As a few of you have mentioned, Clay did claim a horse for the Club tonight out of the Claiming Series Race (Lovely Tak). Lovely Tak ran sixth and doesn’t really appear to have an affinity for mud as she has never performed well in it during her career.
The hope is to run her back as the Claiming Series continues. For those that have not read up on the Claiming Series, it gives you a chance to run your $3,500 horse for a $25,000 purse. More information is available on the Claiming Series here.
Jeff and I will go back to the barn in the coming days and find out a little more about Lovely Tak and about how she came out of the race.
Racing Has its Ups and Downs
As we’ve tried to explain to you all throughout this journey, racing is a roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, earlier today, Clay called to tell us that Great Bam’s quarter crack was worse than anticipated and that it will require special treatment, stall rest and protective bandaging.
Obviously, this is not the news that we wanted to hear. Clay and the farrier believe that this issue will require 3-4 weeks to fully heal before he can resume training. Therefore, we’re likely looking at August before Bam may be able to race.
We’ll continue talking to Clay to find out the plans and the progress that Bam is making. He was very disappointed when he gave us this news as he was expecting this horse to run big here this summer.
Canterbury Racing Club Financial Update
Next, here’s an update on the Club’s finances through May (less vet expenses):
Cash Balance at the end of April is $34,856.45
Less the following expenses:
Thyroid Treatment & Phenylbutazone (Great Bam) – $60
Shipping (Great Bam from Chicago to MN) – $350
Farrier (Great Bam) – $120
May Training (Great Bam) – $1,860 (31 days at $60 per day)
Claim of Downerbythemeadow – $3,500
May Training (Downerbythemeadow) – $360
May Dental Work (Downerbythemeadow) – $85
Cash Balance on May 31 – $28,466.45
Remember, this doesn’t really reflect the current state of the account it only deals with where were at on May 31. We have collected $3,500 for the claim of Downerbythemeadow plus more than $2,400 in revenue for the second place finish on June 8. Plus, there are vet bills to pay for May.
The revenue will be realized when we walk you through this information for June.
Obviously, there is a lot of information to digest in here. Please post questions and comments if you have them.
Canterbury Racing Club 
Happy to welcome a new horse to the stable, but, sorry to hear about Bam. I’m glad Clay will be taking his time with him, I’d rather he be healthy and happy before he runs. Will look forward to Bam racing in the future.
Meanwhile, the Claiming Series is an interesting concept and it could be fun to be a part of it. If I read the chart of tonight’s race correctly Clay won the race with a horse that was then claimed from him, and he claimed Lady Tak from the trainer that claimed Downerbythemeadow last weekend. It looks like Lovely Tak placed 2nd on May 25th and Downerbythemeadow was 3rd in the same race, the race where Clay claimed Downer for us.
Is it common for claimers to move around a lot?
JD – Yes and no. It really depends on the racetrack. Claiming isn’t quite as common at Canterbury as it is at other racetracks. There has been a little more claiming that usual this summer at Canterbury. It is likely due to the increased purses.
When we claim a horse, do we pay sales tax on that transaction?
There is no state sales tax on claims in Minnesota.
Do we still pay trainer fees while Great Bam is healing and can train again? If so, kind of sounds like a money burner consider he’s not run here yet.
Tony – The short answer is yes, we still pay fees. In the case of many other minor injuries, you’d be able to turn the horse out to a farm where your costs would substantially decrease; however, due to the fact that this involves his hoof, we will need to stay on track to be under closer veterinary care.
I am bummed about Great Bam, just as a curiosity, the daily training fee (In this case $60), is that charged whether the horse is in training or not? In other words, will the club still pay the $60/day charge while Bam is on stall rest for 3-4 weeks? I can see why this game might get expensive for a group that isn’t fortunate enough to have as many members as we do. Thanks and have a great weekend all.
Matt – Yes, we still pay $60 a day. In the case of many other minor injuries, you’d turn the horse out to a farm where your costs would substantially decrease (maybe $20 a day or so); however, due to the fact that this involves his hoof, Bam stay on track to be under closer veterinary care.
There is no off switch on an animal and that is what can make this game expensive. They are not machines.
I am wondering….since Bam will not be “in training” for a little bit, would this be a good time to schedule some backstretch time for us? We wouldn’t be disturbing his training schedule and I would really like to see what it’s like.
JD – Yes, we will be scheduling a couple of possible tour dates in the near future.
As I am in the club to learn, here is my question. If I were the sole owner of Great Bam, I would like to know what other options I would have at this point. Could I sell him? Would there be any buyers? Could I donate him? Could I simply retire him? Thanks!
Richard – Fair questions, you could sell him at any time. If you looked, you could probably find a buyer, but the offer price would be very low. He could likely be donated to a variety of different disciplines, but they may ask for some help paying his vet care until he was healthy and ready for a second career.
as I am curious (this could happen to me next year or the year after), what other different disciplines are there?
A few different disciplines that thoroughbreds work in are: hunter/jumpers, dressage horses, general riding horse, therapeutic riding horses, police horses and a few others…
A long time ago (when I was young) I bought an off-the-track 4 year old thoroughbred. I used him as a riding horse and taught him to jump. Unfortunately I had to sell him due to moving etc. I sold him as a hunter/jumper, he loved jumping and was good at it. It does take a while to re-train a horse but it’s worth it in my opinion.
Our trainer, Clay, is positively amazing! He had 2 winners at Canterbury today (including a $50,000 stakes) plus one at Assiniboia ($30,000 stakes). Way to go!
Yes, and as far as Canterbury goes, those were the ONLY HORSES HE RAN! Thanks for posting that he won at Assiniboia yesterday, since I noticed he wasn’t at CBY and wondered where he was. I was touting Clay to anyone who would listen yesterday – hard to ignore a trainer who has 75 % winners and 92% ITM. That’s 9 winners out of 12 starters and 2 seconds. Unheard of but still a pretty small sample size. “I’ll Show Them” is obviously a quality son of Smarty Jones and has two of those wins.
One other thing – the pact with Mystic Lake is already paying benefits as the Shot of Gold Stakes won by Clay and I’ll Show them was pumped up $15,000 from that agreement – that’s got to get people to sit up and notice – hopefully we’ll get more horses on the grounds as a result – Andrew, is it possible that this increase in purses will cause more horses to show up? I assume you will be pointing this out to the owner’s community?
Ken – That’s certainly the intent. At this point, it may be difficult to get many people to pick up and move their stables mid-summer, but starting next year, the goal is to have more and higher quality horses on the grounds. Informing the owner’s community will certainly be a part of the overall plan to recruit more people and horses to Shakopee.
So how about an update on Lovely Tak. Obviously she will not race this week having run last Thursday night, but how about a general plan for her next? We never heard how she came out of the race or comments on her overall condition from Clay’s observations of her now that she is in his barn. If she is to be geared towards the Claiming Series, does that mean she will only be entered in those races, or if she isn’t a fit for the “conditions” stipulated in those races for a few weeks would he put her in something else that meets her “conditions” to give her races to run instead?
Kaye – An update on Lovely Tak is on our agenda for tomorrow. Wanted to talk to Clay about her over the weekend but he was up in Canada with another horse in a stake race.
She fits the conditions of the claiming series and the expectation is that is where she’s going to run back. However, we’ll discuss this with Clay tomorrow when we go back to visit him!