Farm visit: Moms and males and a chewer of tails

For the first time since I've owned a horse -- that's the spring of 2007, if anyone is counting -- I managed to visit my charges on consecutive days at their boarding farm in central Virginia.

I stopped by Hilltop Farm, north of Gordonsville, on Friday afternoon, and after a pleasant first-time visit to Lynchburg (almost two hours off) I returned Saturday morning to spend some time with the horses again.

All is relatively well in their world, though the new colt -- who remains unnamed, which is likely fodder for another blog post -- is in dutch with Sarah Warmack, the farm owner. The not-so-little guy (pictured here at exactly 21 days) decided to chew off mama's tail.

His dam, Bushes Victory, has such a fine, flowing forelock that Sarah has joked she should be a hair model. Well, her tail was long, glistening and beautiful, as well, nearly touching the ground.

Not anymore. Her new little cuss has gnawed two-thirds of it off.

Sarah has coated the remainder with a nasty concoction that will hopefully prompt the colt to keep his teeth to himself. Meanwhile, she says he's otherwise just about as playful and desiring of human attention as a foal could be.

At the other end of the barn, my yearling colt, now being officially registered as All in On Red (Inner Harbour-Lady's Wager, by Lear Fan) is sharing a large stall with his pasture buddy, Illicium Verum, aka "Vern." They spend the warm days shaded indoors, and get turnout at night.

Red was a very late 2009 foal, born on June 18. So in his picture here, he is only a year and eight days old; some yearlings would be 16 or even 17 months of age.

Vern was foaled on April 11 last year, making him 68 days Red's senior. At what I'm guessing is a shade under 14 hands, Red has caught up to Vern in size (Vern's sire, Noles, and dam, Star Anise, are both only about 15.2) and has eclipsed his classmate in speed.

Sarah says that Vern is "always the instigator" when the two race in the field, breaking first and building a quick lead. But Red never fails to overtake him. And when they make a turn back for home at the fence, the younger colt progressively draws off, and keeps running long after Vern has run out of wind and thrown in the towel.

They're just two young horses on one small farm, but I like the fact that Red seemingly wants to run -- and run, and run -- and is intent on finishing ahead ... well ahead.

As for their dams, Tory will learn to live with a short tail for awhile -- Sarah speculates it will take two years to grow all the way back -- and Lady is keeping on weight better than at any time since I got her (in 2008) and is feeling a bit more energetic in the pasture as she enters her second empty season in a row. She is not in foal since my stallion, Silver Music, the tail-biter's daddy, died on Derby Day in May.

Two moms, two boys, and no foals expected in 2011. We'll make do with that for now.

Good tidings from Gordonsville: It's a boy

I'm a little slow in passing out the cigars, but today's blog entry (the first in a few days, shamefully) brings good tidings from Gordonsville, Va.

The last foal sired by Silver Music, a Grade 2 winner who died on Derby Day, was born at 3:45 a.m. Saturday at Sarah Warmack's Hilltop Farm VA.

The strapping colt is a dark bay and sports a star, much like his dam, the modest winner Bushes Victory (Spartan Victory-Below Broad Street, by Kokand). He's already developed a reputation for being "such a flirt" around the women and girls who frequent the farm, standing to be loved-on and offering kisses back.

Which shows that at least he's no dummy.

I'd crossed my fingers for a filly (so I could add her to the broodmare band later, if she ran worth a darn), and also for a gray, like the sire. At least a gray would have been a fitting end for the big daddy. But that just wasn't to be.

Regardless of sex or color, the foal would be -- that is now, is -- inbred 3x4 to Mr. Prospector via Silver Music's sire, Silver Ghost, and the dam's dam-sire, Kokand. For proponents of the Dosage system, his Dosage Index is 1.80 and his Center of Distribution is 0.64, suggesting a runner who would want at least a little bit of ground. That would be consistent with his sire's performance, for while Silver Music broke maiden going 6 furlongs on dirt at age 2, his second juvenile win (in his ninth 2-year-old start) was a one-mile allowance on grass, and his signature win was in the 1994 Swaps S.-G2 going 10 panels on the main track at Hollywood Park.

However, one aspect of this mating that I liked is the female family's apparent penchant for speed. Though Bushes Victory only won a single race -- well, two, actually, and was taken down to second once, losing what would have been her maiden-breaking win at 3 -- she had some early turn of foot, and was usually on or near the lead in fractions as brisk as 22-flat for the opening quarter.

Her dam won the Alabama Oaks at a mile while there was still horse racing at Birmingham, and was 2-for-3 at route distances (with an allowance-placing on grass in her other try), but was primarily campaigned as a sprinter and hit the board three times in stakes races at 6 furlongs. "Tory's" full sister, Broad Victory, won the Somethingroyal Stakes at Colonial Downs (5.5f turf in 1:03 2/5) and was second beaten a half in the Phoenix Stakes at Meadowlands (5f turf in :56 3/5). And Broad Victory's first foal, a gelded son of Van Nistelrooy named Radical Fringe, nearly nicked the Arlington Park track records for 5 furlongs on both turf and dirt in his second and third lifetime starts at age 3, missing both marks by less than a fifth of a second.

I'm not a proponent of mating widely disparate types in hopes of achieving a "happy medium" -- that is, an extreme stayer with a sprinter, expecting to get a miler. I think you're just as likely to get a foal with the stayer's speed and the sprinter's stamina, which could be useless.

But in this case, I do hope that the dam's side's relative fleetness gives this Silver Music foal something I think many of the sire's get have lacked -- some early turn of foot. And Silver Music wasn't hopeless at short distances. As noted, he broke maiden at 6 furlongs (on the main track at Calder), and at 3, he collected his first stakes win going "about 6 1/2 furlongs") on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita, in the Baldwin Stakes. He also won the Bold Reason Handicap at Hollywood Park going a mile and a sixteenth, displaying true versatility -- stakes wins from 6.5f to 10f at age 3, on dirt and on turf.

Silver has had a couple of solid sprinters among his progeny, including career leading-earner Time to Rap ($169,894), and with a progeny average winning distance of 7.13 furlongs (at this writing) it would be fair to say that his foals have probably won as often at 6 furlongs as they have at a mile, a mile-seventy or a mile and a sixteenth. But on pedigree, I think many of his horses would have done better with more distance; it's just that getting two-turn races in the lower claiming ranks is sometimes a difficult proposition.

So, there's some speed on the dam's side, and a lot of versatility on both sides of this new colt's family. His sire was pretty good at just about everything, with wins on dirt and turf, from 6 furlongs to 10. And his dam's family includes dirt, turf and synthetic winners, with closely related stakes winners at a mile on dirt and 5.5 furlongs on turf.

Simply put, since this colt has had close relatives who are achievers at a little bit of everything, I hope he can do at least a little bit of something.

More than just being a loverboy, anyway.

Silver Music's swan song: G2 winner dies back at home in Virginia while covering mare

I told Sid Fernando this afternoon that maybe this is the best possible way to go for an athlete who is past his prime.

Silver Music, a Grade 2 stakes winner for whom I've been honored and privileged to be the caretaker since autumn 2008, died this morning -- May 1, 2010 ... Kentucky Derby Day -- in the state of his foaling, while covering a mare at Hilltop Farm in Gordonsville, Va. He was 19 years of age.

The striking gray was foaled on Valentine's Day, 1991, on the expansive Spring Hill Farm near Casanova, Va., a homebred of Edward P. Evans, one of the nation's more noteworthy breeders of racing thoroughbreds. The colt was a son of Silver Ghost (Mr. Prospector-Misty Gallore, by Halo) and was out of the Stop the Music mare, Music Bell, who is still alive and well in retirement at Spring Hill Farm at age 24.

I last saw him on April 3, when the accompanying photo was taken. He was an impressive horse, and it has been an honor and a privilege to be his caretaker for the last 20 months of his life.

Though only a modest winner at the track, his dam, Music Bell, came from exceptional family and proved to be an outstanding producer. Her dam was Grade 3 stakes winner Belladora (Stage Door Johnny-Prayer Bell, by Better Self), a three-quarters sister to 1969's American 2-year-old champion Silent Screen (by Stage Door Johnny's sire, Prince John). Both Prayer Bell and Silver Music's fourth dam, Spinaway Stakes-winner Sunday Evening (Eight Thirty-Drowsy, by Royal Minstrel) have been designated reines de course.

Music Bell also produced G2 turf winner Musical Ghost (Red Smith H. at 11f) and $784K-earning Japanese runner Ghost Soldier (both full brothers to Silver Music), plus a five-times stakes-winning filly in the sprinter Prospector's Song (Prospector's Music). Silver Music's full sister, the unraced Ghost Bell, produced Philadelphia Park stakes winner Monsoor (Mt. Livermore).

But Silver Music was his dam's first foal, and he is who first made her mark as a producer.

After a lackluster debut at Churchill Downs at 2, Silver Music was transferred by owner Lauren Cohen to the barn of David A. Vivian in Florida.

The colt broke his maiden for Vivian in his sixth career race, going 6 furlongs on dirt for a $50,000 tag at Calder Race Course. Silver Music collected his second career win in his ninth and final start at age 2 -- this time going a mile and a sixteenth on grass in allowance company -- then finished a well-beaten 11th in the Tropical Park Derby-G3 on Jan. 2, 1994. After a turf allowance-placing at a mile and an eighth for Vivian, Silver Music was sent west to train under Wallace Dollase in California.

There, the colt blossomed.

Dollase sent him out on March 30, 1994, in the Baldwin Stakes, an "about 6 1/2-furlong" affair on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita. Silver Music closed from seventh, 12 lengths in arrears, to win by by a half under jockey Chris Antley, upsetting Danehill's full brother Eagle Eyed in the process.

Silver Music would finish no worse than second in his next five races for Dollase.

The colt undertook quite a stretchout -- to a mile and an eighth -- in his next start, the California Derby-G3 on dirt at Golden Gate Fields. Sent off at 7/1, he lost the race by a half-length to the longest-shot in that race's history, Screaming Don, who repaid his backers $103.60 on each $2 wager. Next-out for Silver was another "tough beat," this time by a head in the 8.5-furlong Will Rogers H.-G3 on grass at Hollywood Park, to Wes Ward-trained Unfinished Symph, who would go on to be third that year in the Breeders' Cup Mile-G1.

Another second-place finish followed in the Sausalito Handicap back at Golden Gate, in which Eagle Eyed exacted revenge by 4 1/2 lengths. Then, Silver Music won as the odds-on favorite in the Bold Reason Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth on the Hollywood lawn, setting the stage for his biggest victory.

On July 23, 1994, Silver Music rallied from last of six, nine and a half off the pace, to win the Swaps S.-G2 on the main track at Hollywood Park. He came home in 2:00 3/5 for the 10 furlongs, defeating Grade 1-caliber horses in Dramatic Gold (who went on to run third that year in the Breeders' Cup Classic) and reigning Hollywood Futurity champion Valiant Nature, in second and third. Silver Music earned a career-best 106 Beyer speed figure for the race, and next set his sights on older horses in the Pacific Classic-G1.

That start was not as successful, as Silver Music finished fifth behind Tinners Way (who won the race in track record-equalling time of 1:59 2/5), Best Pal, Dramatic Gold and Slew of Damascus. Finishing in arrears of Silver Music were Del Mar Dennis, Stuka, Bertrando (whose track record Tinners Way had equalled) and Risen Roman.

Still, it was a season that featured three stakes wins, two on turf and one on dirt, at distances ranging from about 6.5 furlongs to a mile and a quarter; a campaign that resulted in The Blood-Horse declaring Silver Music the "most versatile" 3-year-old of his crop, a point that would be hard to argue.

Silver Music started only once at age 4, a modest fourth in a stakes race at Golden Gate, then was retired to stud duty at Pinebourne Farm in New York. He retired with five wins -- three in stakes races -- from 19 starts, for $351,905.

At stud, Silver Music sired several winners and three stakes-placers (to date) from modest opportunity, both in numbers and in quality of mares. His leading earners are Time to Rap ($169,894) and Stevie Stressor ($163,273), the latter of whom for a time was the track record-holder for 7 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park. Perhaps reflecting their sire's versatility in their own, modest way, Silver Music's three stakes-placers include Classlylilprincess and Silver and Green -- both as 3-year-olds, around two turns on grass at Suffolk Downs -- and Stage Music, as an unraced 2-year-old, sprinting on dirt among NY-breds in the New York Stallion Great White Way Stakes at Aqueduct.

From a dwindling group of progeny at the track, Silver Music's latest winner was Talking Blues, a full brother of Time to Rap, who scored in the NY-bred maiden-claiming ranks for owners Castle Village Farm, at Aqueduct on New Year's Day.

No mares were yet confirmed in foal to Silver Music this season, his second in Virginia. Amid the Old Dominion's declining breeding business, only one mare was covered last year by Silver Music. That foal -- being carried by Bushes Victory, a modest-winner but a full sister to Colonial Downs turf-sprint stakes winner Broad Victory, by Spartan Victory and out of Alabama Oaks-winning Below Broad Street -- is due June 1.

Watching Red 'race' for the first time

You'd think an unemployed journalist would be blogging with all his newfound down-time. I'm not fully certain why I'm not accomplishing more here, but I guess job-hunting does take some time, and I've also distracted myself with other endeavors.

While my teenage daughter was visiting North Carolina during the holiday season, we road-tripped with a friend of hers to Atlanta for a concert (Lady Gaga, I did not attend) and then Daddy and Daughter jetted to Boston on New Year's Eve to see Amanda Palmer and the Boston Pops in historic Symphony Hall.

And on Saturday, I drove to Gordonsville, Va., to visit my own horses at Sarah Warmack's Hilltop Farm VA.

After the loss of our co-owned filly, Oracle at Delphi, in November, all has gone much better for my small stable.

Stallion Silver Music is feeling right chipper for 19 years of age, and some interest has been stirred among Virginia breeders this year, unlike last season.

Open broodmare Lady's Wager is putting on weight (she struggles to maintain when pregnant and nursing) and should be ready for a relatively early cover by Silver this year. Hopefully she'll be in foal before the end of March.

Broodmare Bushes Victory, dam of the ill-fated "Delphy," is happily in foal to Silver Music for a late-2010 foal of undetermined gender.

And new yearling All In On Red (pictured at left above), a June colt, is catching up in size to the other 2009 foals. More important, according to those who frequent the farm, he hates to be at the back when the babies run in a pack.

I caught a brief but encouraging glimpse of this late in the day, as the winter-blanketed babies realized it was feeding time and hurriedly brought themselves up from the pasture. Red and a pretty nice filly were neck-and-neck while well in front, and as they came up the hill (whether in actuality or just wishful thinking on my part) Red seemed to find another gear to reach the still-empty feed buckets first, by several lengths. ... And to be terribly pleased with himself for "winning."

Thoroughbreds are, after all, born to run. But not all of them are born with that desire to compete; the will to win.

Whether Red will be fast enough (and sound enough) to make a living at this game won't be determined for another couple of years. Yet I have to like that he hates to settle for less than first, even among in his present youthful company in a big, open pasture in Virginia horse country.

Ringing in the new year with a new winner

Over the past few years of his stud career in New York, my stallion Silver Music -- then the property of Pinebourne Farm -- served a declining book and with spotty results. So his number of current runners is quite small.

But, today I get to extend my congratulations to Steve Zorn and Castle Village Farm, who own one of those few Silver Musics who are presently at the races. Castle Village Farm's Talking Blues (Silver Music-Time to Chat, by Gallant Hour) broke his maiden on the day he (and all thoroughbreds) officially turned 4, taking the sixth race at Aqueduct on New Year's Day.

Talking Blues and jockey Rosie Napravnik stalked the pace at the outset of the $12,500 maiden-claimer for New York-breds, going a mile and 70 yards on the inner dirt, then came on to win by a strong 5 1/2 lengths. The gray or roan gelding breaks his maiden in his eighth lifetime start, having finished second in three of seven prior races. His lifetime earnings are now $21,705.

Formerly trained by Billy Turner, when that conditioner moved his string to Gulfstream for the winter, Castle Village Farm transferred Talking Blues to Bruce Brown's barn at Belmont in order to take advantage of the many NY-bred opportunities at Aqueduct during the winter months. Looks like the decision paid off.

The Pinebourne Farm-bred horse is a full brother to Silver Music's highest lifetime earner, Time to Rap. A chestnut gelding also bred by Pinebourne Farm, Time To Rap won seven of 17 lifetime on the New York circuit, for $169,894.

A Facebook presence for my stallion

As another of the suckers who have been drawn in to Facebook, I took a second step into the quicksand of that social networking site on Saturday night.

I created a Facebook page for my Virginia-based stallion, Silver Music.

The 18-year-old, Virginia-bred son of Silver Ghost won five of 19 lifetime starts for $351,905. Included in that record were three stakes scores: The Baldwin Stakes at 6 furlongs on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita; the Bold Reason Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth on the lawn at Hollywood Park; and his signature score, the Grade 2 Swaps Stakes going 10 furlongs on the main track at Hollywood.

Those performances -- and near-misses by a half-length and a head in the California Derby-G3 on dirt and the Will Rogers H.-G3 on turf -- led The Blood-Horse to label him "the most versatile 3-year-old of his crop."

Until relocating to Virginia in 2009, Silver Music stood his entire stallion career at Pinebourne Farm in New York. While he has sired no stakes winners, he has stakes-placers who have reflected some of their sire's versatility, collecting black type both sprinting and routing, on dirt and on grass.

Silver Music stands for a fee of $1,500 LFG, with 50 percent discounts for mares foaling in Virginia.

The Facebook page so far has attracted a few fans, who have enjoyed some photos of Silver and -- thanks to embedding a YouTube post -- the full video of his impressive, 106-Beyer win in the Swaps. I'll hopefully soon be adding his lifetime past-performances. And, as I get the chance to visit him at Hilltop Farm in Gordonsville, Va., in the coming weeks, some more recent photos will also appear on the page.

So if you're a Facebooker, stop by for a visit.

My own budding barn of runners

It isn't often enough that I find my way up U.S. Highway 15 to Gordonsville, Va., where my horses reside. But Saturday provided the opportunity, so I made the trip and I have photos to prove it.

For those who don't know -- which is probably most folks who blunder by -- the budding Golden Gale Stables breeding and racing string consists of a pair of 2009 foals, their dams, and a bun in the oven by a stallion I relocated from New York for this season. The quintet reside at Hilltop Farm VA, just north of Gordonsville, in the able care of Sarah Warmack.

Head of the household, so to speak, is Silver Music (Silver Ghost-Music Bell, by Stop the Music), an 18-year-old who was foaled not all that far away from his current home, as one of the many great racehorses to emerge from Edward P. Evans' Spring Hill Farm near Casanova, Va.

Like most Evans-breds, Silver Music (pictured clowning for the camera this weekend) is the product of splendid pedigree, by a reputable sire and out of a dam whose own mother, Belladora (Stage Door Johnny-Prayer Bell, by Better Self) was not only a Grade 3 winner in her own right, but also a three-quarters sister to 1969 champion juvenile Silent Screen (Prince John). His fourth dam was Spinaway Stakes-winner Sunday Evening (Eight Thirty-Drowsy, by Royal Minstrel).

After starting his career in Kentucky and Florida, Silver Music went west for owner Lauren Cohen and won a pair of turf stakes under trainer Wally Dollase -- one sprinting in the Baldwin Stakes at Santa Anita and one at a mile and a sixteenth in the Bold Reason Handicap at Hollywood Park -- and narrowly missed a pair of Grade 3 wins on both surfaces in the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields and the Will Rogers Stakes at Hollywood. Then he scored the win of his life in the Swaps S.-G2, covering 10 furlongs on the main track at Hollywood Park in 2:00.76 to defeat Dramatic Gold and Valiant Nature.

A fifth-place finish in the 1994 Pacific Classic-G1 (won by the spectacular Tinners Way) led to a layoff, and Silver Music was raced just once at age 4 before retirement. He finished his career with five wins (three stakes) from 19 starts and $351,905.

Mr. Evans had a good deal of success with this cross of Silver Ghost with Music Bell (who herself is alive and well in retirement at Spring Hill). Silver Music has a full brother who was a Grade 2 winner on turf, Musical Ghost ($252,024), who won the Red Smith Handicap going 11 panels at Aqueduct in 1998. Full brother Ghost Soldier earned $784,916 racing in Japan. And, their unraced full sister, Ghost Bell, is the dam of Philly Park stakes winner Monsoor (Mt. Livermore).

A half-sister of that quartet, Prospector's Song (Prospector's Music), won five stakes on her way to eight wins from 17 starts, earning $264,256, and is a minor blacktype-producer.

At stud in New York for his entire career, Silver Music is yet to sire a stakes winner. He does have three stakes-placers (reflecting his own versatility, one of them short on the dirt at 2 and two of them around two turns on grass at 3), and he's sired some competitive New York-breds from very slight opportunities, such as Time to Rap (7-for-17, $169,894), Stevie Stressor ($163,273, former record-holder at Belmont), Archers Gal ($111,930), Givensilver ($103,958) and Rock Queen ($92,970 in 13 starts, dam of two winners).

I'd hoped that he would attract a few outside mares in his first season in Virginia, but the economy, resulting discounts to pricier studs out of state, and some bad luck conspired to leave only me trying to breed mares to him this year. And since only one of mine foaled early enough to be bred back, that's how many 2010 foals Silver is expecting -- one.

That one, barring a lost pregnancy, will be a son or daughter born to Bushes Victory (Spartan Victory-Below Broad Street, by Kokand), who had her first foal this season. A modest winner at Finger Lakes, "Tory" is, however, the daughter of a stakes winner of $103,043 and a full sister to Broad Victory, Colonial turf-sprint stakes winner of $158,156 and dam of Radical Fringe (Van Nistelrooy), who won three of five as a 3-year-old and returned Saturday at Arlington after an 11-month layoff to finish second for a $35,000 tag to former stakes winner Stradivinsky -- three lengths clear of third place in a 5-furlong turf race run in a pretty brisk 56.27.

Tory's 2009 filly is Oracle at Delphi, mentioned and pictured on this blog prior. The chestnut filly (with three stockings to match her great-great-grandsire Secretariat) is by Mighty Forum (Presidium-Mighty Flash, by Rolfe), a multiple-G3-winner on turf whose sire was a blacktype half-brother to Group 1 winners Kris and Diesis, G2-winner Rudimentary and stakes winner Keen. Certainly the names in "Delphy's" pedigree won't inspire many American racing fans, but there are runners in the family, she seems to have been blessed with good balance and a "big engine," and if she can muster some of that turf ability displayed by her sire, her aunt and her cousin, she could be competitive at Colonial Downs. (Pictured: She also seems to have inherited or developed her dam's disdain for dogs.)

Delphy is co-bred and co-owned along with Sarah and Hilltop Farm.

And, pictured with her 2009 colt is Lady's Wager (Valid Wager-Lear's Lady, by Lear Fan), herself a winner of 10 races from 36 start (at eight different tracks all along the Eastern Seaboard) for $71,519.

Her dam was an allowance winner on turf and one of 10 winners out of Idiomatic (Verbatim-Swiss Forest, by Dotted Swiss), who also produced Acqueduct stakes-winner Bold Mate (Nasty and Bold) and 11-race winner Naskramatic (Naskra). Idiomatic was a half-sister to G2-winner Replant (No Robbery). Through fourth dam Forest Song (Mr. Music-Sylvanaise, by Meridien) this is one of the most productive tail-female lines of Bruce Lowe's Family 19, boasting several dozen stakes winners including: Grade 1 winners Slewpy (Young America S., Meadowlands Cup), Croeso (Florida Derby), 15-win filly Top Corsage (Spinster S.) and Appealing Zophie (also a Spinster winner); Grade 2 winners Replant, Super May (Mervyn Leroy H., $826,500) and Diamond on the Run (Davona Dale S.); and four-times G3 winner and sire Ide, among other graded and listed stakes winners.

Lady so far has produced a modest winner at Charles Town in her eldest foal, 4-year-old West Appeal (Way West), who runs for her former owners Dale and Patricia Shockey. Lady's second foal, a 2-year-old filly, Lady's Bopette (Bop), is close to her gate card for the Shockeys, as well. With turf runners for their sires and a second dam who was a turf winner, by a Grade 1 turf horse, I'd like to see both of those runners get a chance on the grass either at Mountaineer or perhaps shipping into Virginia next summer to run at Colonial.

Lady's Wager's 2009 colt is by Laurel Park stakes winner Inner Harbour (Capote-Blue Sky Princess, by Conquistador Cielo), and like his dam is chestnut in color, hence his name, "All In On Red." Apparently a barn favorite, he alternates between sleeping like a log and bouncing around the farm like Tigger. A smart and inquisitive foal, one of the teenage girls who frequents Sarah's place said she caught "Red" trying to sneak into the tack room the other day, and if she hadn't called him back, they'd probably have "found him in there later, napping on the couch."

Yes, I'm excited to be starting out in the race game, even if very much on the ground floor. So if this information wasn't enough for you, e-mail me and I'll ramble on all day about my horses ... or your horses, or anybody's horses.

Good night, good luck and good health to all with equine interests -- particularly my own.