We will be taking one last look in Chicago this weekend as the Hawthorne meet comes to a close. We may even look a bit higher than our $10,000 budget per horse and start with one for now and then go ahead and claim another at Canterbury once we have a race or two under our belt.

We have scoured CA but finding something in our price range plus shipping, plus a 10% commission for the agent has made it a bit difficult. In looking at other locations: Florida, Ohio, Kentucky we have licensing issues. Not issues, per se, but the requirement to be licensed prior to claiming which would have amounted to 100s of dollars with no guarantee of finding the horse we want. Also, the further afield that we go, the less input we have from Clay which I do not like. I want him to have as much input as possible on a horse that he will be training.

If we do not get anything this weekend, we will come out swinging when the meet starts here at home.

It looks as if the choices are starting to improve at Hawthorne with the influx of horses from Fairgrounds. The exodus from Oaklawn has begun as well, so we are hoping that there will be some options to go after over the next few weekends. Arlington opens on May 1 and we’ll also be looking there should there prove to be nothing worth reaching out to take in the next few weeks.

We’ve looked briefly at a few but have rejected them quickly. Clay’s philosophy, and I agree, is that we don’t want to get something just to get something and then be sorry that we did.

So we continue looking and soldier on.