Day 210

Hippocrates Jones ran another improved race, rallying from way back to finish fourth. He is an interesting horse who has come a long way in a short time. Hopefully he will continue to get better and can win one of these races soon. The Stanley Cup was showcased at the track today which led to a larger than normal Thursday crowd. We brought a guy who is staying at the same hotel as we are to the races (his first time) and he was amazed at the scene. Had been all over the country and never bothered to venture out to the track. Said he would love to come back out and bring his daughter with him.

Day 209

It is hard to get used to a 4 day a week race schedule and there are rumors that AP may be going to a three day schedule after the Million. While there are few places that are consumed with false rumors more than a racetrack, the fact is that the handle is way off here, the racing is not good and there are no white knights on the horizon. Cutting days without increasing purses is a bad precedent but cutting purses may be worse. I really don't have much confidence that the Illinois politicians are going to sudden see the light this fall and deliver some kind of hope and I know that CDI won't hesitate to 'bottomline Arlington and shutter it until some kind of alternate gaming is passed in IL. Of course if that doesn't happen we may not see anymore Arlington ever and that would be a real shame.

Day 208

Dragging a bit after being out late at the White Sox game last night (they won). The weather has been really nice the last few days and the horses are feeling good. Still frustrated with the entry issues at AP. Hard to believe that an entry level race on the turf or polytrack can't fill. This is a basic, meat and potatoes type of race and when those dont fill and they are using 6 horse $5000 claiming races instead, it can be difficult to swallow.

Day 207

Not much exciting today. Made some entries at Philly and we should have a couple of starts there later in the week. The track  is closed for 2 weeks every August for renovations and we have been scrambling a bit  figuring out racing and training schedules for the horses there. Hopefully we can get starts in for each of them and perhaps give them a short break from training. Supposedly they are going to raise purses at Philadelphia park by roughly $40000 a day once racing resumes which is nice.

Day 206

Not much going on today. The 2 year old fillies are still on the mend, the colts are training along and we have had a lot of runners lately so the morning schedule has been fairly easy.

Day 205

Warm and muggy today though overcast and we did get a ton of rain and lightening last night into this morning. We opted to take it easy with the horses since the horse paths were flooded and the training track was submerged.  Mizz Liza returned to the races after a 373 day layoff and finished a good third in a race taken off the turf. All of our project horses are finally making it back to the races and performing pretty well.

Day 204

It was scorching hot today in Chicago and Philadelphia which led to abbreviated training in both locations. We worked a couple early before it got too hot and got most of them out before 8:00. There was a brief shower which temporarily cooled things down before the heat came roaring back. My car's thermometer was reading 95 as we pulled into the horseman's lot prior to Surfer Rosa's race at AP.

Surfer raced greenly but put in a pretty nice effort finishing third behind a runaway, wire to wire winner. Being by Johar she figures to stretch out nicely on the turf as she matures and the races get longer than 5 furlongs.

Hippocrates Jones put in another solid work this morning, going a half mile in 48.80 under little urging and galloping out nicely. He is really coming around and should continue to improve with racing experience. Hippo is the type of horse that will get better as he matures but sometimes is frustrating for owners because it takes them so long to put things together. His owners have been great and I hope he rewards their patience with a few wins the rest of the year.

Really all my owners are good people who understand the game well. I just wish they were a little richer! Seriously though I have had some not-so-great owners in the past and they simply drain the fun out of the sport. This is a brutally tough business that isn't for the faint of heart but having a good attitude, caring about your horses and paying your bills in a timely fashion make the owner/trainer dynamic work so much better.