I stopped by Kenny’s barn this morning. He has a couple running today as well as several that were going to the track to train so as usual it was all hustle and bustle in the barn.
Kenny told me Crown the Cat came back fine. She ate up last night and was feeling good this morning as well. She will be handwalked for a couple days and then it is back to the track.
He also told me that she lost a hind shoe in the race. While we can’t say that prevented her from 
winning it certainly didn’t help and may explain why Ry commented that she wasn’t traveling as smoothly as last time.
The loss of a shoe happens more often than you would think. Unless it is a high profile race where a trainer discloses the info, we never really hear about it. It can happen when a horse catches the hind shoe on a front shoe or sometimes just the torque from the start can loosen it. Andrew is planning on interviewing a farrier soon.
Always something in this game…..
JM
Canterbury Racing Club 
Looks to me that Crown the Cat is 1st in this picture.
She was a little difficult in the paddock. More so than last race.It appeared to me that she was not as comfortable as a number of the other horses in the same parade, (sounding as though I have any idea what her benchmark behavior is, or have luck with paddock body language).*** Trying again, since it did not appear to post. ***
Anxious?Maybe it was all those darn people again, but no carrots!
Thought she was making a winning move at 3/16 pole. Definitely wasn't over comfortable either passing between horse and the rail. Many aren't.She's kind of one paced, so I think the route will fit her quite well. She has speed but not enough to be in front early at 5.5, but not quite enough to keep up with the closers at 5.5 either.
If Crown the Cat looked nervous or uncomfortable, maybe everyone should reread paddock protocol. There were a number of small children sitting, walking, and playing in the walking ring area. Animals who arent used to small children can react differently. Just my opinion.
I see no reason to drop her down in class yet. I want to give her a shot at a long race at the 10k level.Is there a chance we will have the hats if she draws in the 6/23 race? The timing would be great.Is there a chance of a backside tour on a morning? The feel/energy level of a morning backside tour is very different from the late afternoon when there is no workouts, etc taking place.I really appreciate the level of and amount of detail getting posted on the blog this year compared to last year.
Do we know which hind shoe was lost in the race?
I am sort of curious if lost shoes stay in the dirt of the track or if the track crew finds them.
Here is the best attempt to answer all questions. First of all, Crown the Cat basically ran the same race this time as she did last time (53 Beyer here vs. 54 Beyer in her win). She ran a good race last weekend, these were just better horses. Additional work on her feet should help her move forward and, with any luck, we might be able to get a race longer than 5.5 furlongs. A lot of the time it takes horses a race or two to move up to a higher level of competition. Her third place finish was very respectable against that group. 1. There is a good chance of hats being in before the next race. 2. Yes, our next tour may be a morning tour. If we do that it will likely have to be a on a Wednesday morning as so not to conflict with racing. We will make plans for another tour in the coming weeks. 3. We are not sure which shoe she lost. We will try to find that information out in the next couple of days. 4. Yes, the track crew typically finds the lost shoes in the track.
Excitement level is up from last year.The updates keep you in sync & feeling as though this is an ongoing thing,since it tends to be weeks between races; something to look forward to in the interim.She had an unusual stride in the paddock on 2nd race day.Although I've seen other horses do precisely the same thing & perform just fine, thismake me wonder if that shoe was already annoying to her then, or ifit was something in the gate, or just the run that shook it loose.