Challenge Update: Heading Into the Final Furlong

One more weekend to go and a few straggling days until the end of the year and the end of the challenge.  The 1,000 BP goal in a six month time period is within reach.  It’s like the carrot being dangled in front of the horse.  I intend to bite into that carrot!  Surprisingly, my entrants this week were in small fields despite entering them early in the week.  Works to my benefit, so I won’t complain.  Heading into the final furlong of the Challenge

Results

Sire card bred CHALLENGE TAKER ended up in a five horse claim race with a dirt cheap $2,000 claiming group.  She was the second choice at 8/5 and right from the start took the second spot.  She held that spot throughout the race, chasing the favorite.  All five runners finished in order of their odds.   A nice collection of 27 BP’s and one G-card came as a reward.

In a four horse field, COSA BELLA was the third choice at 9/2.  Running on the dirt in a $5,000 NW4L claim race, she left the gate in fourth and stayed there the entire journey.   She’s done well in routes before and in this mile race she was 15 back at the end.  7 BP’s came her way as well as a G-card.  I wasn’t inspired by her results here and her speed has not improved as I had desired.  She’s going into the auction.

THE FOUR ‘F’ CLUB, another sire card bred filly, ran in a maiden claimer at a $7,500 tag.  She was the second choice at 8/5 and got off to what has been her patterned last place start.  She doesn’t care much for the starting gate but she picked up things late in the 7f race.  She passed her foes with ease and charged after the leader.  It took a photo to determine whether she won the race.  Turned out she did not.  But in this game, second place has it’s benefits and this came in the form of 27 BP’s and a G-card.

In a seven horse field, Musicall Ride was one of three co-favorites, all entering the gate at 2/1 odds.   I had high hopes for this guy who had won two straight starter allowance races and was seeking a third straight at the same level.  Racing every three weeks seemed to have caught up with him as his speeds have dropped a bit with an 85 this weekend which yielded a fourth place finish and killing off the dream of three in a row.   He did pick up 7 BP’s, making it a nice week with everyone getting something along with a G-card.

Stable Changes

Cosa Bella has been sent off to the auction and gives me an opening to bring up a horse form the farm.  But I’ve opted to use up the remainder of the Sire cards.  Part of the Challenge was to breed horses as well as utilize whatever sire cards were obtained.  So cards were traded up and exchanged (see below section) and I bred a three year old filly who is out of Grasshopper x Glorious Flag x Day of the Cat.   This line contains the likes of Mr. Prospector, Secretariat and Storm Cat.  I’m liking that and plan to race her this upcoming week.

Totals

 SIRE CARDS:

4 G-cards picked up brought the total to 21 G-cards and 1 F-card.  Now that I am at the end of the Challenge, I’ve traded 20 of those G-cards in for four F-cards.  So that brings the total to 5 F-cards and 1-G Card.  I have no mares over the age of 4 so I’m using four of the F-cards to breed with (see stable changes for results).  This leaves me with one F-card and one G-card.

BP’s

68 BP’s were very nice and nearly enough to push me across the finish line for this challenge.  But not quite enough.  I’m now at 988 and my eyeballs are glaring at the 1,000 BP finish line.  With a little luck, I’ll surpass it during this week.   Otherwise, I’ll be shooting at the last four days of the year.