Chronicles of a New Stable Owner (Week 3231)
Learned a very harsh and disappointing lesson this week. Just because the horse is “ready to go” does not mean it is a good idea to bring them back for a race on consecutive weeks! All four entries this week were running for the second consecutive week and it showed. Not only did they all perform poorly, each is listed as either “little groggy” or “needs rest”. The results from this week:
LIGHT BOARD (4 0-0-0 $0) did not race this week. He has shown nothing in four lifetime outings, so probably needs to go to the auction. He comes up “sharp” this week, so I’ll try to find a cheap maiden claimer close to home at 6-8 furlongs on the dirt for him.
JOURNALISM (23 1-1-4 $11,369) finished 6th of 6 in a $3,500 claimer over 1 1/8 on dirt with a 62 SP. He will need some rest after racing on consecutive weeks. I need to drop him down to the $2,000 claimer level and look for a NW2L.
ROYAL ALPHABET (IRE) (37 3-2-4 $41,856) ran 11th (last) in a $2,000 claimer with a 72 SP, never contending and losing ground throughout. Another that will need some rest for a few weeks, and then I’ll look for another dirt claimer for him (can’t drop any more in class!) around a mile.
SUNDAY FREAK (15 2-2-3 $22,489) showed poorly after a third place run last out – 11th of 14 this time in an allowance at 6.5 furlongs over dirt with a 77 SP. I will give her some rest, and then bring her back in another dirt sprint.
MALIBU VICE (29 1-4-3 $33,128) ran 6th of 14 in 6.5 furlong allowance race on dirt with an 83 SP, which wasn’t too bad considering she has run three of the last four weeks. Another that needs some rest, then I look to bring her back in another allowance dirt sprint.
Overall results for the week were 4 0-0-0, but no travel costs or claims, so no impact on total dollars and no change to breeding points. Last week I mentioned that I thought I needed to be more diligent about not spending BP on travel costs. It was brought to my attention this week that I should read the rules more closely as there is no BP cost for travel, but may be a BP penalty if the horse should earn points in the race. However, the penalty cannot exceed the amount of points earned, so you cannot lose BP’s by traveling.
I was unsuccessful in acquiring any additional runners this week, although I tried both the auction and claim routes. I did narrow my approach a little bit when looking for auction/claim horses based on some advice I got through the forum (thanks waremblem5!). I am now focusing more on horses that prefer a mile or more, especially maidens or those that have conditions. There seem to be a lot more competitive sprinters, making it much more difficult to find a horse that can consistently earn breeding points. I’ll do the same this week and try to find some additional BP earners to add to the stable, especially now that most of the stable looks to be laid up for rest for a few weeks. I’ll continue to spend more time looking through the auctions, rather than the claimers, as it doesn’t cost BP’s to buy a horse at auction like it does to claim a horse.
Continuing to research bloodlines and learn about breeding as I find this topic very intriguing. I received some very helpful advice this week on the forums on this subject and am hoping for additional input this week. At this time, I’m probably a few more weeks away from my first attempt at breeding until I build up the credits a little more. Since this will be a pretty quiet week, with only one runner at most, I should have more time to focus on this aspect.
Another issue that I have not given any thought to is jockey selection and quality. Since my entries have generally not been very competitive to begin with, I have just gone with whomever I got in the draw. At some point, I need to get a better feel for what impact selection and quality of jockey may make on performance. Also haven’t experimented at all with jockey instructions to see what effect that might have?
So much yet to learn!