By RACHEL BLOUNT, Star Tribune

During his historic trip down the Belmont Park homestretch in 1973, Ron Turcotte briefly took his eyes off the wire three times. He glanced behind to see the vast distance he had opened up on the other horses in the Belmont Stakes field. A peek toward the grandstand showed a disbelieving crowd, looking like a rough sea as people leapt to their feet.

read the entire column at Star Tribune

I am in the process of dispersing the remaining funds from the account. It looks like about $100 per person.

I know that many of you enjoyed the experience while others were frustrated. I am in both camps. I fully expected the group to win a race at the meet. It did not play out that way for us. I guess when you look at the horse population as a whole, more horses than not go winless for the summer. That however is not consoling. I did enjoy the opportunity to meet all of you.

I would guess that something similar will be assembled again next meet. We also will offer Canterbury College over the winter, so those of you that have not been through the course and are interested, please keep an eye on the Canterbury website. We also are in the discussion stage of trying to have some advanced classes for those that have been through the college.
jm

I am still waiting on the bills for June and July from the vet.

There was a question about what was earned in the second place finish on July 30:
$1,300 plus the $5,000 for the claim.
Ry was paid $75 for finishing second plus $1 is deducted by the HBPA for each starter and that, after bring matched by Canterbury, is given to a horse retirement operation.

Training for KoR was $1,275. We basically broke even on KoR horse after training and vet bills. Note that he is entered on Thursday in the same spot we ran him. The distance of 6F and he looks like he should win.

I will get this all figured out soon and then we can divvy up what remains and hunker down for the winter.
JM

With so little time left in the meet it would be next to impossible to claim another horse and race again and then hope to get out on the horse when we sell it.

Leasing KoR from Mr. Donlin probably isn’t likely as he would have little to gain from the arrangement. With one chance (two if he jammed him in this weekend)left to race the horse he would only get the training day rate for three weeks and his percentage of the purse were the horse to win. Unless some sort of unique arrangement was made to divide purse money differently. But then the group would be at a disadvantage.

I am still waiting ofr the vet bills to arrive and will seek thjose tomorrow so we can see where we stand.

Meanwhile, don’t forget the new ownership seminar hosted by the MTA this Saturday.

If you are interested in the yearling auction and are atthe races Saturday, the auction begins shortly after the final in Silks Bar.

Also, on Sunday there is a fundraiser at Arizona’s Bar beginning at 6:30pm for jockey Tad Leggett, who was injured in a riding accident at Fair Meadows early in July. Tad was a regular here for years and is the leading money earner and second in wins in CBY QH history.

You can find more info on the Tad and the benefit on CBY’s blog at http://canterburypark.blogspot.com/2010/08/leggett-benefit-to-include-live-music.html

Losing your horse via claim is usually only a good thing if you wanted someone to take it. In our case we did not want KoR to get claimed. We took KoR from Larry Donlin and he paid more to get him back. That is how the game should work.

Dan and Tammy did a great job preparing your horse for this race. When you claim a horse from a good trainer like Mr. Donlin, you just hope to keep the horse heading the right direction and maybe tweak a thing or two.

The horse ran his race but just came up short. With more distance it may have been a different race.

At this point in the meet it is too late to claim another horse and hope to get a race in.
We will wait for the finla bills to come in, pay those, and disperse what is left.
The May vet bill was paid but not the July and August bills. Training is paid up through early June when Gown was turned out.

I welcome your comments on the experieince. It sure didn’t work out the way I had hoped. But we did get a full taste of the ups and dowsn of owning a horse. Not winning a race is not uncommon at a race meet but I fully expected to get the group to the winners’ circle. While I am disappointed I enjoyed meeting all of you along the way.
JM

Every race day state vets inspect each horse that is entered to run that day. They inspect the horses legs trying to detect any trouble and also have the handler jog the horse up and down the shedrow to see if the horse is ‘off’ anywhere. King of Rhythm passed the vet exam this morning.

Looks like a wet track may be in the cards for this evening. It rained steadily this morning but is clearing up now at 10AM. Additional showers are in the forecast.

This won’t be an easy race but it could set up for KoR. The horse on the rail, Daryamar, has won two in a row and actually has won twice here, yet is still allowed to run in a ‘non winners of a race in 2010’ condition because wins for $4,000 or less are excluded. Seems odd but its true.

Ideally a race that excludes wins at $3,500 or less or takes into account all wins at Canterbury is what we need. The race condition from which we claimed KoR for example is what we really want. However, inexpicably, that condition is not in final condition book.

So we pretty much need to win tonight or hope to get an extra race written in a couple weeks.

But we can worry about that later….. let’s hope for a big run tonite.
jm

Race 1….. paddock at about 6:35pm..
there is an area of Silks/Ubetcha Bar set aside for the Gown Racing Club. Feel free to use that area all night.
Same protocol as before. If you want to join everyone in the walking ring be sure to arrive before the horses come up from the saddling area.
KoR has in the past been a handful in the paddock. He may have mellowed as he was fine last time. But we do want to make sure he is calm before the race. He should be able to handle the crowd.
jm