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.
