Category Archives: Current Affairs

2014- That’s a Wrap

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We won races at Churchill Downs, Oaklawn, Beulah, Presque Isle, Mountaineer Park, Indiana Grand, Belterra (formerly River Downs) Saratoga, Turfway Park and Ellis Park. We also placed at Aqueduct, Belmont Park, Keeneland, Charlestown, Kentucky Downs and Hawthorne. Sixteen tracks and over 50,000 miles added to my car odometer.

 

2014 was a good year (not great but good). We always strive to do better. The stable had 33 wins, 30 seconds, 50 thirds and won $1,104,585 in purse money. Trainer ranking was 207 in North America. The major horse this year was MISTER POLLARD winning three stakes. The first was The Indiana Bred 3 yr. old $150,000 Governors Stake (which we also won in 2013) the second was the $85,000 Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes and the third was the $150,000 Too Much Coffee Stakes. He also dead heated for second in the $100,000 Bachelor’s Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He will be named 2014 Champion 3 Yr. Old Colt Indiana Bred and is one of the leading contenders for Indiana Bred Horse of the Year winning $246,000 this year, the most winnings in one year for any horse I have ever trained.

 

We retired our homebred DREAMIN BIG this year after she surpassed $600,000 in lifetime earnings which is the highest earning horse we have ever bred, owned and trained. We look forward to her future offspring as she is now in foal.

 

We also retired another nice homebred, PRIZE WINNER with $265,810 lifetime earnings. She too is in foal and we look forward to her future as a broodmare.

 

We also won the first annual $75,000 Indiana Stallion Auction Stakes (colt division) this year with maiden HOOSIER NEIGHBOR.

 

We also took a small string to Saratoga this year and had a win, a second, a third and two fourths in five starts. We hadn’t taken any horses there for about six years and would like to return this year with a few more.

 

This year we would like to achieve more wins and reach a goal of $2M in purse money. I know we have never done this, but we have some nice young horses and look for the older horses to come back as good if not better.

 

On the personal side, we had our first grandchild (Truman) this past April who was born to our oldest daughter Elizabeth and her husband Luke Sharrett. In April of 2015, our daughter Sara and her husband Justen Turley are expecting a baby boy, who will double the grandchild count for the Lauer’s! Conformation we have entered yet another stage in life.

 

We would like to thank everyone who had horses with us this year. We will continue to do our best and look forward to a successful 2015.

 

 

 

Churchill Cancelled for a second day

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The Churchill Meet is 2/3rds over and has come to an abrupt halt due to the cold temperature’s and snow we have gotten this year. They have cancelled the card two days in a row. The last time they cancelled a day in the fall meet was in 1986. They did cancel a couple of spring days in 2011 when tornado’s came through.

They are suppose to add extra races each day to make up for the lost two days (hopefully we won’t lose anymore). Thanksgiving has always been a giant day at Churchill as well as Friday and Saturday.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas will open six weeks after Churchill’s meet closes with the bottom purse for $5000 claimers being $18,000 and purses up to $62,000 for maiden special.

Still time to claim one at Churchill to run at Oaklawn this winter.

 

 

 

Football!

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The two big college games this week seem to be America’s team THE OHIO STATE at MICHIGAN STATE tomorrow night and TCU(seems to be the best team in Texas)  and KANSAS STATE tomorrow night. These two games seem to be the best in the country and we hope they live up to their hype.

Mister Pollard wins The Too Much Coffee Stake

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It was a big day for the stable on November 1, Breeder’s Cup Day. The classy little colt MISTER POLLARD won the $150,000 Too Much Coffee Stake beating older horses for his owners W. Scott Farrar, Jim Farrar, Falcon Racing and Penny Lauer. He has an amazing attitude. Doesn’t get excited, just handles himself with class all the way around with everything he does.

It was an exciting race and finish. If you didn’t see it live last Saturday, you should go watch the replay.  Falcon Racing and their guests were so sure of his victory when he crossed the finish line. Even though they were standing about 20 yards before the finish line. There was no question in their mind that Mister Pollard was the winner. That was great, but I watched the last step on the TV and I wasn’t quite as convinced as they were. One thing the actual wire is about 4 foot past the center of the finish line post, and the way a fan would stand is not the angle that the wire is. It can be quite deceiving. Results of head bobs is one of the reasons I no longer have a full head of hair.

I did get encouragement when the track video was following Mister Pollard after the finish of the race, since he has a wall of screens viewing the race in the control room. He is usually right in those close calls. It didn’t give me encouragement when all the horses came back and the only two left was us and the four horse, which told me the jock on the four horse was not conceding.
But the Falcon Racing party was still jumping and hugging. They were 100% convinced. And after what seemed like eternity, Falcon Racing was right, which was truly outstanding. To say the horse ran a great race would be an understatement. He had the lead, lost the lead, came back and got the money. The competitive spirit of the horse has always amazed me in that situation.
Rafael Hernandez did a great job of riding the horse. He had breezed the horse the Sunday before, which is another credit to the colt. He won three of these Indiana Bred stakes this year with three different riders. Ricardo Santana, Juan Saez and now Rafael Hernandez. It wasn’t my choice to do that, it was just the circumstances played out that way. Ricardo Santana was riding in the Breeders Cup and Juan Saez lost his life in a tragic accident a few weeks ago. Mister Pollard was the last winner he rode at Indiana Grand on October 4th prior to his accident. Juan was the leading apprentice rider at Indiana Grand this year and they have named the award after him in his memory.
Mister Pollard had nine starts this year, three wins, two seconds and won $246,603 for 2014, which takes his lifetime earnings to $375,151.
As of right now he is the leading Indiana Bred money winning horse of 2014.

Indiana Thoroughbred Racing Video

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euDRZuqCOBs&feature=youtu.be

Above is a link to a video that the Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders put together to help educate and spread the word about the impact racing has on the local economy. We all need to do what we can to help promote our product and to encourage people to get involved and enjoy the sport as much as we do.

Let me know what you think.