Because of what I have perceived as an increased interest in residencies, I have undertaken a trip around the world to check out the home turf of some of the Sims top places to join with your stables. The trip is being sponsored by those lovely ladies at the BTB as they realize how much our readers will enjoy this inside look.

After a fantastic trip throughout Europe with stops at the Ireland Residency, a great race in sunny Spain and an unbelievable trip up the mountains to visit with the Alpine Turf Club, I was more than ready to get back to the good old USA and some home cooking in my beloved Music City, Nashville, Tennessee. I stopped in at home to swap out my suitcase for some clean clothes then jumped down to the famous Loveless Café where they have the absolute best, world famous homemade biscuits and homemade jam. I indulged my diet a bit with some eggs, grits and country ham with red eyed gravy. Folks, you haven’t eaten until you’ve had breakfast in the South! It is great on the tongue but perhaps a little tough on the heart and waistline!

I was able to check on my stables and look in on a couple of promising youngsters and finally just put my feet up for a couple of days to get recharged. Then it was back on the road for a quick drive to Alabama to write up the inaugural Warsaw Mile Grade I which was won quite impressively by the young filly TRUE CHANT and also showed the strength of THE DARK MARK who finished just behind her. These two girls were really going at it and may battle down the stretch a few more times before their careers are over.

Immediately after the race, it was back into the rent a car and back on I-65 for the eight hour trip to Ohio to visit the Ohio Thoroughbred Residency. It had been strongly suggested by Roys back at the BTB office that a drive might do me some good rather than a boring plane ride and hassling with all of those airports. I don’t think that had anything at all to do with the arrival of my February end of the month expense reports finding their way to the office. I could practically hear the screams in Nashville! I’ll tell you that woman can stretch a dollar so far that you can see through it! Anyway, the Spring like weather in Alabama made it seem like a really great idea anyway. It wasn’t until I hit Kentucky where I started running into the freezing rain and snow and on into Ohio where it seemed to be piled alongside the roads that those security lines at the airport started to look pretty good.

As I neared the Ohio Rez Headquarters, I was once again amazed at how flat this state is, it seems like one little flood could traverse the entire thing from one end to the other. Perhaps this was exaggerated in my mind after my trip to the Alps last week but it seems like you can see something sticking up out of the fields from a long distance here. But I had to admit that it does have a bit of Midwest charm as well. All of the farm houses and small towns between the large cities along the rivers…it has a friendly feel to it that is hard to explain. The friendliness was evident as well as I pulled up to the stately headquarters of the Ohio Thoroughbred Residency. Although he seems to be a man of few words, he certainly had a warm handshake and a twinkle in his eyes.

The headquarters itself had the appearance of a large, ivy covered University building surrounded by gardens and trees and paths throughout. It is very peaceful and beautiful and a nice place to visit. Mr. Lucky led me to an elegant private dining room where we could talk in peace over lunch. I asked him about the large size of the building for a smaller residency.

MrLucky – First I want to thank you for visiting our snowy little piece of the Midwest. We are looking forward to the Spring thaw which is just around the corner, Groundhog predictions not withstanding. One of the things that we were really looking for when we found this headquarters building was room to grow. We have been growing steadily and anticipate that will continue. Right now we rent out part of the building to local offices and it works out great as they really pay the rent for the entire building. That way we are able to put our finances toward the Residency and our horses. It is really a win – win situation for all involved. When the time comes, we will have plenty of room to grow the Ohio Thoroughbred Residency.

There is a large cafeteria with excellent food downstairs and a lot of the OTR owners like to eat there and bring guests but I though that we would be undisturbed here in our executive dining area. We have an excellent Chef who does a great lunch. He tries to use local foods and recipes to entice our members. You need to come back in the summer and see some of the things that man can do with fresh grown local corn.

PazJazz– We started with a really nice Chicken Corn Soup followed by thinly sliced tender Ribeye open faced on fresh grain bread and crisp fried homemade potato wedges. It was all washed down with an excellent local brew, Burnin’ Helles which is a rich and malty Bock-style lager.

PazJazz– I love good food but we need to get around to finding out about the Residency. Do you have a theme for the Rez or any local tracks that you call your own?

MrLucky– We really have no theme, I’m from Ohio so that’s why it’s named that. We run all of our residency races at good old track #11, OHIO, but points can be scored at any track.

We have our own website located at Ohio Thoroughbred Residency , you can see how things work for our members there.

PazJazz You spoke of your growth, but how long has the Rez been in existence.

MrLucky– The OTR has been going strong for about 2 1/2 years now.

PazJazz– How many members do you have and do you have any rules about how many stables you can have?

MrLucky– We currently have 19 active members, with stables running from 2-50 for each member. We don’t put a limit on how many stable can be part of OTR as we feel that would be too restrictive.

PazJazz– Do you have any Annual Race Days or Festivals for either the member or the Sim in general?

MrLucky– We have nothing annual but we do run two year old restricted races in late summer through the remaining of the year. Sometimes it is so hard to find good two year old races and this is something that we offer to our members. .

PazJazz– What kinds of contests do you offer? Anything new coming up?

MrLucky– We always seem to have several running. We always run a quarter contest, where the Top Five are paid in credits. We run a 10 week contest which is very profitable for the residents, the winner will receive approximately 1500 with last place receiving 300 or so credits.

We are currently running a 4 year old contest where every win receives credits. We also run a weekly “Pick the Exacta” contest, which pays anywhere between 100-500 credits. That is a crowd favorite.

PazJazz– Is there a way for members to talk to one another? Do you have a message board or forum?

MrLucky– Yes, we have an active message board. ? Ours is at OTR Message Board

PazJazz My editors love to “Star Gaze”, do you have any “Sim Famous” members of your Rez that our readers would recognize?

MrLucky For the most part, every member is also members of other residencies, and they all well known and have won some major races in their Sim career.

PazJazz– Part of the reason for my trips to all of the residencies, is because of the Equinics coming up this year, does your Residency compete in the Equinics? .

MrLucky Yes, we are looking forward to the Equinics, I beleive we had one winner two years ago, and we are hoping to improve on that this year..

PazJazz– The lunch was great and it’s always nice to visit the heart of America. Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about your residency?

MrLucky We are always looking for more residents. We pride ourselves in giving help to others with things like breeding and we love to have fun.

I would have loved to have stayed around a bit longer and visit some of the shops in the quaint little Midwestern town but I have to write up two different races this week including the ALL SAINTS Derby Lock race in Louisiana. I just might want to spend a day or two in New Orleans doing some “background research” on my BTB expense account. So I was lucky enough to find a flea market on the way to the airport that had a bunch of Cleveland Snow Globes available for a real bargain. I added it to my collection for Roys and left the friendly and snowy little Ohio town behind.

Looking forward to seeing you in your little corner of the world!