t believe me last week when I told you about having my tonsils out. The doctor rushed in, my family assisted in clamping me to the kitchen table, ether was liberally applied and tonsils were extracted. It was pretty much like a current-day organ-extraction in India, where they hit you on the head, rip out your organs, sew you back up (if you’re lucky) and run off to cash in their own version of a lottery ticket. But really, that’s what happened in those days. I have corroborating evidence from my friend Irana in Boca, who writes that HER mother took her to the hospital, told her she had to go to the bathroom and didn’t come back for two days! Geez, you remark, how uncivilized mothers were back then, but hey, it made us tough, got us ready for all those future medical procedures. Irana may have taken it one toke over the line, what with all her hip replacements, knee replacements, nose replacements, ear replacements, but the point is our early days prepared us for whatever they now decide to throw at us.
“Well, Mr. Killeen, everything looks okay today except for one small problem. We’ve scheduled you for Brain Lavage next Tuesday if that fits into your schedule.”
“Does Medicare pay for it?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Well, okay then, Tuesday it is. Will I be smarter when we’re through?”
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised, sir.”
I’m not sure he was being honest or just sarcastic.
Racing Report
Juno—Cosmic Crown—is in the seventh race at Calder Saturday, a non-winners of two six-furlong sprint with six opponents. The claiming tag is $25,000. Mario Argueta, the apprentice rider who guided her to victory in his only trip on the filly, is riding. Argueta has been off for awhile with an injury but returned last week at Gulfstream with a winner right off the layoff. Cosmic Crown should be tough off just the 20-day gap between races. We’re optimistic.
Pogo—now Cosmic Flight—worked a nice eighth in 12 4/5 in company last Saturday at Eisaman Equine. He tries his first quarter this weekend and will have another the following Saturday. If all goes well, he should ship to Calder shortly thereafter.
The Derby Approaches
We have a lot of once-a-year guys out there. Easter brings out the once-a-year church guys, NCAA March Madness brings out the once-a-year basketball fans and now the Kentucky Derby generates office pools for the once-a-year racing enthusiasts. The Derby is always an intriguing race because, with 20 entries clogging up the racetrack, the favorites are faced with a greater challenge than usual.
First, it’s a logistical nightmare out there. Navigating a safe course through all that horseflesh isn’t easy. A horse who usually closes well may not get the opportunity, what with the wall of horses surrounding him. A front-runner may be pushed faster than he really wants to go because of the amount of speed in the race.
The competition is fierce because every owner and trainer wants to win the Kentucky Derby because of the tradition and status of the race. Whereas most weekends find a horse’s connections looking for the most opportune (easiest) spot in which to place their charge, this race features all the best horses in one place at one time. The 20 horses entered earn admission by the total amount of earnings won in graded stakes races so there are not too many “Old Blackies” in the race who trailer in from Uncle Barney’s farm and trip up all the big guys. Not to say surprises don’t happen. Favorites win the Derby less than any other race due to the quality of the competition and the size of the field. This provides a field day for bettors. There may not be a horse with odds as low as 5-1 in the field.
Right now, Hansen, a rare white horse who was also the two-year-old champion, Gemologist, an undefeated 5 for 5 winner of the Wood Memorial and Union Rags, who faltered in the Florida Derby when hemmed in most of the way, are the likely favorites. Creative Cause, edged as the favorite in the Santa Anita Derby, is also in the upper echelon. Hansen runs in the Blue Grass Saturday and may get the Derby favorite’s role with an expected victory. More on this as the race gets closer.
Now On A Radio Station Near You….
Or maybe not. The other day, one of our new blog readers, an ex-Gainesvillian named Court Lewis, invited us to be on his nice radio program (WETS-FM, out of Johnson City, Tenn.) to discuss the horse business, what with it being Derby time and all. WETS is a Public Radio station and Court’s program is also carried on other Public Radio stations, including one as close as Orlando, which we probably can’t get up here. The interview airs next Thursday at 2 p.m. if you have absolutely nothing to do, and Siobhan says all you internet savants can figure out how to listen to it if you’re in dire need. Meanwhile, we’re going to re-answer some of Court’s questions here. The answers will be different from the ones we gave Court, not because we’re devious but because we’ve had more time to think about it. Also, in the course of the radio conversation, other questions came up and one thing led to another as one thing has a tendency to do. Anyway:
Court: Tell us about your horse farm.
Bill: Well, it’s a 10-acre operation just outside the tiny hamlet of Fairfield, Florida. We try to keep two or three mares—two currently—and breed for the race track instead of the sales ring. We foal the mares here and keep the young horses until September or October of their yearling year, at which time they are shipped a few miles down the road to a training center. About five months later, if all goes well, they emigrate to Calder Race Course in Miami, where they are handled by our long-time trainer, Larry Pilotti.
Court: What considerations go into breeding?
Bill: Well, first you have to know what your mare is capable of producing, both from a quality standpoint and a speed-vs.-stamina outlook, both of which are altered, of course, by the stallion you choose to breed to. You have to be aware of the conformation strengths and weaknesses of your mares and also those of the prospective stallions. We went to a Stallion Show this year already sold on breeding to one of their new stallions. When we got there, however, we noticed that he was significantly over-at-the-knee, a condition he ran with and overcame. This particular mare, however, was offset in the knees, herself, and actually broke her right knee in a winning race. Breeding a mare with bad knees to a stallion with dubious knees didn’t seem like a particularly bright idea so we decided on a different mating.
Court: Do you ever buy horses at sales, and, if so, what do you look for?
Bill: We raise almost all of our horses, but occasionally we do buy a yearling. Before we go to the sale, we carefully go through the catalogue and eliminate offspring of any stallions we are not enamored of, which is most of them. Then we try to find something in the mare’s pedigree to get a handle on what she can produce. If she has already had foals to race, this is a big help. A mare who has not produced much after four or five horses to race may eventually come up with a good horse, but we have no reason to think so. A mare who has not yet had horses to run but who has done well on the racetrack is a consideration. The rest of her family is also considered. How did her mother do as a producer? Did her half sisters produce anything? You have to look at the family. Some people are fanatical about going back into the dark ages of the pedigree to find encouragement, but we are not. To us, recent is paramount.
Court: How do you decide what races to enter?
Bill: When you start out, you run as a maiden—non-winner—until you break your maiden (win one race). You don’t have to but there is an old adage in horse racing that recommends keeping yourself in the best of company and your horse in the worst—that is, running where you are most likely to win. There are several incidents of horses running in stakes races while they are still maidens—and even winning—but this is extremely rare.
Maiden races are scheduled at various levels. Everything from Maiden Special races—in which your horse cannot be claimed—down to $12,500 claimers, the bottom at Calder.
Racetracks publish condition books every few weeks, listing the upcoming schedule of races so that owners and trainers can plan where they want to go. Trainers will enter these races anywhere from two to five days in advance (the schedules vary). A good percentage of races “go,” meaning they get enough horses (usually a minimum of six or seven), but some do not. Alternate races are created each day by the racing secretary to substitute for those in the book which do not get enough entries.
Once a horse breaks its maiden, it may go in several directions. If the horse looks promising, it may run next in an allowance (non-claiming race) or even a stakes. If a horse ran for $40,000 and was trounced, it will usually drop to a lower figure. There are several options.
Court: Is there a whole world of clubby horse breeders?
The popular perception is that horse owners are a bunch of rich bastards who spend August in Saratoga and the rest of the time in similar circles. And sure, there are several of these. The great majority of people in the horse business are just plain folks busting their asses to get by. We’ve been lucky enough to make a profit 14 of the past 16 years, but sometimes that profit has been small. Like everybody else, we’ve had a few big horses who have kept us going and a lot of average ones (not to mention a few outright bums). Lexington, Kentucky is the Camelot of horse racing in this country and that’s where many of the landed gentry reside. Ocala is the poorer stepsister.
Court: What is the most rewarding part of the business and what is the most stressful part?
Bill: Well, the first part is you get to play God. You create your own entity. You select the mare and the stallion and the result is the product of your planning. When the animal you helped create is storming down the stretch on his way to the winner’s circle, the result is testimony to your wisdom. Of course, it’s also testimony to you wisdom if he gets buried by ten next out. But the anticipation of success—the quest—is very important, too. Another old saw from the horse racing world is that “nobody ever committed suicide with an untried yearling in the barn.” Hope springs eternal in most horse people. And the day to day interaction with the horses is rewarding.
On the other hand, sometimes you feel like you’re walking on eggshells with these guys. For big, strong animals, they are very fragile. Many extremely promising horses endure compromising injuries which cause them not to reach their potential. There are innumerable stories of three-year-olds falling by the wayside just days or weeks before the Derby. And then, of course, there is the diabolical colic, killer of many horses. Sometimes, you can’t even figure why they got it. All of a sudden, your horse is on the ground. Most of the time, a simple shot of banamine will rectify it—others, you get a situation like we did with Zip, who almost died several times or, most recently, with Puck, who seems fine after a $5000 operation. I’m grateful now every time he walks out of the stall with an empty feed bucket.
You vacillate on whether it’s all worth it. So far, we keep coming up on the side of yes. We watch the Derby every year and, like thousands of other horse people, imagine what it would be like to have a horse in there. It will likely never happen. I’m running out of years. But we keep going out there, giving it the old college try. Hey, you never know when you’ll catch lightning in a bottle. Did we tell you about Pogo? His work was awfully good last week….
