Little Ahvee

Posted by Avram Freedberg

Where the rubber meets the road. Fantasies get made or destroyed. Little Ahvee came closer to the latter than the former but is really somewhere in between.

Start with the fact that I am tough critic with big dreams. The Hopeful Stakes for 2-yr. olds on September 6th was my first goal. After today, I don’t think so. And, yes, this colt had my Derby dreams wrapped up in his beautiful body (no jokes, please). On top of everything else, I wanted to stick my tongue out at all those who passed on participating in his acquisition. I wanted to say that “Stuck With You” was everything anyone could have wanted in a race horse.

Well, he may yet turn into a wonderful race horse but it’ll have to get better from here… and there’s no reason to think that it won’t! He finished third today after a really awful start that saw him get out of the gate slowly and probably give up four or more lengths when he veered to the outside (even the race chart says he gave up two lengths just getting out of the gate). Yet, he managed to squeak out a 3rd place finish by a nose hair, 4 ¼ lengths behind the winner.

You should have seen him bucking his way down the stretch during the warm-ups prior to the start of the race. He was so cute… telling the jockey he didn’t like his racing saddle. Ramon Dominguez is the best and he got him under control. I’d never seen any horse do that before. We like the fact he is precocious.

The time of the race seemed very slow to me. We’ll see tomorrow what Beyer Speed Rating he gets for this race… but he can do nothing but learn from this experience and continue to grow and get stronger and, presumably, faster. Plus, he’ll probably start to run longer. He seems to be a distance horse… but I’ll get a further opinion from Linda tomorrow when I get a report on his condition after the race and how he is doing since. So, more to come!

Our winner this meet, Hear the Footsteps, is scheduled to race in a 5 ½ furlong allowance race for NY breds on Sunday. We wanted action and we’re getting it. Millie Money tomorrow and Hear the Footsteps Sunday makes four races in five days. WOW!

We’re still stung by Ahvee’s Destiny’s poor performance but she’s in good shape. She’s pointing for another Stakes on September 3rd. Canadian Ballet will undoubtedly contest that one too, as will many others. Let’s hope for a turnaround. Go Ahvee! You’re still our queen.

For tomorrow, it’s Millie Money. Go Millie! Someday I’ll have to tell you what it’s like when you have lots of new partners, as we do with the Obviously NY Stable group. Let’s just say for the moment, it’s very interesting!

Best,
A.
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