Tag Archives: paddock

Paddock Groups & Silks

Posted on by
11

The Club will have some tables set aside Friday night inside of Silks.  There will be signs on the tables that are ours so please feel free to utilize that space for the evening.  I’ll be by before our race (race 8 – about 10PM) so we can head to the paddock!

And speaking of the paddock.  The paddock groups are set:

Group 1 – Hegseth – Nelson

Group 2 – Nierman – Zessman

Group 3 – Anderson – Heddle

Group 1 will lead us off Friday night.  Here are some paddock thoughts:

The paddock is an exciting place to be before a race but it can also be a very dangerous place. You need to be on the lookout and alert for anything. Some of you may recall a couple of years ago that a horse got loose after dumping his rider and broke through the fencing, only captured several yards into where the crowd would have been moments earlier. Bottom line – be aware and have the ability to get out of the way should something unexpected happen. If you bring your children in, you are responsible for them. They cannot run around or play unattended.

We are the 1, so our spot will be right across from where you enter the paddock near the stairs that go down to the jocks room. With everyone and one guest (you’re on your honor here) we could have up to 80 people in there. We can be from our number backward, please do not spread out toward #2 and crowd the other owners. We are lucky in this race that to our left there are no spots so we can have a little extra room.

At no time should anyone be on the walking ring once the horses come out of their stalls. Please stay on the grass. If you do not make it to the paddock before the horses are on the walking ring, please do not enter.

In the fortunate event that we are able to get to the winners’ circle this summer we would like to keep the winners’ circle photo to Club Members. Now that we are over 150 members it is too crowded and too dangerous to bring guests in and I do not want members who paid their money, like everyone in the Club, to get shut out. It would not be fair.

That said, as Clubbers we want you all in the picture if we get one! It will be imperative to be quick and be friendly.

By quick I mean should the time come and we win, make your way to the winners’ circle as quickly as possible It is important for the horse to wind down, get to the test barn and get back to the barn so we do not want the horse out on the track circling around waiting for us to all get in.

By friendly I mean that if we are all going to get into the picture we are going to have to get very close together on the risers, maybe even turn a bit sideways to get everyone in. Out of necessity there will be some people on the ground area. I will be there, arms spread wide, begging you all to stay to the one side of me. Behind me is where the horse is going so please don’t try and slip by me, gather together, friendly like, on the other side.

After a race the horse is very high strung and excited and can be hard to handle. They can fire off kicks and strikes without warning and we do NOT want anyone getting hurt. Again, stay alert.

Photos again will be $10 and available a few days after the race directly from the photographer’s office downstairs (take the stair down to the basement next to the nut stand, take a right and follow the signs). We will have some printed up but if there is enough demand there may be a wait. Please be patient, they are very busy on race day.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you all on Friday!

Advertisement

Belle in Friday Night

Posted on by
6

Brilliant Belle makes her first start in front of the home crowd on Friday night.  We’ll be waiting because the race is carded as the 8th on the evening – an anticipated post time of just after 10PM.

We drew the rail and Justin Shepherd will get the call in the six furlong, $7500 starter allowance over the main track.

As a reminder, a starter allowance is for horses that have run the previous year for a claiming price of “X”, with “X” being the amount shown in the conditions: in this case, $7500.

There are some pretty good ones in this field so a win will be a tall order, but we’re also by no means an also ran in here.  A breakdown of the race will come later in the week.

We’ll be splitting up the group into thirds for rotating paddock access.  These groups will be posted in a day or two.  We split them alphabetically and then assign each group a number then we’ll pull a number out of a hat to see which group leads things off, that way the beginning of the alphabet doesn’t always go first every year.

I will also be posting some paddock etiquette and safety guidelines as well.  The paddock can be a dangerous place and we don’t want there to be any issues.

Lots of information coming this week so keep an eye out.

Good Luck!

Paddock and Winners’ Circle Protocols

Posted on by
9

It is certainly starting to get exciting around here with our boy going on Saturday afternoon.

Here are some notes on the paddock as well as, if we are very lucky, the winners’ circle.

The first paddock group is Feldman – Laborde.

The paddock is an exciting place to be before a race but it can also be a very dangerous place. You need to be on the lookout and alert for anything. Some of you may recall a couple of years ago that a horse got loose after dumping his rider and broke through the fencing, only captured several yards into where the crowd would have been moments earlier. Bottom line – be aware and have the ability to get out of the way should something unexpected happen. If you bring your children in, you are responsible for them. They cannot run around or play unattended in the unlikely event that something happens.

We are the 1, so our spot will be right across from where you enter the paddock near the stairs that go down to the jocks room. With everyone and one guest we could have up to 80 people in there. We can be from our number backward, please do not spread out toward #2 and crowd the other owners. We are lucky that to our left there are no spots so we can have a little extra room.

At no time should anyone be on the walking ring once the horses come out of their stalls. Please stay on the grass. If you do not make it to the paddock before the horses are on the walking ring, please do not enter. If we get a spot to watch the races together (like Silks or another location) I will be at that location for Race 1 and we can all go over together. If you’re not there, just meet us over at the paddock after the photo of Race 1 and we’ll all go in together. I’ll post what I know tomorrow when I post the race preview.

In the fortunate event that we are able to get to the winners’ circle this summer we would like to keep the winners’ circle photo to Club Members. Now that we are over 160 members it is too crowded and too dangerous to bring guests in and I do not want members who paid their money, like everyone in the Club, to get shut out. It would not be fair.

That said, as Clubbers we want you all in the picture if we get one! It will be imperative to be quick and be friendly.

By quick I mean should the time come and we win, make your way to the winners’ circle as quickly as possible It is important for the horse to wind down, get to the test barn and get back to the barn so we do not want the horse out on the track circling around waiting for us to all get in.

By friendly I mean that if we are all going to get into the picture we are going to have to get very close together on the risers, maybe even turn a bit sideways to get everyone in. Out of necessity there will be some people on the ground area. I will be there, arms spread wide, begging you all to stay to the one side of me. Behind me is where the horse is going so please don’t try and slip by me, gather together, friendly like, on the other side.

After a race the horse is very high strung and excited and can be hard to handle. They can fire off kicks and strikes without warning and we do NOT want anyone getting hurt. Again, stay alert.

Photos again will be $10 and available a few days after the race directly from the photographer’s office downstairs (take the stair down to the basement next to the nut stand, take a right and follow the signs). We will have some printed up but if there is enough demand there may be a wait. Please be patient, they are very busy on race day.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

Winners' Circle photo example

Winners’ Circle photo example

Paddock Groups and a Workout

Posted on by
1

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!

Paddock Groups

Posted on by
11

Given the sheer size of the racing Club, the last few years we have split the group into several smaller groups and rotated paddock access. There have been a few requests to start at another point rather than the front of the alphabet, so this year I split the group into five and then drew a number out of a hat to see which group would lead us off. This year, Group 3 will be the initial group and then we’ll follow with Group 4, Group 5, Group 1, Group 2 for each consecutive start.

We’d like to limit paddock access to Club members +1. It gets very dangerous for people and horses when large numbers of people are in the paddock. Twice last year there were near incidents (thankfully not while we were in there and no one got hurt) with one Quarter Horse nearly scampering through the center of the walking ring and one Thoroughbred actually getting loose and breaking through the fence before being corralled. Both could have been disastrous.

Some guidelines for the paddock:

– If the horses are already walking in the walking ring you are too late. Do NOT enter the paddock once the horses have come out from the saddling area.

– When in the paddock, try to be near the number that corresponds with our horse and fill in behind the number toward the center of the paddock. Other folks wants to be with their horses as well so we don’t want to overflow into their spots.

– Stay several feet back from the dirt walking ring in the grass area. Crowding near the jockey and trainer could create a situation where the horses get spooked.

– Be aware! It’s an exciting place to be but just be aware of your surroundings and what is going on. Just in case!

Heather is working with Coady Photography to try and come up with a plan for Winners’ Circle photos if we’re lucky enough to win a race. Last year the Circle got a little crazy and the potential for someone to get hurt is very real. I hope to announce a plan on Saturday – just in case we run and get lucky on Sunday!

Here are the groups:

GROUP 1 – Allen – Debele
GROUP 2 – Degen – Hennis
GROUP 3 – Herold – Manson
GROUP 4 – Martell – Scheper
GROUP 5 – Schneidermann – Ziegler

Remember: we’ll be starting with GROUP 3 on Sunday (if the race goes and we run!).