Disappointment To Elation This Week

Last Monday, I posted that breeding season was officially under way. What I didn't tell you is that I was keeping last week open for two special ladies, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. The way I had it figured, until they were actually bred, I still had a shot. Then, we heard that Rachel was bred on Monday to Curlin and Zenyatta was bred to Bernardini on Wednesday. Darn!!

While I understand why Zenyatta just might want to go to Bernardini, with his fancy blue and white halter and being the sire of a couple Grade 1 winners, yada, yada, yada, but what was Rachel thinking going to Curlin? What has Curlin done as a stallion? Curlin isn't the sire of a Grade 1 winner in Puerto Rico, I am! Curlin isn't the sire of a multiple Grade 3 winner in 2011, I am! Curlin doesn't have a yearling sales average of over 14 times his 2011 stud fee, I do! Curlin doesn't have a two-year old sales average of over 27 times his 2011 stud fee, I do! Curlin isn't even the leading sire in Indiana as I will be as of the end of February! What did she see in him? He probably doesn't even have a blog. Ha! But, he now has Rachel on his resume, so I was a bit depressed earlier this week.

Now, the good news, besides my schedule now being open for your mares, is that my foals so far this year are awesome, long-legged and strong with a lot of chrome. There's nothing like seeing them take their first wobbly steps. If you can, come by Foot Fall Farm and ask the nice barn guy Larry or the boss mare Jo Ann to take a look at a few. You'll be impressed, and I know that I sound like a proud father, which I am, but these babies (pun intended) are nice. So, I started feeling a little bit better.

Then, the weekend came with Lydia's Last Step running at Sunland, Rock 'n' Roll Gal at Fairgrounds, and Little Mike in another Grade 3 at Gulfstream. Lydia's Last Step went wire-to-wire at a mile on dirt to take the winner's share of the $32,000 purse for his second win in a row. Yes! Rock 'n' Roll Gal got up for second in her six furlong sprint in her come back race, and then came Little Mike. This kid is amazing. In a field full of graded stakes winners and placers, Mikey led at every call winning the $150,000 Canadian Turf Stakes!! Yo, Mikey! The fractions for this mile turf race were just sick 22.70, 45.42, 1:08.65 and then finished up with a final quarter in 23.72 as the co-high weight!! A mile in 1:32.37, just awesome!

You can check out the race video and how good looking Little Mike is at this NTRA link: http://www.ntra.com/schedule/race/display/NTU1 as well as see what the folks at Blood-Horse have to say about the race at http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/61599/little-mike-sneaks-away-in-canadian-turf?source=rss. The Canadian Turf victory was Little Mike's second Grade 3 of the Gulfstream meet and his sixth win in only 12 starts. His lifetime earnings are now over $300,000. Take that Curlin!