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.

Taken from my hands, left in Bobby's?

No offense to his family and friends -- or to humankind -- but I will always remember the day that Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel died, Nov. 16, 2009, as the day my first baby in this hard business met her own untimely demise.

I shared on this blog earlier in the week that Oracle at Delphi (Mighty Forum-Bushes Victory, by Spartan Victory) broke the humerus in her left front by crashing through a fence in a panic Sunday night, spooked by a falling tree. Another filly followed her through and was injured, but by reports I've received, should recover well.

Born March 30, Oracle at Delphi, the splendid chestnut filly with a huge blaze and three white socks eerily reminiscent of her great-great-grandsire Secretariat, didn't make it to eight months of age. She lived through the night Sunday, but X-rays in the morning revealed no hope of recovery.

And I'm not 100 percent certain that the full measure of that truth has yet sunk in.

I don't get to Gordonsville, Va., all that often to see the horses. I'd "met" Delphy twice and thought she was exceptional -- though admittedly, as her co-breeder, I was biased. Still, a trainer friend of mine, from photos I sent him, said the girl was well-balanced and had the right look for her age. She had a nice engine and appeared to be one that someday, I told myself, might really motor.

But in her short time on earth, as almost-perfect as she appeared, Delphy had her share of issues.

She first came down with the snots. Aggressive treatment took care of the issue. But when it's your horse and your money, there's no such thing as a "minor" ailment in a young foal.

Then Delphy suffered a pasture accident of some sort in which she bloodied her muzzle and cracked a small bone in her nose. Careful monitoring and a few weeks without her halter for comfort and healing led to a full recovery.

Now this.

In hindsight, maybe Delphy's was just a life not meant to be. Or meant to be for long.

I'm left to try and rationalize why fate chose her to take so soon, though of course there's no reason behind determining the victims in matters of fatal chance.

And I'm left to console myself with memories and frivolous thoughts, like speculating that Delphy must have been fast; after all, in a panicked rush of horseflesh, she was the first foal to hit the fence.

Condolences have flooded in, from friends, family, horse-business contacts and readers of this blog. Each and every kind word has been appreciated. True to the nature of horse-lovers, myself included, some of the seemingly most offbeat comments offer the truest comfort.

And this is where one Robert J. Frankel re-enters our story.

A member of a horse racing message board in which I participate, known as BigHorse2 at Yahoo Groups, passed along this thought, typed-up, she admitted, through a stream of her own tears.

"Maybe Bobby went to train Delphy."

My filly should be so lucky up in Heaven. She's due.

Danger at every turn, long before they race

No e-mail subject line could be worse, especially coming from your boarding farm owner and partner on a horse.

"CALL ME 911!"

Sarah Warmack, owner of Hilltop Farm VA, had the displeasure Sunday evening of informing me that the 2009 filly we co-bred, Oracle at Delphi (Mighty Forum-Bushes Victory, by Spartan Victory), has likely broken her leg. "Delphy," as she's known around the barn, spooked when a tree fell on the rain-soaked property and she crashed into the fence. We'll know in the morning whether she'll have a chance at a full recovery or if euthanasia is required.

Sarah will spend the night in the barn. I routinely thank Heaven for her.

I will be talking a lot to Heaven in the coming hours.

And if anyone needs evidence for why buying at the 2-year-old sales is so increasingly popular vs. breeding your own to race -- especially since right now horses are practically being stolen at auction, considering the costs that went into them -- just save this post.

Update 9:30 a.m. Nov. 16: As she suffered a broken humerus, with heavy hearts no choice remains but to put the beautiful filly down. Rest in peace, baby girl. You leave us too soon, and forever wondering what might have been.

CDI's YouTube videos like 'living' catalog page update

Like many breeders -- both new to the game and experienced -- I keep a close eye on the family of my mares. If an earlier foal of theirs, or a cousin or nephew, happens to be running, I want to know about it.

The same is true as a stallion owner. When one of Silver Music's relatively few (at present) offspring are racing, I want to know the outcome.

I use the Virtual Stable tool at Equibase.com as one means of facilitating this knowledge. It provides a no-cost way to track workouts, entries and results for a certain number of horses. (For a very small cost, since I have very few horses, I also use the Equineline.com Portfolio to track the actual offspring of my mare who has foals at the track, though it isn't as helpful with following more distant relatives.)

But today I was just thinking how much I appreciate the fact that Churchill Downs Inc. tracks (and perhaps some others I haven't needed to see) are posting all their race videos to YouTube, at least within 24 hours or so of the race being run. Now I can not only read the charts after a race, but within hours I can see how the horse really looked on the track. ... In a slightly small, or bigger and grainy sort of way, at least.

The video above is of a Sept. 12 race at Arlington. The 12-horse is Radical Fringe, the nephew of my mare Bushes Victory. Radical Fringe (by Van Nistelrooy) is the first foal of Tory's turf-sprint stakes-winning full sister, Broad Victory. He didn't win on this day, but it was his first race since last November when he closed out his 3-year-old campaign with three wins at Arlington and Hawthorne and a close second at Keeneland from five starts. And bear in mind that this race was won (impressively) by, Stradivinsky, a former Woodbine stakes winner of $325,259.

Final time was 56.27 seconds for 5 furlongs on turf; the track record at Arlington is 55.90. Not a bad comeback for Radical Fringe. And I like to watch him run, because Tory's little girl, Oracle at Delphi, is the spittin' image of her cousin, if only in color and socks.

Radical Fringe's half-brother has been running at a CDI track, too. Big Zeet is a gray or roan 2-year-old by Limehouse, and so far has been unplaced twice on dirt, devoid of speed early but plugging along at the end.

I'd like to see Big Zeet get a chance on the grass, considering his dam was a turf stakes winner and his grandsire, Grand Slam (sire of Limehouse) has thrown turf and Polytrack-types. Recall that Breeders' Cup Sprint champ Cajun Beat also won the Kentucky Cup Sprint-G3T, Grand Slam daughter Lady Digby won the All Along S.-G3 on turf, daughter Just Little is a G3 winner on turf in France, and son Ball Four won both the Kentucky Cup Classic-G2 and Fayette S.-G3 over all-weather surfaces.

I dunno if Big Zeet would like the grass, more distance, or what. But he's definitely not first out of the gate in the videos below, nor dominant traveling over Calder's dirt, though he was much a much-closer sixth the second than he was in sixth the first.

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.

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.

On a lighter note ... a foal photo

There was a veritable explosion of traffic at the Fugue Wednesday, thanks to the unfortunate dismissal from the Saratogian of my friend and former co-worker, Brendan O'Meara. He blogged about it; I blogged about it, and linked back to him; then he blogged about my blog and returned the traffic. The next thing you know, a whole 50 visits were made to this page Wednesday.

That's right, my sliver of the online publishing world is slowly building in popularity to where the readership periodically exceeds the number of pennies in the armrest of my '97 Dodge Ram. ... Lay off me, it's a milestone.

In an effort to brighten the mood, I'll share a foal photo. Surely nobody in the racing world can be too depressed when there's a healthy young foal to admire.

This one is Oracle At Delphi (or will be when the paperwork is finished); daughter of Mighty Forum(GB) out of the winning mare Bushes Victory (Spartan Victory-Below Broad Street, by Kokand). A Virginia-bred, she was foaled March 30 at Sarah Warmack's Hilltop Farm, near Gordonsville. With a bay sire and dark bay dam, neither with considerable white, the chromed-out chestnut was a bit of a surprise. But she kindles memories of her great-great-grandsire, Secretariat, whose color and three tall stockings she shares, and we're going to take that as a good omen until proven otherwise.