Though the weather was a bit nasty, Heather was able to capture a couple of good photos of our former charge.
Kipper Key during the post parade before the race.
Geovanni Franco urging Kipper Key down the lane. We made it to second, but no further.
Here are the corrected financials. Not sure what happened when I copied the spreadsheet over but I obviously didn’t delete something. That is taken care of now and we’re all set.
K2 gets his first start in front of the home fans today and while it’s a short field it is by no means an easy race. It’s a $10,000 claiming race going six furlongs over the main track. We will have a spot signed off for us at Silks so Heather and I will meet the gang there for Race 1 and then any group 1 folks can head on over to the paddock. The past performances for the race are below.
Here is a look at the field:
KIPPER KEY (BRINSON/FRANCO)
Tester (Diodoro/Carreno) – He is 3 of 6 in 2016 with a stalking running style. His figures and connections are solid and in his most recent start he scored at Turf Paradise at this level.
Red N Black Attack (Diodoro/Rosier) – Recent claim by the Jacobson barn has made his way into the Diodoro fold and is moving from California. He had a tough first out after the claim in a conditioned $10K at Los Alamitos. This may be a bit of a softer spot but will still need a better effort. Also will want to stalk the pace.
De Facto (Ashford/Canchari) – Winner of two in a row in New Mexico prior to his claim. Outclassed in his lone run at Prairie Meadows in an optional claimer/starter. He may be a notch below these but what he DOES have is a unique and possibly deadly running style in this race: lone speed.
Moon Gun (McKinley/Hernandez) – He was a solid router in 2015 taking a Lone Star allowance as well as a $20,000 claimer at Remington. HIs 3 Canterbury starts were not impressive, but two were on the turf and one a stake. Coming in of the long layoff could be problematic and team could be prepping for longer later.
For those of you new to the Club, I try and use this space to talk a bit about how we can win this race. My hope is that Moon Gun will be a little keyed up and raring to go which could give De Facto some pressure up front. Clay mentioned in his interview yesterday that he’d like Geovanni to keep K2 a little closer than he was in his last – no more than 6 or 7 behind. We all know how hard it is to close into sprints here so we don’t want to be too far off.
The inside may be a bit of an advantage which could help us save some ground and keep the stalkers wide. He’ll be coming late but I am concerned that nothing will melt down in front of him.
The wildcard will be the weather. It’s been a bit rainy and there is a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow with an 80% chance of rain. Our boy has one win in five starts over a wet track and his PPs also show a good 4th in a Remington Park allowance over a sloppy course. Only Moon Gun shows a win over an off track.
Rain or shine it is paddock group 1.
Here is the track analysis of the race from their website:
Kipper Key returned to the workout tab this morning, going an easy four furlongs in :49.8 which was the 19th quickest time over the distance out of 36 runners this morning. He was not asked for a ton of speed, just to get rolling and stretch his legs more than he has been able to in order to get ready for the next race. We still do not know if we will make it in opening weekend or not but we will try!
And speaking of the next race…
Now that we are gearing up for opening weekend, it is time to split the group into several paddock groups. In past years I have split up the group and Heather would go ahead and pull them out of a hat to determine the order. This year, when I printed out the list, I didn’t have the paper tray extended and the list spilled everywhere so the order is the order in which I picked them up! While they are still alphabetical, we are not starting with A. Also, the last two groups are a bit of a conglomeration so check closely.
We have 166 people in which means there are roughly 41 in each group. We do allow a single guest. As you can imagine, this could mean a LOT of people in the paddock. I will post later about paddock etiquette and safety but a couple of things here that are obvious. You all are on your honor so please only enter the paddock on your designated days. Also, please confine yourself to a single guest (understandable if your there with a couple of kids but please don’t invite the extended family and neighbors), we want to give everyone the opportunity and still maintain the safety of the paddock whilst also preserving the experience for the other owners as well.
With no further ado, your paddock groups for 2016 are:
Group 1: Feldman – Laborde
Group 2: LaCasse – Ryshavy
The next two are a little tricky:
Group 3: Sande – Severson with Anderson – Collier
Group 4: Connell – Erickson with Sheggeby – Zenner
Just a reminder as well, if you are on Twitter, please follow the Club @cby_racing_club. There are a few things that we get up there while we’re “in the field” that are quick hits like a picture, or first report of a work, etc., that may or may not make it into the blog.
Finally, Heather and I are overwhelmed by your good wishes. The wedding went off without a hitch and we are tremendously thankful for all the kind words.
See you at the track!
Thanks to Jeff, we have some photos of Kipper Key. Like every good racetracker, when Jeff goes on vacation he still ends up at a racetrack. Fortunately for us, part of this year’s vacation was spent at Oaklawn so we have a couple of photos of our boy to show off!
See if you can spot the hidden trainer in the picture on the left…
KIPPER KEY, a 6-year old dark bay gelding, is our first acquisition of 2016 in what may be a record for how quickly we were able to pick up a horse.
K2 is an Oklahoma bred son of Kipling, whose claim to fame is sire of multiple Grade 1 and Breeders’ Cup Champion Kip Deville, and the Cryptoclearance mare Ethel (yes, really – Ethel!).
K2 has run 30 times (including today), racking up 5 wins, 4 seconds and 5 thirds and over $120,000 in earnings. He’s won as high as an allowance and we picked him up for $7500 today at Oaklawn, winning a 15-way shake for him. This means that 14 other claim slips were dropped and we were able to come out on top. Let’s hope that this is a good omen!
There is definitely a chance that we will take a shot with him before we come north, we just don’t know what kind of spot it will be. It will take him a few days to come down from the race and Clay will be walking him for the next four or five days to stretch his legs and let him relax. We’ll get a better sense then how he came out of the race and if there is anything we need to work on. Then he’ll head to the track to jog for a week or so before he gets back to galloping and we get a sense of where his next placement might be.
Jeff happens to be heading down to Hot Springs for a little time away himself and is going to try and get us some photos of the new guy around the barn.
Below are his lifetime past performances so you can take a look.
Congratulations and good luck!
Canterbury Racing Club 