Category Archives: Win, Place & Show

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.

Winners!

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We have had a good week so far. One win at Ellis Park on the 4th of July. HARBOR CAT won at Indiana Downs NW4 Allowance, which I was kind of proud of as she was 10 days short of a year since her last race. On Friday, SALTY RIM won a N2 going one mile by 6 1/2 lengths. Lets hope the momentum continues.

The yearling sales start tomorrow (Monday) with Fasig Tipton selling 250 or so in a select sale. They also have 100 racing age horses for sale. Most have started at various places. There is a dispersal of Eugene Melnyk’s racing stable included in the racing age sale. This would be a place to jump start your stable.

Belmont…Triple Crown Races

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How did you like the Triple Crown Race this year and the Belmont in particular? Steve Colburn even with his mouth getting out of control got racing more publicity than it has had in years. No horses were hurt or had any career ending injuries which brings sadness and poor publicity. Just an irate owner than was mad because he lost. I have had a few of those, just without microphones or cameras in front of their face.

I thought CC was obviously a top horse. I thought he won the Derby at the draw for post as he had a huge advantage in the five hole. For his type of running it was the perfect spot. Same in the Preakness. I thought he didn’t get the best draw in the Belmont and when he got bumped by the horse on the outside of him, he didn’t get a great position in the first turn which compromised the rest of the race for him. Down the backside he seemed unsettled and not relaxed like in previous races. He was kind of boxed in and then he got out and made the wide turn and still as far as the eighth pole you thought he might grind it out and get the win. But he didn’t and got beat less than two lengths. I know the guys that owned him and trained him as well as the rest of the world were disappointed, as most were hopeful of a Triple Crown winner this year. It was a great build up for a big let down.

Colburn wasn’t completely wrong going off on Churchill but could have handled it better. I read that Belmont’s service to the patrons was not good. Pre paid parking problems; service in the stands, mixed up seating and the biggest thing was the closing of the train platform (for what they thought were safety reasons) after the race so people had to walk a lot farther to board the train. That train platform is only used on Belmont Day now where previously the train ran every race day to Penn Station.

It will be interesting to see if Colburn shows up at Churchill Saturday night (June 14th) as this is when they traditionally give the engraved winning trophy to the connections.

Regarding all the talk about changing the format of the Triple Crown that would be completely suicidal for racing. First, the management for the three tracks that hold the three races in the Triple Crown don’t intermingle together outside of the nomination money. For each track it is the biggest day of the year and it is also the biggest five weeks in racing. It helps a lot if a horse is still on the trail for the Triple Crown when it hits the Belmont. It’s a time when racing gets the most attention of the national and international media. Each track and city has major festivals around their particular race as well.

Do you think the Preakness would have the crowd they have if they put it in June? In Maryland everyone is at the shore by June. You know Churchill is not changing the first Saturday in May. Putting the Belmont in July would conflict with other major events already scheduled in that area not to mention that it is hotter in the deep summer. Last Saturday on Belmont day, that was the biggest thing in sports and it received very high TV ratings. The Triple Crown is not supposed to be easy to win. Changing it would destroy it.