The Challenge-Week 43

Once again, we had another horse claimed away from the stable.   KOKETTA, who joined the group back in June and was a potential mare to breed with using sire shares obtained from sire card exchanges.  She has done extremely well for the stable and after several races in starter allowance class, raced this week in a 5 furlong, $10k turf claiming race.  She was dropped in distance from the mile or so she had been taking on for the sprint distance.   She has an excellent record in short races and was the even money favorite.   Taking a comfy spot in mid-pack early on, she took after the leader and came up a quarter length short at the line.  In six races, she held a record of 3-2-0 for the stable that included a fourth.  She departs with leaving a G-sire card as well as earning 10 BP’s in the race.  In total, she earned 100 BP’s for the stable.

Another mare did well this week in her fifth outing for the stable, all in starter allowance events.  GLDREWARD ran her third straight in OK and at the same mile distance.   The 9/5 favorite got G. Wendorff as the jockey for the third straight time too, one of the top riders at the OK track.  Gldreward went and took the lead early but was caught at the line by the fourth choice to lose by a half length.  20 BP’s came our way along with a F-sire card.   Gld had a shortened 2-week break between races and the 99 speed proofed well.  She has finished first or second in all five starts for the stable.

Some how I had two horses in the same race, a $15,000 claiming dirt race at 8.25 furlongs.  BABS SEEKING LUCK only raced on the dirt surface once, and that was related to an off-turf track being transfered to the dirt.  I opted to test her out on the dry surface.  Babs has been with the stable since the beginning of The Challenge series and this was his 12th start.   The speed of 91 was ok, but lower than the upper 90’s-100 range the turf races recorded at.  He finished 8th in the field of a dozen and was not a factor at all in the race.  He’s probably in need of a rest and I may opt to go the auction route with him.  Hard choice to make after being with the stable so long.  No BP’s this week and a G-card for this runner.

Competing against Babs Seeking Luck was stable mate NIANG.  This 4-year old colt has been a gem since being claimed in March.   Early on, he raced in allowance c0mpany and hit the board in two of five starts which included a win.  After some faltered outcomes, he ran in a $40k claimer where he improved and finished second.  This week he joined his stable mate and was the second choice at 7/2 (Babs was at 8/1).   He gave up a lot of ground and trailed as much as 13 lengths.   He started moving after the half but was still 10 back after 3/4 of a mile.  He must have picked up some rockets along the way as he soared to the wire to win by a narrow head and an impressive 108 speed.   15 BP’s picked up along with a trio of sire cards in the large field, which included 1-F and 2 G’s.

For the week, the stable earned 45 BP’s along with 2-F Sire cards and 4 G-cards.  We concluded last week with 1-D, 1-E, 3-F cards.   Taking the 2 F-cards this week and adding to last week, gives 5-cards that have been traded up for an E.   So we settle the week with 1-D, 2-E and 4 G sire cards.

Thechallenge2 stable now has 301 BP’s on hand, an adequate amount to acquire that last share to breed with the American Pharoah x A.P. Indy shares that are locked up in the safe.

The race record stands at 143 races, 27 wins (18.9% win), 34 places, 15 shows (53.1% ITM).

I’ve opted to use my sire shares to breed a horse.  This could be the last time this is done during the series, we’ll see.  I used the D, 2 E and G cards to breed a three year old.   The horse was named GOOD AND SOLID.  “Good” appears on the D-cards and “Solid” on the E-cards.    The breeding line came out with Ivan Denisovich as sire, a lightly used sire with 7 active runners this year and connections with the Danehill bloodline.  The DS is Alnaab, who sports Mr. Prospector heritage and is also lightly used (as sire only 5 times this year) and as DDS is Schumaker, one I’ve used for cheap breeding in the past only due to the similarity in its name and mine.  He has blood connections to Dynaformer.   Overall, not an impressive mix and we’ll give this three year old female a run during the week.