Author: grarick

Hard Way dead-heated for fourth today in a field of 20 runners at Longchamp, beaten only two lengths over a distance of 2,400 meters (a mile and a half). It was a great run considering he has been off for about four months and still hasn’t thought about shedding his winter coat. I hesitated about racing him at all because I was worried he wasn’t quite ready, but I decided to go ahead because he had been working well and I couldn’t find another decent race for him anytime soon. Raphael Marchelli was riding him for the first time, and he did a good job because Hard Way can be a handful. He was calm and steady through all the preparations, and didn’t move a muscle while being saddled (there is a nice video of the saddling here). But once he got into the presentation ring, the switch flipped and it was almost impossible to hang onto him. We put Marchelli straight up and sent him out first; once Hard Way got onto the turf, he settled into a nice warm-up canter. I asked for him to be loaded with the last horses, because while he loads fine, he tends to panic in the gate. He jumped out straight into the air, which cost him a length, but then ran relaxed just behind the leader for three quarters of the race. When they came at him in the stretch, he battled on under a mostly hand ride; Marchelli gave him one crack, but that was all. He came back fine and recovered very quickly. Two hours after the race, he was back home and tucking into a warm mash with apples and carrots. We had a substantial cheering section on hand, and Hard Way didn’t let us down. He will definitely progress from this, and I think we can start looking to hit the winner’s circle again with him soon.

Next up: Blessing Belle on Thursday at Longchamp.

Versaki finished just 7th today, but he was beaten by only three lengths, which is frustrating. According to the Paris Turf, he finished “honorablement,” or honorably. He did run well, but didn’t show a turn of foot when the hole finally opened, so in the end it was one of our typical 20-horse pile-ups. I have to say the handicappers do a pretty good job, because these big fields usually show a very close finish. If he is ridden a bit closer to the pace next time, or even in front, he will do better. The distance and ground were good for him, but I know he can be a bit lazy, so putting him closer next time will help.

Hard Way, meanwhile, will go to Longchamp on Sunday, shaggy as he is. I can’t find a decent comeback race for him elsewhere, so it’s either this or wait another three or four weeks, and he seems relatively ready to go so we’ll give him a spin. I have no idea how he will do, but my primary goal is that he doesn’t try to do too much. Blessing Belle has a good entry at Longchamp next Thursday, and she should have a shot there.

France Galop was nice to us this week, putting Versaki in with an initial handicap mark of just 30. I was worried he’d be a lot higher. This mark leaves him tremendously well-placed for the sprint next week in Maisons-Laffitte. I was sure he would be in the top division of the Tierce, but he will fall mid-way through the second division, where he should have a very good chance to bring home money.

Hard Way, meanwhile, is entered for his comeback race on April 11 at Longchamp, but I’m not sure he’ll be quite ready. He is working well but still hasn’t changed his coat to something more spring-like and I’m still not quite happy with his top-line muscles. He has started back on his regime of oats soaked in Guinness at night, which should help him pick up some more weight. Belle and Turfani are waiting for better ground before we can look seriously at races for them, and the rest are progressing steadily toward coming back, but they’re not ready yet.

On another note, a breeder friend of mine has a filly available that could be interesting. She’s a two-year-old by Super Celebre out of a Zafonic mare, and she is eligible for French owners’ premiums. She wasn’t sent to the sales as a yearling because she was sway-backed, so she wouldn’t hold much commercial appeal. But she has now had nearly two months of pre-training and is apparently flying, with her back giving her no trouble at all. Reports are it would be a shame not to go forward with her because she is showing good potential. Anyone interested in buying or leasing her should e-mail me – and remember that French owners’ premiums are 78 percent for two-year-olds.

So for the first time in several months, there is no stable premium for the riders because Belle didn’t quite come through on Friday. Despite the recent dry spell (at least results-wise if not rain-wise), I am very optimistic for the season ahead. Belle ran well and stayed the distance, but we now know she has no turn of foot in the stretch. Thulliez said he would ride her differently next time, keeping her farther back in the pack but starting to push for home earlier. He liked Belle quite a lot and said he would be happy to ride her next time out. We agreed she looks a useful sort once we find the buttons. She’s really had very little racing for a four-year-old, with Friday being only the 10th race of her life. I’m not sure where she will go next, but I doubt she will act on very heavy ground, so that will be the determining factor. I will probably keep her between 2,100 and 2,400 meters, in any case.

We have a quiet spell ahead in terms of racing. Next up will be Versaki , who will try for the Tierce in Maisons-Laffitte on April 8th, and then I hope Hard Way will be ready for his seasonal debut at Longchamp on April 11. Stay tuned…

Well, I guess you’d have to say the yard is in a slump, but that’s the way racing works and at least I know it’s temporary. That said, Versaki and Turfani both ran well yesterday, but didn’t manage to pick up money. Versaki actually exceeded expectations, running a good 7th in a race he had no business being in. We were running him to get his third race in France and qualify for handicaps, so all we needed to do was show up. But he held his own and beat some good horses (which, quite frankly, isn’t going to do our handicap marks any favors, but…). Next up for him will be the Tierce race in Maisons-Laffitte in April. Turfani, on the other hand, continues to frustrate; she really should have had money in Deauville when Prat fell asleep at the wheel. In Compiegne, the going was much heavier than I had wanted, and she still handled it decently. She had the far outside 18 draw, which wouldn’t have been that bad if the field moved toward the better ground on the stands’ side rail in the stretch. But they didn’t, so she was hung out wide looking for better ground while the field toiled away on the rail. With no one to race with, she just coasted up the straight to finish midfield.

Both horses came back well and will get their checks on another day. We’ll have to wait for better ground for Turfani, which may take awhile, but Versaki showed that while he would probably prefer lighter going, he’ll try on the heavy stuff, too.

We have one more chance to get a horse in the money on Friday, when Blessing Belle goes to Deauville. This should be an interesting race, because she’ll go back on the fibersand in her first handicap, and we’re stretching her out to 2,400 meters. I think she will stay, especially since she managed to run decently over 2,100 meters on the grass uphill at St. Cloud, but we’ll find out on Friday. Theirry Thulliez will ride, and I have a feeling he might be a very good jockey for her. Sean Connery once said, much to my horror, that some women need a good smack now and then. I hate to say it, but in Belle’s case he’s right – she needs a little manhandling, and I think Thulliez is just the man for the job.

DerringBay did not run well in Deauville, and in hindsight (which as we all know is 20/20), I shouldn’t have taken him there. He has been a bit dull since his bad race in Lyon, although I couldn’t find anything specifically wrong with him, but when we got to Deauville it was clear he was just not a happy horse. His action was better than in Lyon, but he was just going through the motions and was never a threat in the race. He came home slightly sore in his right front ankle, so I think it’s time to call it a day. He already has done far, far better than we had expected, picking up some nice placings, but he’s just not good enough to insist on going forward. His ankle just needs a bit of rest and he is completely sound for pleasure riding, so I think I will try to find a new job for him while he is fit and looking great.

Tomorrow, meanwhile, Turfani and Versaki will run in Compiegne. For Versaki, the race is essentially a training gallop; he has absolutely no chance in a field that is much too tough for him, but we need a third race in France to qualify him for handicap races and there has been absolutely nothing for him since the claimer that would have been perfect in Deauville – but he was eliminated and didn’t get the run. The only other claiming options are either too cheap or too long, so we’re stuck with tomorrow’s race. Turfani, on the other hand, should have a good chance in her handicap, reserved for fillies and mares four-year-old and older. The distance is right at 2,000 meters, she is well-placed in the field and Olivier Peslier will ride her again, all factors in her favor. The big question mark is the going, which risks to be heavy. I had hoped we would get lucky and have soft – but not heavy – going, but it has rained more than originally forecast. We’re drawn far outside in the No. 18 post, so Peslier will have a chance to find the best ground possible for her, in any case.

DerringBay will run in Deauville on Friday, a 1,900-meter claimer on the fibersand. Although it’s a cheap claimer (he’s in for 9,000 euros, the base price for claimers in races that support nationwide betting), there appear to be a few decent horses in the field. He would be much better placed in the handicap next week in Lyon, but I honestly cannot bring myself to truck down there again. So we’ll go to Deauville and try our luck. I’m hoping he will appreciate the shorter trip (in the truck, not on the track) and decide to participate this time, as opposed to grudgingly grinding it out, like he did in his last race. He seems fine and I couldn’t find anything wrong with him after his subpar run last time out, so we’ll see.

Turfani, meanwhile, will try her luck in the filly and mare handicap in Compiegne on Monday. It’s a bit close to her last race, but she seems to have come back well and it is a good entry for her. She will be back on the turf for the first time since last year, and I want to take advantage of the good ground. We haven’t had any of the predicted rain, but we are promised some this weekend which should make the going just about perfect for her. And once it starts raining in France in the spring time, it doesn’t stop, so I want to get out before the going gets heavy. Versaki might run on Monday in a condition race, but we’re still deciding on that. He’s had a slight setback in his training because of a rash on his back, so a final decision will be made tomorrow. He won’t have much chance in this race in any case, but he needs a third race in France to qualify for handicaps, so if he is fit to run he will go. The race he would have won was last week in Deauville, but he was eliminated in the drawing because of too many runners. We really need to get him qualified for the handicaps, because it’s been tough finding a race for him otherwise.

Belle ran a decent race at St. Cloud yesterday but the competition proved too tough in the end, as I feared it might be. Olivier Peslier gave her a great ride, and she was much better placed during the running than she had been before, moving along a comfortable fourth for most of the race. But she didn’t show much turn of foot in the stretch and finished midfield. For her first race in two months and the first on grass since last October, she did well, and she didn’t have a hard race so she will progress from here. It was also her first try at 2,100 meters, and it seems she can stay that without too much trouble. I think she will go back to the fibersand at the end of the month for a 2,400-meter limited handicap in Deauville, where she will be much better placed. I wasn’t going to stretch her out to that distance until later in the year, but if she can handle 2,100 meters coming up the grass hill at St. Cloud, she can handle the flat 2,400 on the quick sand in Deauville.

Of the last three runners we’ve had, Turfani is the most frustrating, because I think she really should have had a check if she hadn’t gotten caught in traffic. Belle and Bay got beat fair and square, but Turfani was robbed! Anyway, they all should have another chance by the end of the month.

Turfani had a disappointing run in Deauville yesterday, but I have to say I’m pretty disappointed with the ride she got from Flavien Prat. He rode the first part of the race fine, but he did have to check her back pretty brutally to get cover going into the backstretch. Once they turned for home, he seemed a bit asleep at the wheel when everyone else started to move, and got boxed in and then jostled back badly. He had to give up when he got himself behind a wall of horses in the last furlong. Turfani is a big mare with long action; she’s not the kind of horse you can ask to shoot through a hole when it opens. You have to balance her up and then move evenly, and that didn’t happen yesterday. In the end, she didn’t have a hard race and came back fine, so we can expect better next time out.

Meanwhile, all eyes on Blessing Belle, who tackles a 2,100-meter claimer at St. Cloud tomorrow, with Olivier Peslier on board. Everyone is paying attention to her because of Peslier, but frankly, she will have tough work to make the top three. She is in fantastic form but needs this race, and I’m not sure she’s ready to win yet. Peslier is riding because he was available, and three other jockeys I asked (with lesser reputations) were already taken, so we had to skip straight to the top. That means we should expect a good race and a good assessment of her from Peslier at the end. Who knows? We might have a good surprise. In any case, she has grown tremendously since we bought her last summer and is certainly not the same horse that ran last year.  We alternate calling her “Xena” or “T-Rex” around the yard because she has gotten so big since she came, easily outsizing anything in the yard. Now we have to see how she races.

Turfani made it into the second division of the Tierce handicap on Thursday in Deauville, but Veraki was eliminated for his claimer, which is really too bad because he is kicking down the door to run. We will try to get him into Amiens next week, but that’s not nearly as good a race for him as the Deauville one would have been. I’m pleased Turfani gets to take her shot, though. It’s a 1,900-meter race, which is a good distance for her, but it is an open handicap this time, so the competition is tough. Flavien Prat will ride. The jockey situation was a bit of a mess; I had entered a race last week and was going to put up Mathias Sautjeau, a jockey I like working with, but then I decided to wait and run this week. Sautjeau thought he was still getting the ride, but I went with Prat because I thought we were going to have 52 kilos, which is impossible for Sautjeau. In the end, we will carry 55.5, so Sautjeau could have rode. Too late, already went with Prat (who is a fine young jockey, too, but I do like Sautjeau).  Their agents are all annoyed at the switching around, but they’ll get over it. I have to remember that they would drop me in a heartbeat if they thought they could put their guy up on a better chance. Prat is fresh off a stint at Santa Anita; I’ll have to remind him to remember he’s now back in France, and we don’t want to see the first quarter faster than the last!