3/26

Racing How'd You Do?
1

Only one out, but it was a brilliant day!

[color=blue]Ch. Player flew into Dubai last week to prepare for the GI Dubai Sheema Classic and it was well worth it.  He ran a fantastic race, coming from midpack in the stretch to win the $2 million race by a comfortable margin.  It is, by far, the biggest race that the farm has ever won.  Player will be heading back down to Australia to catch another race or two before heading back to the farm for a well deserved rest.  This is his 4th stakes win and 2nd grade I win this year and I am hoping fingers crossed that he will be stud qualified by the end of the season as his foals would be very fun to name! :wink:

2

Well, it started out pretty icky, but it got better!

Touchstone faded harshly, finishing 12th of 14 in an allowance. I’ll need to look at him more closely and try to figure out if he’s a sprinter. Whirling Blade never fired and was 9th in the same race.

Tar Nation was 8th in a maiden race. Meh.

But then we get to Caledonian. :slight_smile: He wired his NW3 in fine style. So just open allowances now…kind of scary, but he’s having a good year, so we may take him back to a Stakes race soon, too.

And, in the Gr. 3 Next Move Handicap, Compass held on to win. He’s having an awesome year this year – 3 wins out of 4 starts, 2 of them Stakes. Very proud of him. :slight_smile:

3

Momma’s Gift ran in a full field of fellow 3yo maidens going 5.5f on the Dirt. He ran brilliantly, broke very well out of the gate and stayed in behind the leader, letting him get a 3 length advantage on him and he kept himself out of very tiring traffic problems. A little before a furlong out from the wire he was head to head with the leader and drew away in the lane to win by a comfortable 3 lengths. 1st/14.

Ch. Golden Quest ran against the boys today in the GIII Next Move Handicap. I thought a stakes against the boys would be a bit much for her but she proved me wrong. She was in a pitch battle on the front end for the first half mile and at 2f out she faded back to fourth place. I figured that was the end of it. Much to my surprise though she rallied and finished a strong 2nd/10.

4

I’d just like the chance to brag about my baby [color=green]Unique Opportunity some more. He hit his millionaire rank today with a win at the Godolphin Mile today. This makes his 2012 year six times out and six times a winner, five of those times out various Graded Stakes. It also pushed him into the number 10 spot for 2012 Top Money Earners, the number 1 spot for 2012 Top Stake Wins, and number 2 for 2012 Top Point Earners. Very, very, very proud of my boy. He’s getting some well deserved time off at the farm where maybe our 2 Y/O crop can learn some tricks of the trade from him :wink:

We also had another horse out, [color=blue]Classic Party who ran 4th/14 in his allowance. It’s his first time out with us and he was in the money which makes me happy. It was a full field with a good pool of competition so we’re proud of our boy for holding his own. This makes 4 finishes out of 4 starts in his three year old year which makes me very happy to see.

5

Very exciting day for us here at Storybook Farms!

We were a little sad as Express Yourself didn’t seem to recover as quickly as we’d hoped so we bypassed the World Cup and sent him home to rest for awhile instead.

However, Captain Crunch is no longer a maiden!  He won his 6f allowance with a SF of 102.  He’s been a consistent stakes horse but hadn’t found the winner’s circle (ever) so we were hoping to get him some confidence.  Now we’ll see how well he learned his lesson :wink:.

Sesen dropped back to NW3 Allowance company and managed a nice 2nd.  He also backed up some in distance to 5.5f so I think it’s possible he’s more of a sprinter.  We’ll give him another allowance start next time probably.

We stacked the deck a bit in the Distaff Breeders’ Cup as we’ve got a bunch of talented fillies who can’t seem to find enough races.  Gingham handed her stablemate Gypsy Feet her first defeat of the year by winning.  Looking at Gingham’s race record I think 8f is probably her absolute limit as she seems to lose her races in the last 1/2 furlong.  “Old timer” Twin Pirate (6yo) took 2nd for Storybook surprising us a bit as she’s typically much more of a sprinter.  Gypsy Feet hardly disgraced herself though as she came home 4th.

Finally Spell Breaker finished 8th in a very wet Orchid Handicap.  I think we’re going to bring her home and breed her this year.  We’d hoped to run her for the rest of the year, but her heart doesn’t seem to be in it anymore.  Once she settles in at the farm she’ll have a date with Crystal Rainbow for a 2013 foal.

6

:cough:horrible:cough cough:

Well lets just say the best finish of the day was a 5th from Tawriffic Tiger, which was expected because he doesn’t like turf, but i thought that i should figure out if distance helped on turf sooner rather later. But it doesn’s. So now we know! :slight_smile: But now looking at it he lead the race to the 8f pole, the first time he’s lead a race in his LIFE! so maybe short turf-long dirt is his running game…something to ponder for sure!

IOU Too pulled a 6th/6 again. I just can’t figure her out!! Bah! She should be mature. She’s shot from like 15h to 17.2 since December-so we’ve got some work to do on this lil lady.

Billabong a recent claim ran a 6/14 so he did ok for his first time out under my colors. I really hope i figure him out and don;t end up having to geld him cause he would make a very nice stallion as he’s by Cigar (silver) and out of silver rated mare Blue Light. So fingers crossed on him  :wink:

7

Sooooo happy today at Clover Springs!  ;D

I’m going to get right to the good stuff with Bellagio taking a victory in the 10f Dubai World Cup! First victory for Clover Springs in that race and I am extremely happy that it was this boy, and his first stakes victory so far for this year.

Other Dubai finishes include On With The Show with a fourth place finish in the 9f Dubai Duty Free, and a fifth place finish for Navy Seal in the 6f Dubai Golden Shaheen, along with two ninth place finishes for Africa, and Rhiannon.

I have since retired Rhiannon, and she is going to be bred to Irish River for a 2013 foal. Thanks Shanthi for this beautiful Highland Sorceress mare and now we’ll see what kind of foals she can produce :wink:

Lindsay

8

This started off as a bad day for Coleman Branch.  After sending out [color=red]Notice Me and [color=red]Date With Destiny who finished 5/6 and 10/14 in their steeplechases respectively, it improved with [color=blue]Reason to Serve’s 3rd place finish in the Next Move Handicap.  We’re glad to see him living up to his potential finally and are hoping for only good things to come considering his ability to run at any distance. 

9

(Am I the only one who’s race results doesn’t show up on my stable alerts anymore??  It’s a pain now that it’s disappeared!)

Anyhow, not sure what order the races came in, so here’s an alphabetical listing thanks to the stable summary page, ha…

[color=red]Blueyesnlevis never fired in her NW3 turf sprint, finishing 11/12…  Maybe she’s trying to prove that she is a DIRT horse through and through.  She hadn’t done anything super spectacular there, though, so I thought I’d give it a shot.  She’s only had one good race so far this year, and that was the claiming race I won her in.  Figures.  :stuck_out_tongue:

[color=red]Keria Toon went out in the Distaff Breeder’s Handicap (G2) and finished a game 5th/11, beating out some great horses (SW Playing It Cool, SP Harvard Holiday, MSW Secret Signal, & MSP Aerolite).  Not bad for her first stakes start!  Every horse that beat her was a MSW, so maybe in a less congested stakes race, she’d get a chance to shine.

[color=blue]Premiere Night, a recent claim, went out in his first start under our colors…and wired his NW1, breaking his maiden!  Woo!  I’m excited to see what this boy can do.

Our most exciting news of the day comes from [color=blue]Remembrance, who managed a 2nd/10 in the Gulfstream Park Handicap (G2) with a SF of 154 (his highest this year by far).  He beat out some great horses (MSW Cryptaware, SW Out of Africa, MSP Secret Chimes, SP Resident Debate, SP DayDropIn, SW Seattle Phoenix, MSP Real Distorted, & SW Cryptic Sovereign).  Maybe studhood isn’t as impossible a dream as I’d originally thought!  :stuck_out_tongue:  Here’s hoping, anyway…  His Sunday Silence x Cigar bloodines certainly are drool-worthy…

[color=blue]Swingshift made a switch to SC, and did as he always does - bombed it.  He finished 6th/6, so he’s since been gelded.  I tried to warn him!  We’ll see if it does any good next time out.

I’m glad to see [color=green]Trophy still in my stable after his claiming race.  I didn’t want to lose him, but he didn’t have anymore good race options for a while.  He finished 6th/6, though, which is about how he finished his last race out.  He’s usually a consistant placer!  He’s our oldest runner at 6YO, so maybe a well-earned retirement isn’t entirely out of the question…