The Challenge-Week 50
I was planning to move a few horses out of the farm into the stable to give them one last run at year end. Making space in the stable turned out easier than I thought, but not the way I wanted it to go. Two horses were claimed which freed up the stable space. This week, GLDREWARD made his 7th and final start for the stable in a $4,000 claiming race, dropping out of the starter allowance class where she had raced all of her previous 6 starts for the stable and finishing first or second each time. This time it would be different with her finishing third. There were no starter allowance races within her region so it was a risk going into claimers and a win would have been a nice way to depart ways. We collected 12 BP’s and 2 G-sire cards in her final stand. In total, she delivered 143 BP’s, a job well done.
A THOUSAND JOYS, a filly that was bred by trading sire cards in for a breeding share who turned out to be Mine For Gold was bred to With Joy, a mare that the stable retired. A Thousand Joys was bred upon hitting the challenge goal of obtaining 1,000 BP’s. She went into the starting gate as the 9/5 favorite and ran in a NW2L claiming race with a tag of $17,500. There was a three-way battle in the early going of the 5-horse field but she turned out to be the strong one and broke away to win by over a lenght with a 68 speed. She was claimed in the race and her brief career stats included 2 wins and a place in her 3 starts. 40BP’s came the way of a win and 2 G-cards. She did wonderful with 117 BP’s being our reward.
HOLIDAYS ARE HERE made her 2-year old debut. She’s a random bred horse where cleaning out the sire cards were used. Not much in the bloodline and that showed on the track as she ran flat in a $4,000 claiming race finishing 6th and never gaining, nor losing, ground during the race. Really underwhelming effort and I’m not sure if she’s worth keeping or trying a run on the dirt. I’ll give it some thought and will place her at the farm for now. 1-G card added a little more insult to things.
NIANG came off a nice second in an allowance race so I kept him there this week. He maintained a gap of 5 strides off the lead throughout the race and finished 4th, moving up several spots as horsed tired. This was start #10 for him with the stable and may be a bit over raced now. He’s been good for hitting 100-speed numbers and will now go to the farm for a breather. Travel costs consumed any BP’s we could have earned but an F-card was the best we could get.
Space was made with two horses being claimed and two more going to the farm. Coming out of the farm are a pair of two year olds: THE CHALLENGE TWO and HOPES FOR THE BEST. Joining them is three year old GOOD AND SOLID and the experienced five year old SHAUNS STORM who will be training for a start at the end of the year.
BP’s this week were earned by the two horses that were claimed away and they totaled 52, bringing the total to 469. At today’s prices, this would place us in the range of acquiring a Teoflio, Union Rags, Stormy Atlantic or Broken Vow share. I miss reported the breeding shares last week and stated 6 C-cards, should have been G-cards. Anyway, with the 1-F card and 5-G cards this week, the deck now has a total of 3-F cards and 11-G cards.