After The Holidays – January

The holidays have come and gone and thank goodness.  It takes me a while
to re-adjust but don’t get me wrong – I love them  – from decorating the
house to the Christmas baking.  Then you get to take it all down and put
it away.  s after that that I need some down time.  At least all my Sim
horses get a break also.

It’s been cold here in central Arizona and we haven’t had any rain
since well before Christmas.  I know this because I like to do my
Christmas baking when there is no earthly reason to go outside.  I got all my
baking done the first few days of December and that was a good thing since
that was the end of the rain.

I know I talk about the weather all the  time but it is probably the single
most important factor when your life revolves around being outside in the
elements.  For example, it is now very cold at night – in the teens – and
the day time high might be in the low 40s.  Not only do we have to break
the ice on the water troughs every day we have to plan when we need to
fill the water troughs.  I use irrigation water to water the lawns and to
fill the horse troughs.  My house is on city water but the cost would be
prohibitive if I filled those 50 gallon troughs with city water.

Of course this means that I have to turn on the irrigation well to get water
to the horses.  I can feel really silly turning on the well when  it is pouring

down rain but that is the way it was set up when I bought it so that’s
what I do.

Anyway, I usually have to wait until mid-afternoon before the lines are
thawed enough to get water.  Luckily there are enough cracks in the lines
that the water mostly drains out before it freezes again.  No matter how
careful I am though, I have pipe lines break all the time and that is a
real pain to get fixed.  Hopefully if they are going to break they do it
after I have filled the troughs.

Of course with only two horses it is not such a big deal as when
I used to have twenty.  Nae Doot continues to enjoy life as the resident in
charge. The other horses come and go but he remains and right now he has
Barilla to keep him company.  She was glad to leave Phoenix and I was glad to
get her home as she doesn’t seem to be good enough to run down there
and I can’t afford to have more than two in training.

Cash Receipt finally ran a decent race and finished second in his last try
at 6 ½ furlongs  He is becoming one of those smart geldings that know they
are going to get fed whether they try real hard or not and he has been
kind of an a big disappointment.  But he got a good ride
and the kid kept him in the mix and I thought he ran a
good race.  The only bad thing is he lost his one, two, three condition
and we will now have to look for time conditions.  If I lost you with
that, Arizona runs what the race trackers call feedbag races.  These are
t finished first, second or third at the meet.  They are mostly written
to give these poor old race fillers a chance to earn some money
for themselves which makes their owners very happy.

FD Icy went down to the desert with a nice winter coat apropos for a high
country winter.  My trainer took one look at him and promptly called the guy

with the clippers to come and give him a trace clip which
takes off the long hair where they sweat the most.  Not only
do horses sweat more when they are wearing a long winter coat but they take
hours to cool off before they can be safely put away.  He  has been training
well and had his first work last week.  The kid that was riding him was just
supposed to let him stretch his legs because he has been off since last
April.  That didn’t happen.  The trainer tried to explain that this
horse likes to run off and the more you pull, the faster he goes.   But the
kid t listen and instead of a nice and easy
first work he gets the bullet for the day going in 33 and change for 3/8ths.

Luckily he came out of it in good shape and should work again
soon.

My broodmare, Crown Secret, did it again.  She aborted a perfect
baby at just like last year.  We ran a lot of tests on her and
the stallion and everything came back fine but we are leaning towards
the rotavirus shot they give over there to pregnant mares.  Both times
that she has gotten the shot she has aborted within a week.  That is not to
say that is what caused it but we can’t think or find anything else.

I may leave her over in New Mexico and try once more.

Mainly because I paid the stud fee in advance and I don’t have any
other mares – well Barilla but she is a midget and I doubt breeding her would
be worth the hassle).  Secret is so pretty and I really want a Silver Wagon.
Once she is in foal, I am bringing her home and if she aborts again –
then at least she will be here on the property.

Matt is convinced that  I need some new stock, and he is probably right, as
mine are not only slow but getting a little long in the tooth.  The
s January mixed sale is coming up the end of, well, January and
they have some decent horses going through.  Maybe I will try and pick up
an in foal broodmare or maybe a yearling that could run next year as a two
year old but I don’t have enough money to get a really
nice one.  Maybe a well bred mare in foal to something mediocre  would
be in my price range.  Then I could send her to
New Mexico and breed her to Silver Wagon and bring Secret home.

Last year  there were many that went in my price range, but you never know
until the sale starts.  It is a bit early to be buying yearlings, I mean
they are on The Jockey Club’s s time line and some may
only be seven or eight months old.  Because few people have the room to
keep one and it is expensive to board one out, they may be in a range that
I can afford.  Not to mention yearlings are like little kids – they look
for ways to get themselves in trouble.  The sale is the 27th of this month
so if I can get a line of credit at the bank maybe next time I write one
of these I will have a new horse.  They are like potato chips and one is
never enough.

My harness horse – McIver – has been the victim of outside posts, New York
weather that is too wet/snowy/cold to train, or maybe she was just a
bad claim, but she has only picked up minor placings since her win whenever
it was.  They finally sent out a cash call and my part was $160.00.  That
was the cheapest training bill I have ever gotten for owning a bit of
the horse since July.  So if any of you are thinking about getting a
racehorse this could be the way to do it.  The only thing I would say is
that since you seldom make money, buy just the bare minimum share as you
still get all the perks and the joys but your percentage of everything will
cost a lot less.  Just my opinion.

Things are not looking good for our track.  I admit that I am surrounded by
pessimists but the word is the guy t find financing.  He
has most of it open, the arena, the car track and the grandstand (for
local dances) but the barn area and the racetrack itself need a lot of
work.  He will need to get a condition book out by next month so people
can make plans about where they are going to go for the summer.  I sure
hope he gets things together because I would hate to move at my age and
the summer is so boring with out the track.  I moved to Prescott 30 some
years ago because the Tucson racetrack, Rillito Park, quit running.  Of
course now, they are running and we are not……….

Besides, where would I go for summer racing.  My horses are cheap so I
would have to go to a cheap track.  The family has a cottage in Minnesota
but it is not anywhere near the track, besides with the money they are offering
there won’t be any cheap horses there.  I would have to win a race
per horse to pay the hauling back and forth.

Wyoming got some sort of instant racing and already has a million dollars
in the bank for a short 16 day meet.  If you offer big money people will
t be an easy meet.  Boise in Idaho is also offering
better purses this year.  They are both far away but would be a fit for my
at least this year.  They are both in the middle of nowhere and I don’t
know where the horses are going to come from but high purses will
bring them in from some where.

I love Portland Oregon but you would really need to have a mud loving
horse to run there and they have a weird race schedule – Wednesday and
Sunday.  Washington is feasible and my horses would probably fit on the
bottom at Emerald or I could go a bit further north and try Hastings in
Canada.  Again, though, the hauling would be prohibitive.  Arapaho in
Colorado is nice but they didn’t  like the fingerprints I sent them last year for

my license.  I told them to use one of the umpteen ones I have on file for
Arizona racing or with the FBI but they wanted their own.  Why?   I don’t
think my fingerprints change year to year.

Then there is always New Mexico and if I was ever going to move out
of Arizona that is probably where I would go.  But where, there?

New Mexico racing has a northern and a southern circuit.  In the south
the premier meet is Sunland Park, across the state line from El Paso Texas.
This stems from the days when racing wasn’t allowed in Texas.  The
weather is mostly nice but a lot of people get murdered around Sunland which
I would be afraid of.  It is across the border from Juarez, Mexico which
I think is the murder capitol of the world.  Sunland does have a nice
long meet but I can stay in Arizona for that.

Zia is located in a town called Hobbs also near the Texas border but
farther north, and is also part of the southern circuit as they run in the
fall.  Boy, is it a homely place.  It can be really cold and is almost
always windy and while I am sure there must be some pretty parts, it would
take some looking.  I bet the land is affordable though.

Summer racing on the New Mexico southern circuit is held in
Ruidoso.  It is on top of a mountain, 8000 feet, I believe, and is lovely and
they get enough rain to keep the fire danger down.  But there is only one way
in or out so during their dry season so it might be scary.  My family used to
race in Ruidoso in the ’50’s when there was only a two lane highway to
take you up the mountain.  Now the road has eight lanes.  That is a
definite possibility and I will have to give that some thought for the
summer.

In the north, the main track is in Albuquerque.  It is located in
the old and rundown part of town and I hear people steal everything that
isn’t nailed down.  You would have to live a long way out to find
some affordable horse property as this is a beautiful and growing part of
the state. They run a split meet in the spring and fall with Sun Ray being
in the middle.

As for Sun Ray, it is nice but there isn’t much there –
sort of like Yavapai – way out in the middle of nowhere.  It is way up in
the northwestern part of the state surrounded by the Navajo Reservation.

Unless you own the casino or a grocery store you would need to
be independently wealthy.  Sun Ray starts in April and ends in July
which then gives you a break before moving down the road to Albuquerque which
I thinks starts in August.

Now that I am beginning to sound like a travel agent – I sure hope Yavapai
opens because it makes my head hurt just thinking about summer racing.
Besides I think it is time to bring this to a close as I am really getting
away from the farm.  Until next time……

xxx