Ender is in at Remington!  While we were looking for a straight up claiming race between $7.500 – $10,000, one wouldn’t go – unless it was at 5 furlongs, and we know how well that would go.  So the race is starter/optional claimer for horses that have either run for a claiming price of $12,500 or less in the last year or $17,500 claiming tag.

The race is the 8th on card next Thursday night (about 10:23 PM) going 6.5 furlongs over the main track.  We drew post 8 and have the meet’s 2nd leading rider, David Cabrera, aboard.

It’s going to be good to be racing again.  Good luck everyone and we’ll preview the race next week!

Ender is ready to go, unfortunately the races Karl would like to enter him in are not.  Several we have entered haven’t filled while several at the right level (between $7500 – $10,000) have been too short (5 – 5.5 furlongs).  We know what happens when we run him too short.

He continues to work and has been impressive in the mornings the last week or so, so he should be sharp when we finally get into a race.  There look to be a few in the coming week in the condition book, so Karl will keep at it and try to get us another win or two before we need to call it a season.

As we head to Remington Park we’re dealing with some challenges in the licensing department, but we expect for that to sorted out by the end of the week and we’ll be ready to race.  In the interim, Karl is bringing Ender along to get him ready to roll.  The strategy from here on out will most likely be to get aggressive with race placement and try and keep on winning until someone claims him.

Thanks to all the folks that came out for the breakfast on closing morning.  We went a little long but it was fun – and we had plenty of donuts!

Heather received a note from the girl that bought Laura Ray and she is absolutely in love with her.  We have a couple of pictures but we’re waiting to see if we can have her permission to post them here, but we’re very excited that she found a home with a young lady that will love her and give her a new job.

Below is a link to the latest financial statement.  As you can see, we have plenty of money to take us through the rest of the year and, as a couple of Clubbers mentioned Saturday morning, he CAN still win!

There was a question on Saturday on how things get closed up.

Once Ender is claimed or sold, we gather up the bills and then reconcile and audit the year.  It takes about 6-8 weeks from our last race to get everything sorted out, especially if we end toward the beginning of the month because most trainers and vets only bill after the month closes and if we lose the horse on the 5th, for example, we have nearly a month until the bills get mailed to us.

Once we reconcile everything, I’ll post here and Jeff will send out an email to everyone asking if you want to return for next year.  If you don’t, then we’ll send out checks to you for your share of the remaining funds.  If you do – and we certainly hope you all do! – we apply that to the buy in for 2020 and your buy in is reduced by that amount.

We will post the new sign in sheets after the first of there year: one for new members and one for returning members and we start the process again.

CRC 2019 Running Financials – Sept 1

Ender was not ready to race this weekend.  He needed more than two weeks to recover and get ready to run so we’ll be unable to run closing weekend.  While a disappointment, it does not make sense to run the horse when he’s not ready just so we can see him one more time – we’re asking for trouble and it’s not good for him.

Karl will be taking him to Oklahoma and I will be looking into licensing this week so we’ll be ready to go when he’s ready to go.

We got the groups through the paddock several times this season and we were able to hit the winners’ circle in a race carrying the richest purse the Club has ever won.  And we came ever so close (a head bob!) from doing it again.

We hope that everyone had a good summer and enjoyed the experience, thank you so very much from all of us involved in the Club for being a part this year, but we’re not done yet!  We’ll keep you posted here and on Twitter on just how Ender is doing until he leaves us.

Then we’ll gear up to do it again in 2020!

As was evident in her last race where Nik Goodwin had her in a great position to make a run and she didn’t, Lauran Ray was done with racing.  She just didn’t want to do it anymore.  It certainly happens to all horses but with mares, especially, when they decide they are done, they are done.

There were a couple of things we could have chosen to do: sell her for racing, put her through the paddock sale on Monday or try and sell her privately and retire her.  We chose the latter course and connected her with a young woman who will be using her as a project horse as she competes in hunter/jumper classes.

Laura Ray gets a soft landing in a home where she will be loved and have a job.  That’s all we all should ever want from ex-racehorses and we are grateful she is going to have this opportunity.

The minimum sale price in the paddock sale would have been $500 so that is the price we sold her.

Ender, however, came out of his race well and there is a chance that he may get another race on closing weekend, so stay tuned.

Thank you to all that RSVP’d to the breakfast next Saturday.  We got the final number to the food and beverage department and look forward to seeing you all there.

Certainly not the Saturday we had hoped for when the races drew on Wednesday.  Ender ran okay, coming on late but not with the huge rush we saw in his victory and Laura Ray was put in position to do something late but had no kick.

There are only a couple of weekends left in the meet so we are looking at our options going forward.  Here are the thoughts after yesterday’s races:

LAURA RAY: She’s running at the bottom level for the turf here and she’s not cutting it.  She likes the Turf Paradise course and has done well there so we’ve asked around to see if anyone heading to Arizona would like to bring her back.  It doesn’t make much sense for us to do given the high cost of shipping, plus licensing and the low purses there, but if someone is heading there already, she may make sense for them.  We’re also shopping her to non-racing outlets as well like hunter/jumper barns in the area here to find her a second career.

ENDER: Ender has obviously been running successfully at a much higher level so we will see how he comes out of this race.  He COULD run closing weekend, he may not, it all depends upon how he is doing.  Every two weeks can be rough on a horse after a while, so we’ll give him the time he needs.  Should the meet close and we still have him, we will go ahead and get licensed wherever Karl wants to bring him next and race there.  He has horses stabled all over the country so we’ll see where he thinks he’d fit best.

Don’t forget to RSVP for the closing get together at Silks between 9-11 AM on Saturday, September 14 at ted@grevelisrsacing.com – and if you have friends that feel badly they missed the Club this year but want to be a part next year…bring them along!