Oh, So Close!

Wow! Within minutes of each other my Little Mike was running in the Grade 3 $150,000 Canadian Turf Stakes at Gulfstream and my Ill Conceived was running in the $75,000 Battaglia at Turfway Park. Unfortunately, Little Mike's four race win streak came to an end with a 4th place finish. As usual, Mikey took the lead early and was pushed through six furlongs in 1:09.32 only to fade late. Mikey will get 'em next time. After watching the stretch replay on HRTV, I quickly switch over to TVG to see the Battaglia.

What I see is Ill Conceived, a three-year old PA bred, in the lead around the third turn drifting out! What I saw next is best described by the race chart entry: "Ill Conceived set the pressured pace off of the inside, drifted out further on the backstretch, opened clear after a half, was headed near the five-sixteenth pole, battled on gamely but just missed in a grand effort." After drifting a out, Ill Conceived saw the competition, and battled missing by a nose bob. This was his third stakes placing, and with a little focus, a stakes win isn't too far down the road. Check out the race video at:
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/race/USA/TP/2012/3/3/10/john-battaglia-memorial-s

A couple blog posts ago, I was giving Ill Conceived's owner a hard time about his name. (That was more to make a point about breeding to me than anything else.) Here's the link to that post:
http://indianastallionspanishsteps.blogspot.com/2011/12/ill-conceived-i-think-not.html
I wasnt' going to tell the real story about his name until he won a stakes race. But why wait, huh? Anyway, I'm standing in Florida in 2008 and I hear I have a "date" with an Indiana-bred name Reflect The Queen, owned by Mari George. Reflect The Queen was boarded in Pennsylvania, so I was excited, in more ways than one, to get working on a PA bred. When Reflect The Queen gets to the shed in Florida, she kept telling me that her name was Catsuit and she was born in Kentucky. Ok, so I'm thinking the Florida weather had her giddy or a shot or two of ACE had her telling stories. At some points of the breeding process, I really don't care what the mare's name is, if you know what I mean. So, I complete our "date" and I think nothing of it. Until a few months later.

Evidently, what happened was that I actually did breed a mare named Catsuit as she and Reflect The Queen were accidentally switched at the PA farm. I think Catsuit just wanted a trip to sunny Florida instead of being bred to a PA stallion and switched stalls with Reflect The Queen. Smart girl, plus she got to meet me. Because of this switch, the resulting foal was named Ill Conceived! How's that for a horse racing story? Sometimes you can swerve into success...like breeding to me! Youbetcha!