Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Itching for Action

Posted by Avram Freedberg

It’s been really cold but today it’s mostly the snow and freezing rain. Yuk, what a down winter… the thermometer, the precipitation (Jose has barely seen grass), the stock market, the economy… and no horsies to watch; at least none of ours!

Linda Rice has been somewhat out of commission with sinus and ear problems and all the horsies are in Florida with only Conseated Lady in serious training. She breezed a half-mile today in 50 seconds. I’d been discouraged by her seemingly average times but Linda told me that they don’t want her to go too fast just yet, since she’s back from a fracture and healing vacation. The goal is to strengthen her, build her stamina, then improve her speed. This means it will be march before she may be ready to return to New York racing.

Arielle’s Song is doing some mild training and will have another Ultrasound of her tendon at the end of next week. If it checks out, she’ll be sent to the Palm Meadows training center and join Conseated Lady in serious training.

Linda wants Ahvee’s Destiny to have 8 – 10 weeks of rest, so she won’t be ready for racing until April. Linda says there will be an appropriate race for her at Keeneland in Kentucky at that time. However, I have no further information.

Since Linda likes to especially take her time with two year olds, I have not even inquired about them but will do so next week. I’m trying to remain calm but I miss the horsies and seeing ‘em run. It would be a nice diversion to this 2008-9 “winter of our discontent.” I have to be satisfied with re-living old glories by watching many of Ahvee’s Destiny’s victories on the DVR or DVD. Feel like I’m turning into an old and faded Hollywood Star who has to watch his/her old movies to feel the excitement again. OY!

Until next week, if there is an update, I am

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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Horsie Update

Posted by Avram Freedberg

Conseated Lady has had two “breezes” in the last 8 days. Her first was respectable with the hope that she would run a little faster next time. However, the 2nd breeze was slower than the first… disappointing. BTW, many people think her name is spelled “Conceited.” However, the “CON” is from her father, CONgaree, and the “SEAT” is from SEATtle Stardust, her mother.

On the bright side, Ahvee’s Destiny’s sore foot is better. She can now relax for another 3 weeks or so. Arielle’s Song seems to be lightly training without any noticeable change to her tendon situation. We’ll know more in a few weeks when they ultrasound her leg again.

The two gray two year olds are training and the yearling colt is getting bigger.

Clyde Rice is doing well and that’s a happy thing.

Tomorrow I hope to order new jockey silks with a photorealistic picture of Cricket on the front and back. Speaking of dogs, Jose is doing well. Everyone loves the little critter!

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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Happy Birthday New Year!

Posted by Avram Freedberg

Aside from Sheri whose birthday is New Year’s Day and who turned a year younger, all Thoroughbred race horses turn a year older on New Year’s Day. It’s just a convention to make it easier to enter horses into races meant for a specific age. That means that Ahvee’s Destiny is now a 5 year old mare, closer to becoming a brood mare than a filly just starting out. Arielle’s Song and ConSeated Lady are both now 3 year old maidens who have yet to race. Holy Blitzer and Katy’s Office Girl are two year olds and our new unnamed weanling whose sire is Midaseyes is now a yearling.

Here’s how they stack up: Ahvee’s Destiny was turned out after her last race. She came out of that race with a sore foot which her vacation should help heal. She should be back in training by late February.

ConSeated Lady is in training at Palm Meadows training facility in Florida. Soon she’ll have her first “breeze.” This will tell us how she’s doing, what kind of maiden race to point her towards, etc. Since she’s a New York bred (as are all our horses, except for Arielle’s Song), she’ll be shipped to compete in New York.

Arielle’s Song has been our problem child almost from the get-go. The tendon on her right side is still bigger than the one on her left side, though the differential has narrowed. So, the question is does she need a much longer term recovery period to get the sizes closer together or, just like many animals, is one side just naturally larger than the other? To find out, we’ll keep her turned out but put her under tack and give her some light exercise and galloping without stress for 30 days. Then, we’ll ultrasound her again and see if the exercise has inflamed the area again. Hopefully, it will not and she’ll be able to go back into a fulltime training regimen. Let’s hope! Clearly this one will require a watchful eye.

There was NO heat in Holy Blitzer’s knee when Linda checked it at Christmas time (YAY!). So, she will continue her training regimen with Katy’s Office Girl. I’d like to see them race ready by late spring/early summer. Linda like to take her time with the youngun’s. So, I guess we’ll be lucky to see them race at Saratoga in August.

The Midaseyes’ colt just gets to run around and grow strong until next fall.

Hopefully not much more to say until ConSeated Lady’s first workout. Lots of new photos will soon be added to the “Horsebiz” area of the website.

Happy New Year!


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