The Challenge: Heading into the Home Stretch

Getting closer to the goal but also getting closer to the deadline.  Heading into December and the home stretch!

Results

My E-card sire bred horse HOT CHALLENGE got her first start and went off at 12/1 odds.  Pretty discouraging odds for a horse I’ve been anxious to run.   In the 11 horse field, she relaxed into a mid-field sixth and was able to pick things up going into the final half of the 6f turf race.  She cut the 4 length disadvantage down to a stride and a half and finished fourth in the race.  Not too bad of a debut for the 2 year old.  I may test the dirt next time out.  She pulled in 20 bps and a G-card.

MUSICALL RIDE put in a strong ride and the notes were sounding just right.  He ran just off the lead in third and going through the stretch dug in hard and just narrowly got to the top in time to win the race.  He ran in another starter allowance sprint for me on the dirt and earned a second straight win for the stable.    15 bp’s came with the win along with a G-card drawn.

CHALLENGE TAKER, another one of my sire card bred horses, made her second start in a much lower $17,500 claiming race, a sizeable drop from the $150,000 in her debut race.    She went off at 9/2 and bore her way straight to the lead.  Just like here debut, she was run down in the stretch and had to succumb to third.   I’ve reset the jockey directions to 75 in hopes that she can save something for the race to the wire.  She earned 8 bp’s in the event  and another G-card pulled.

3/5 odds on COSA BELLA made me happy as she entered a 5.5f claiming race with a $3,000 claim price.  The cheap claim price and the heavy favorite concerned me as this adds up for being a target to be claimed.  Well, she did not get claimed but she did not win either.   She finished second in the race which was a short 4-horse field.  The effort was not stellar but she did get 17 bps for the stable and will be back to race another day.   Wrapped up the week with another G-card.

Stable Changes

Hot Challenge went to the farm immediately following her race.  As a 2 year old, I like to give some rest between starts and with this challenge ending at the end of December,  she won’t be seeing the raceway until January.

I’ve traded some cards (see below) so that I have three F-cards to deal with and used those with a G-card to breed a three year old who will take the empty space by Hot Challenge.  DARING MOVE is the name of the filly that is now part of the game and she’s ot of Handsome Ransom x Hook and Ladder x Line in the Sand.  I’m not really sure what her preference will be as she has a mix of grass and dirt in her line with Red Ransom, Dixieland Band, Mr. Prospector, Northern Dancer and Raise A Native amongst other well known blood connections.   She’ll be targeted to run this coming week.

 Totals

 SIRE CARDS:

The four cards were added to my personal card deck that now contains 2 F-cards and 12 G-cards.   I’ve traded up 5 of the G-cards for a third F-card which was used with one of the remaining G-cards to breed this week.  That leaves me with 6 G-cards.

BP’s

60 BP’s were a decent tally for the week and the challenge total grows to 766.  Just a month to go and it maybe borderline if I can reach that 1,000 BP total.  Just a reminder that this challenge started on July 1^st and if I can yield 60 BP’s a week (without claiming horses), I can make it to the finish line.