Late-night reflections from Timonium

TIMONIUM, Md. -- Hello, blog. I'm just stopping by to check in after a long, but enjoyable Wednesday in Maryland, where I'm taking part for the first time in all the activity surrounding an auction of 2-year-old racehorses.

The day began with my cell phone alarm not going off as it was set (I double-checked and the darned thing does seem to have been programmed correctly), and the hotel front desk wake-up-call service apparently missing my room as well. Luckily I woke up on my own, only a little behind schedule, and made it to where I needed to be in plenty of time. That being the first day of the breeze show for Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training.

After a good five hours of watching dozens upon dozens of horses rumble past the grandstand at the fairgrounds racetrack in Timonium a few lessons have been learned.

1. Horse people are generally good folk, both fans and the "players" in the game. Fun to talk with, at the very least. ... Many have a sense of humor, too. Overheard from one attendee of the under tack show: "Good crowd today. Looks like the grandstands during the actual race-meet at Laurel."

2. Some of these horses increased their stock dramatically by posting more rapid breeze times, while others likely cost their consigners significantly by being a tick or two slower than average.

3. That faster or slower one-fifth of a second run on Wednesday (or during today's second session of the breeze show) neither makes nor breaks a racehorse; it won't be the difference whether that animal is a winner or loser in the future. Not unless some track starts carding eighth-mile races with walk-up starts.

4. Sunscreen. Buy it. Use it.

Other lessons were learned later in the day and into the evening.

Traffic stinks on I-695 and I-70 headed west from the Baltimore area between 4 and 6 p.m.

The fan accommodations at Charles Town are significantly better than those at Laurel and Pimlico. In exchange, you have to follow a red-carpet path and arrow signs as you negotiate a twisting trek of something like 12.7 miles from the parking garage through the vast slot machine parlors (and under-construction areas for upcoming table games) before reaching the racetrack and its seating. The path is so convoluted that you really should be rewarded with cheese when you reach the end.

Yuengling Black & Tan is pretty good beer, and the Charles Town concessionaire sells a pretty fair slice of pepperoni pizza at a decent price. For track food, at least.

In the mud at Charles Town, take the speed horse and expect her to hold on, at least for a piece. Unless I, Glenn Craven, have effectively identified and wagered upon the speed horse, in which case he or she will die in the stretch and finish next-to-last.

When I get the notion that I should really quit while I'm behind, I should quit. Instead, I stayed for the ninth at CT, watched my horse win the race, and knew before he ever crossed the wire that he was gonna get taken down and placed second.

Let's hope for an equally educational Thursday. Minus the sunburn.

Yet to own a winner, but ...

If somebody else's horse winning a race is this exciting, I can't wait until one of my own does.

I'm new to the breeding business, with two foals expected this year, one any day now as the foaling season winds down. (Many Fugue readers have already "met" my first foal as a co-breeder, Oracle at Delphi.)

The dam of the pending foal is named Lady's Wager (pictured). She was sired by a pretty good racehorse in Valid Wager and out of a winning mare named Lear's Lady (Lear Fan-Idiomatic, by Verbatim) who was half to an Aqueduct stakes winner. So when "Lady" became available inexpensively late last spring, I took a chance both on her and on a booking to unproven stallion Inner Harbour (Capote-Blue Sky Princess, by Conquistador Cielo), who stands at O'Sullivan Farms near Charles Town, W.Va.

I'll admit that Lady's pedigree was a head-scratcher for me. Her dam, Lear's Lady, was a turf runner (won on both surfaces, better on grass) who was by a Grade 1 European turf horse, and out of a female line stemming from 1950s French-born turf stakes winner Sylvanaise. Valid Wager, her sire and not a turf horse, doesn't particularly strike me as a good match.

Nevertheless, she was a plucky racehorse, and though she never advanced to stakes company, she managed to win 10 of 36 lifetime starts for $71,519. She broke maiden for a $20K tag at Calder and eventually won her 10 races at eight different tracks, including Suffolk and Rockingham allowances and claiming races at Laurel, Pimlico, Tampa, Charles Town and Penn National. All were on the main track; she had but one turf start, her first try after breaking maiden and her first try at a route. (Bumped at the gate, she finished poorly and none of her connections ever tried grass again; probably not a fair gauge of her turf ability.)

She was also 3-for-3 lifetime over a wet strip -- the Valid Appeal sireline is sometimes noted for its mudders -- and so it might be no coincidence that her first foal, West Appeal, broke his maiden Friday in the slop at Charles Town.

Yes, it's just a $5,000 maiden-claimer at CT. But he's getting better for breeders Dale and Patricia Shockey. (Dale is also his trainer.)

After missing the break something awful in his first start last year at 3, he flipped his palate in his second effort, underwent surgery for it, and was on the shelf all winter. He's returned to finish fourth, second and now first by a drawing-off 5 3/4 lengths, in command throughout despite hitting the gate and getting bumped by inside horses at the start. (He was the 9).

So maybe he can move up in the claiming ranks, or even try WV-bred allowance horses someday. ... Even if not, it's nice to see that Lady's Wager can produce a winner. It's something her female-family has done quite a bit of, especially when mated to Bold Ruler- and Seattle Slew-line horses; hence my choice of Inner Harbour. (Nine Bold Ruler-line stakes winners including Slewpy-G1, Croeso-G1 and Super May-G2, trace to Lady's fourth dam, Forest Song.)

The Shockeys tell me they're high on his younger half-sister, Lady's Bopette (by Bop), a 2-year-old who will go back to the training track when her knees close up in a couple of months. Obviously I wish the Shockeys the best with her, for the good of the mare's page, as she's now mine.

So, yes, I was in a celebratory mood Friday night, probably more so than you'll ever see from somebody who didn't breed nor own the winning horse. Nor, for that matter -- living in wagerless North Carolina -- did I have a nickel bet on him.