Tag Archives: Oaklawn Park

Out-Shook

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We dropped our first claim slip today in the sixth race at Oaklawn on a mare named Congrats Honey. Congrats Honey is a 5-year old mare by Congrats out of an Honor and Glory mare, Happy Honeymoon.

She’s a steady and consistent sort, the type we like to have as a Club runner. She had been running quite a bit since her return to the races after a short break and doing so at a class level that may have been a bit high for her. We thought that dropping back into claiming company at $10,000 was a square price on her so Clay checked her out on the way over from the barn and in the paddock and went ahead and filled out the claim slip on her.

She ran a very game second at 14-1 behind an emphatic winner, verifying the faith we had in her.

There were three claim slips filled out for her, though. Three numbered pills were placed in a bottle and the three slips were numbered. The bottle was shaken and the then inverted – first pill out wins the “shake” and gets the horse.

It was not us.

So we go back and keep looking while we also keep an eye on her and see if she comes back one more time before the end of the meet as well.

Back, as they say, to the drawing board!

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Okay…Now What?

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Thanks to you all that have signed up and re-upped to join us in 2016. There are still a few “checks in the mail” so while we work through that (should be completed by the end of this week) here is where we go from here.

It looks like we are going to have approximately 160 or so members. This is slightly higher than where we were last year but still far from the record 202 we had two years back. That means we will have about $40,000 to spend so we will try and get a pair of horses that we can run through the season.

I am submitted our applications to Arkansas for licensing. Like the state of Minnesota, Arkansas only licenses owners that have more than 5% interest in the group so I will be the license holder for the group. Arkansas requires that we register as a stable name as well as a partnership and those licenses are $30 each.

Clay Brinson, our trainer, is at Oaklawn and will be looking to claim us a horse or two. Claiming activity there is hot and heavy so it may take a while to get our first horse. I will outline the claiming process and what we are looking for in a post later this week/weekend.

We should be ready as soon as possibly this weekend to start shopping. In the past we have been fortunate and been able to get a horse right away and we have also struggled a bit and not been able to get a horse until we returned to Shakopee, so it’s hard to say how soon we will have a horse in the barn. However, we start looking now!

Welcome aboard and thanks for joining us!

2016 Club Sign Up Time!

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If you’ve been a member in the past you already know this information but if you’ve been following along wondering when you would get a chance to join up – this is for you.

Members will pay $250 to join the Club. There are no additional fees and the only additional expense will be if we are fortunate enough to get into the Winners’ Circle, there will be small charge for a photo.

The Club ends at the end of 2016 or when we have sold off our horses. As an example, in 2013 we closed in November because our last horse was claimed then and it made no sense to claim a horse for only a few weeks. Last year, however, we raced straight until December 30th before we had our horse claimed away.

Members get admission to Canterbury Park for the season as well as, if available, a special location to watch the races, rotating paddock access and – again, if we’re lucky – access to the Winners’ Circle. We will conduct a few backstretch tours during the season as well so we can visit the barns and get a glimpse at life on the backside.

You get to follow YOUR horse(s) during the year!

Members can only get back as much money as they put in. This is a not for profit venture and is used as an educational experience to get people familiar with all the ins and outs of race horse ownership and “pull back the curtain”, if you will, and de-mystify the game.

We’re launching our “open enrollment” period, if you will. We’ll be looking to close out by February 28, 2016. Admittedly this is a bit later than previous years, but that is a function of racing so late in the year last year and having time to close out 2015. Clay Brinson will once again be our trainer. Clay is operating this winter season at Oaklawn Park so we have a little bit of a twist this season as in past years we tried to claim out of Hawthorne Race Course.

I will be posting again once we close out 2015 and will have the rollover form available at that time as well. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later!

Sign up forms are at the bottom of this post. Please let us know if you have any questions either by leaving a comment here or contacting us directly at ted@grevelisracing.com or jmaday@canterburypark.com.

2016 Horse_ Ownership_Club_Membership_Agreement w email