Category: Updates from the yard

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Lucky, in a way

Strictly Rhythm is either the luckiest or unluckiest racehorse out there, depending on how you look at it. We went to Lyon on Tuesday with a good chance; according to the form, the worst that could possibly happen is we would run third. But racing is racing. It has been unseasonably hot and dry in France, which can turn some synthetic tracks, like the one in Lyon, to mush. Fearing just that, the groundskeepers poured water on the thing all morning and then sealed it, and sealed it good. The tractors were rolling nonstop for three hours Tuesday morning. I thought they would have to then follow with a harrow, but no, they were going to leave it like that, the president of the course said. I thought the surface was awfully hard, and didn’t like it, but Jean-Claude Rouget, who was running the favorite against us, said he thought it was safe. “We’ve never had an accident,” the president chimed in. Famous last words.

Strictly was laying second behind the leader coming out of the final turn, and just as they started to accelerate, the horse in front of us shattered a leg in one of the ugliest accidents I have ever seen on a racecourse. Strictly avoided the crash by millimeters, thanks to quick thinking by Fred Spanu, our jockey. Strictly ran on well, but the bobble to avoid the accident costs us third place by a short head at the line. Rouget, of course, won. Strictly still brought home money, and she came back sound (and alive, which is more than the connections of the other horse can say). So we were very lucky. But we’re still looking for her first win. The bright side is that her handicap mark has now dropped to a reasonable 32, which means I can now place her in some easier races. She will probably go to Compiegne in just under two weeks.

Meanwhile, we’re off to St. Cloud today with George, who will get his blinkers this time. This probably really WILL be his last race, so we just want to have fun and come back safe.

Then it’s on to Longchamp for a weekend of being a spectator for the Arc and associated group races. We have lots of out-of-town visitors and we’re planning quite an Arc party. I can’t get too carried away because I have to get Magical Flower to Argentan for a race on Monday.

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Coming and Going

We had a frustrating time at the races over the past few days. George ran quite well at St. Cloud last week, but I had wanted to put sheepskin cheek pieces on this time to motivate him a bit more. These now need to be declared, and through various missteps didn’t get declared, so we couldn’t use them. I am convinced that kept us from getting a check. George was lying fifth on the outside for the bulk of the race, accelerated a bit in the home stretch but switched off when the going got really tough at the end and couldn’t quite hang in there. The form says we finished 9th of 18, but it was the usual cluster at the end – the photo shows 5th through 10th places separated by not even a length. Good old George has really turned into a tourist at the track these days, and I really do need to retire him. He keeps conning me into giving him one more chance. We’ll see.

On Friday, Tuna (Fortunateencounter) and Rue B (Rue Debellyme) ran in the same claimer. I wasn’t keen to run Rue B, because I’d rather have waited for something a bit easier, but the owner was keen so we went ahead. She came back lame behind, on the opposite side of a similar injury she had this spring. So the message is clear: She is retired, and will be sound for riding and even some show jumping. She is just not cut out for speed. Tuna, on the other hand, ran a great race but hung badly right in the home stretch. Since she was running left handed this time, her path took her toward the rail rather than away from it, and she cut off a horse that then fell behind her. She flew on to finish third, two lengths clear of the fourth-placed horse, but she was disqualified because of the horse falling behind her. On top of it all, she was claimed, so I finished with no horse and no prize money. It was a good deal for her owners, though. She was bought for around 5,000 euros at Tattersalls in England in July, and she was claimed for 18,000 euros, which is a tidy profit in a short time. The next sale is coming up at the end of October, so we can try to do it again.

Tomorrow, Strictly Rhythm goes to Lyon with one of the best chances of her career: We have only eight runners in a maiden over 2,400 meters on the fibersand. As usual, there is a horse from Rouget who will be the favorite; we are second choice. We’ll try to prove the handicappers wrong.

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Sales behind, runners ahead

It was busy at the end of last week with the La Teste sales and Birs in Lyon. First Birs: He finished 8th, but ran very, very well despite bad traffic. He was drawn 3, and Flavien had to fight with him to keep him from galloping on top of the other horses. (When you want the outside, you get the inside, and vice-versa, it seems.) Birs is a very, very big horse and wasn’t very happy inside. Once Flavien got him out, he galloped on to close nicely, and was only beaten about three lengths. In any case, the owner wanted him sold, so I made a deal with another trainer and he has now left my yard. He will run in Maisons-Laffitte next week, I hope, and I’ll still get the trainer’s percentage even if I don’t get to race him under my name. There are 80 entries, so we’ll see if he gets a run. He’s a nice horse, though, and one to watch.

As for the sales, the quality of horses on offer from Osarus is better than ever and there were some very nice yearlings through the ring. One of my owners did a bit of bidding and came away with nothing, and it was frustrating not to be able to bring a couple home. I particularly liked Lots 34, 78 and 93 – all very different styles of horses. No. 34 was a Layman colt who looked like he could race tomorrow. Very precocious and compact, he sold for 8,000 euros to Delcher-Sanchez, a trainer in Southern France or Spain – not sure which. No. 78 was a Great Journey filly, whose sister was a Listed-placed filly in Switzerland and France. She was a lovely model and went to Con Marnane for 11,500 euros, which means she is likely to come back to race in France (although I have no idea if she’ll come to me – my guess is probably not). My favorite horse of the sales was No. 93, a Carlotamix colt that went for only 11,000 to Michel Gentile. I figured he would have gone for a lot more, so maybe I missed a problem of some sort. Two of his three siblings are Listed winners and he was a nice horse, if a bit on the light side. The weak spot on the page, like it is for many French-bred horses, is the sire, of course. He did win the Group 1 Criterium International at St. Cloud, but didn’t do much else. He has eight winners from 45 foals of racing age, and he usually doesn’t get very good mares.

France suffers from a lack of decent sires, but it’s a vicious circle because breeders aren’t willing to pay high stud fees. The highest stallions in France stand for 15,000 euros, and that’s peanuts compared with many other places; Carlotamix stands for 2,500 euros.

In any case, it will be interesting to follow my three yearling picks to see what becomes of them.

The organization of the sales was excellent; the Osarus gang is the antithesis of the Arqana snobbery that goes on in Deauville. The Osarus team is very welcoming, and they put on free breakfast and lunch the morning of the sale, plus Champagne during the sales themselves (they’re not stupid – well-oiled buyers tend to drive up prices!). I’ll definitely be back.

In racing this week, George (Email Exit) will go to St. Cloud for a handicap on Thursday. I really need to retire him and find him a new job, but since I haven’t really moved on that yet and he’s here, eating, cantering and seeming well enough, he can race until I decide what to do with him. Tuna (Fortunateencounter) will go to a claimer here in Maisons-Laffitte on Friday. She was entered in a handicap at St. Cloud on Thursday but didn’t make the cut, so we’ll have to take another risk. Rue B. is entered in the same race, but I don’t think we may wait for a better chance for her.

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Debuts, progress and one bad trip

Catching up the week’s runners: Agata made her jockey debut on Sunday and she’s alive to tell about it, and so is George, so all is well. Agata has good instincts: The race was 2,500 meters long, which was very tough for a first time out, and when she got off the horse the first thing she admitted was that the horse could have done better; it was the jockey who was cooked! Very true – first time past the stands all was well, but when she came around again for the home stretch, it was clear that poor Agata was just a passenger at that point. But it was a great experience for her, and it will bring her on tremendously as a work rider as well. I hope she has another few rides soon, because she will make progress. George, meanwhile, will probably be retired, but I may run him one more time with a jockey. I’ll decide in the next week. He’s sound, seems happy, is here and is eating, so he might as well race.

Rue B made her debut Sunday as well, and tried her best in a race that was far too short for her. On the plus side, she galloped straight, ears pointed and had a tremendously good mental attitude through it all. Not too bad for a first time. She’ll get another try soon at a longer distance, which will suit better.

On Monday, Fortunateencounter (Tuna) ran a cracker to finish 2nd of 17 runners in St. Cloud. She lobbed along relaxed and happy for most of the 3,000 meter race, then closed like a train all by her lonesome in midtrack after Tristan, her jockey, decided to take her wide (we’re still not sure why). She missed the win by a head, and we’re very happy with her. Magical Flower had an outing, too, but the field was much tougher for her. We don’t have many choices for races for her, because she hasn’t passed 3,000 euros in earnings so is the first eliminated under French rules. Very frustrating, because she’s placed four times in England. But because the prize money is so bad there, her earnings only barely top 2,000 euros. The same performance in France would have had her well tipping over 10,000.

Tuesday, Strictly ran the Tierce, my least-favorite race in France, and we were absolutely screwed by a jockey who did not follow orders. I was forced to change jockeys because Strictly had a low weight of 53.5 kilos, and most of the guys I use can’t ride that light. I told our replacement to put her just behind the leaders. Behind. He went tanking off in front, serving as the rabbit for three-quarters of the race, then gave two pushes in the stretch before he dropped his hands and let the horse lob in with all the other losers. Then the jockey came back and said we should shorten the horse back to a mile. She’s been just off the win at this distance five times, but no matter. Clearly not only did he not follow orders, but he didn’t do any homework. Sigh.

I’m off to the yearling sales in La Teste tomorrow, and then to Lyon on Friday, where Birs will run a claimer. He’s a lovely big horse that just needs experience, and probably more distance. We’ll see what happens.

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Oh (expletives deleted)

It all started with a f*cking flu shot. A day later, Triple Tonic started coughing. No big deal, we thought; she’s a two-year-old having a bit of a reaction. A little vitamin C, slow down for a few days and it will all be fine. But she didn’t get better. After about two weeks of intermittent coughing, in a completely unrelated incident, she decided to unhook her metal water bucket with her head, necessitating five stitches (and a change to a plastic bucket). Fine. She had to have antibiotics for this, so maybe we kill two birds with one stone and clear up the cough. One week and seven injections later, her head was perfectly healed, but she was still coughing, and the stuff coming out of her nose was not pretty. A sample was sent off to the lab, the vet was sure he had the right antibiotic and we started again. Ten days later, no change. Off to the clinic for a scope and possibly a head x-ray to make sure it wasn’t in her sinuses. Bad scope, but clean sinuses, another lab test and a third kind of antibiotic. No luck, but poor Tonic was starting to feel like a pin cushion.

Meanwhile, despite doing our best to keep her isolated and disinfect everything that came in contact with her, King next door started coughing, and Rue B down the line thought she might join in. We put all the horses on a course of a broad spectrum antibiotic to try to contain things. I have never, ever done this because I hate to compromise the immune system and contribute to the development of resistant strains of crap. But this time it seemed called for. Triple Tonic, meanwhile, will move to the country tomorrow for an old-fashioned, unpleasant but effective treatment: The “abces de fixation,” a provoked abscess in the chest cavity that draws all the nasty stuff into it and is then drained. It’s akin to leeches, and for me it is definitely a method of last resort. But pumping more chemicals into this poor filly’s system just seems the wrong way to go.

King obviously is a scratch for his debut tomorrow; we’ve given him a second dose of Iodure, an IV iodine designed to clean out the respiratory system. He will be rescoped on Thursday, when we’ll send swabs to the lab. So far, it looks like we might catch him before it’s too far gone. He’s also more advanced in his work, and might have a stronger immune system. Let’s hope. Rue B, too, seems to be fighting it off. For now, all the horses that have raced seem fine. They are tougher and older, so they might not come down with…whatever it is this is.

 

 

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Catching up (again)

I’m a bit behind on blogging; spent the week with some sort of gastro thing (I’ll spare you the details) and packing what was left of the Irish contingent off on their way home.

Deauville went as expected; Shinko ran like a horse who needs a break, so he’s getting one, and then he will join Regis Reveillere in the Mayenne. Regis is a permit holder and a breeder, who just happens to be the breeder of King Driver. The change of scenery will do Shinko good, and I wish Regis the best of luck with him. George, too, will move on to other things, but not before debuting my assistant Agata in an amateur rider race on Sunday in Evreux. Birs stays on the team. He’s a big baby who is just getting started, and I’m sure he will improve with a bit of distance and experience.

That leaves us with a yard of nine at the moment. Six of the Irish horses have gone back for the fall/winter. We ran a very intense, but successful, four-month campaign with them. Rendition is back for another try, so we’re pretty heavy on three-year-old fillies at the moment, with five of them. Good thing they don’t all run the same distance.

The event of the week is the debut, finally, of King Driver on Wednesday at St. Cloud. He was bought at the yearling sales at Lion d’Angers last year and is a stunning horse, but will probably be better at three than two. Still, it’s time he gets a taste of what it’s all about. He’s still a colt, and he’s getting a bit bossy, so the experience of a race might settle him a bit.

After that, it’s George at Evreux on Sunday, possibly along with Rue B, who worked well out of the gates on Friday and seems just about ready to try something. I’ll decide whether to run her on Wednesday.

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Three to Deauville

George, Hi Shinko and Birs are heading to Deauville tomorrow to help close down the August meeting. George is running 2,400 meters in a handicap on the fibersand, Shinko goes 1,500 meters in a claimer for amateur riders and Birs stretches out to 1,900 meters in a claimer. George probably has the best chance of the three; Shinko was truly disappointing last time out and I don’t know where we are with him. He’ll have blinkers for the first time tomorrow, so I’m hoping he just decides to bolt and get on with it. Birs will get more distance, which he needs, but I would have preferred to get him on the turf instead of the fiber. In any case, he’s the last of the runners from the Irish contingent. They will head home Wednesday after running a good four-month season here.

Our numbers so far this year are pretty good: seven wins and 47 places from 120 starts, which puts us in the money 45 percent of the time. Things will slow down a bit now that the Irish are going home, but we still have a solid stable that should keep the percentages up. Meanwhile, it’s already time to start thinking about yearling sales and prospects for next year. The Deauville August sale is behind us, but other sales with more realistic prices are ahead, including the Osarus sale at La Teste on Sept. 15. The catalog is quite good and the prices are usually affordable. Anybody out there interested in yearlings should get in touch.

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Weapons of Mouse Destruction

The war started in earnest last week. There were skirmishes leading up to it, of course, but those were minor compared to the full-blown conflict that erupted after the discovery of the nest.

I was looking through a plastic bucket full of random bits and bridle pieces. I pulled out a bit, and something was moving at the bottom of the bucket, under various bits of chewed-up feed bags. Not good. I took out various items carefully, and squirming at the bottom were a group of pink, hairless, blind baby mice. I fought the urge to fling the bucket across the room and called for the assistance of Vladimir the Impaler, the yard black lab. I took the bucket into the courtyard and dumped it on the cement. It was all over very quickly.

The hunt for the parents began. Vlad is an excellent mouser, and he helped me root through every blanket, saddle pad, sheepskin cover, saddle, bridle and various other bits and pieces in the place. He caught two more adults.

The next day, there was one more in the trap, and I saw a corner I had missed the day before. My saddle room is in an unused stall, with a fixed manger in the corner. The manger had become a dumping ground for used plastic buckets and the like. I saw a mouse duck in. I gave chase, called Vlad, started moving around the buckets and found…a SECOND nest. Worse, one of the adults ran up my arm as it fled, jumping onto the saddle rack and running across the clothes line toward the grain sacks. Vlad jumped into the fray, upending buckets and flinging open cupboard doors in hot pursuit. It was too late. But there were still the babies. I scooped them into a plastic bucket and called Vlad into the courtyard. This time, I wanted to set an example.

“Are you watching, you guys? Have a look at this!” I yelled to the remaining mice as I flipped the squirming babies one by one into Vlad’s waiting jaws. Like gourmet sushi, he devoured them all. We reset the traps and again upended everything. Vlad had no more luck that day.

Someone suggested duct tape. Apparently they stick to strategically placed upside-down tape. They would be trapped alive, of course, but I had Vlad and wasn’t too worried about that. I put down duct tape. The mice laughed and proceeded to chew a coffee-cup-sized hole in one of my best wool exercise sheets. I was furious.

“I’ll get you, you fuckers!” I muttered as I again upended most of the saddle room, Vlad at the ready. No luck. I moved the wool sheets to a secure location (the cleaners) and set more traps. The mice laughed. They chewed a hole in the lining of one of my best saddle pads. I set more traps. Poison, of course, was not an option with a dog, horses and cats (who have proven to be 100 percent useless) around.

Then someone told me about a web site that suggested mint oil. Apparently mice can’t stand the smell of mint, and will avoid it. (The site’s motto: “Almost  70,000 rodents killed.”) Tonight, I sprayed mint oil everywhere. At least the saddle room smells good. Its effectiveness remains to be seen.

Anybody who has a barn has an occasional rodent problem, and anybody who says they never do is lying. We’ve had the occasional mouse, and too many pigeons (they count as rodents, in my book), but never anything like this. They get delivered with the straw, which my supplier stocks  in tight large packets, heaven for mice. Vlad is on standby after every delivery, ready to do the necessary. But my last delivery apparently exceeded the capabilities of even Vlad, and the mice that escaped him moved in and set up housekeeping.

I think I have eliminated most of the hiding places. And if the mint oil works, I owe the folks at www.miceexterminationforbeginners.blogspot.com a big debt of gratitude!

 

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Regrouping (Hangover 3?)

I’m finally finding time to catch up after coming back from our brief, but crammed, vacation. Vegas was fun, as always. You either love it or hate it, but I think it’s great. Everyone’s there for the same reason – a little gambling, a lot of eating, some shows…it’s refreshing to be in a place where you can chat with strangers sharing the craps table or lounging by the pool and not have to worry about the French formalities. But I digress. Back in the real world, or at least what passes for it for me, we are in mid-season in Deauville, and things are clicking along.

Strictly Rhythm seems to be back on track, running a very good fifth in a maiden on Friday. She had the far outside number 18 draw, which is no gift on the 1,900 meter course. From that spot, you either have to get out front or sit behind everyone. She got out nicely, showing much more spark than she had in her past two races. A better draw would have put her even closer to the win. Comment Dit ran a good third in her claimer. She has proven to be a tough filly who has taken her racing well. Hold That Emperor was a little more disappointing, running only 6th, but he is running like a horse that needs a break, and he’ll get one, finally.

On Tuesday, Justthewayyouare ran a good fifth, but it was his first blow on the fibersand and I think he’ll be better on the turf. He’ll get one more run out in the country before he goes back to Ireland to finish growing up.

Tomorrow, George makes his comeback in the last race of the day. He seems to be back on track, and the entry is good, so fingers crossed for him. He ran off with me twice this week, so I know he’s certainly got it in the tank. It also gives me a great excuse to be on hand for Goldikova and Galikova. Deauville is quite a bit of fun in August.

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Vive Las Vegas!

We had three more places from our runners this week, including a game third by Talawa in Dieppe yesterday. The yard continues to roll along, but I am rolling off to Vegas for a quick vacation. Slightly questionable timing in mid-season, but there are family obligations in Wisconsin involved first, so since we’re that far, we’re zipping away for a few days in the sun. We haven’t had much of that lately in France, but it’s 100 percent guaranteed in Las Vegas in August. I’ll be away just over a week, and the team here will have things well in hand. I’ll still be doing entries and monitoring the racing from across the pond. Next week will start with Comment Dit and Twilight Allure in Clairefontaine. Twilight is coming back from a wind operation, so this will be sort of a test drive. On Tuesday, Panisette and Golden Age have very good entries in claimers in Pornichet. I’m sorry I won’t be here for that, because I’ve heard the new fibertrack there is fantastic. I hope to see it first-hand soon. We’ll have a few more runners in Deauville on Thursday and Hi Shinko makes his comeback on Friday. Vive Las Vegas!