{"id":3462,"date":"2007-01-09T10:50:56","date_gmt":"2007-01-09T10:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=3462"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"oldbtb_99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/?p=3462","title":{"rendered":"Spend A Buck IV: Hippo, Birdie, Two Ewes, Little Racehorses"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been awhile\u2026where have I left off?

I picked ten horses at auction, paid only $1 for each, and raced them in the hopes of hitting a vague mark of approximately $50,000 and 100 BP through my results. There were a few claims to help get me to my most recent benchmark of $17,680 and 167 BP. For every horse claimed out, a $1 auction buy was brought in. Simple. Fruitless, maybe, but simple.

This little “game within a game” has proved to be challenging, but with a pair of claims from the last pairing of races, two more new slots opened up. Filling these two spaces were I M Random<\/STRONG>, a three-year-old daughter of Zilzal who hadn’t won since late in 2005 but was showing some modest life signs at the lowest claiming level, and Toleranz<\/STRONG>, a two-year-old son of Defrere who hadn’t hit the board in two MSW starts but was coming off a poor turf race previously. While they don’t seem like big names, they do seem competent enough for my little scheme.

The weeks I last raced were back in mid-December, week 3063 and week 3070.

WEEK 3063<\/U>:

H R Street Smart<\/STRONG>, my two-year-old Dixieland Heat maiden, found only a wet track and a race against winner claimers…who had never won three races. You can see what I was up against with him, I take it? Needless to say it was a bloodbath. Last of a field of ten, speed figure of 54, and for want of a cheap maiden claimer he’s still a maiden. Maybe for his birthday…

Quick Mission<\/STRONG>, my six-year-old Strategic Mission claimer, snuck into a Tuesday race and benefited from the smaller field in a $7500 claimer. He did not take to being extended beyond a mile, but he was good enough to hang tough with that level, and wound up an even fourth. What drew me to this race was the small field, the low-level claiming tag…and the fact this was his third race in a row at North Korea, which may not earn a lot of dough, but surely is good enough to yield some extra BP for the account. I may not know how to get him a win, but I know how to make him comfortable in his old age: three straight money finishes there.

Figger Of Speech<\/STRONG>, my Victory Speech two-year-old filly maiden, is the distaff version of H R Street Smart<\/STRONG>. In fact, she’s a carbon copy, right down to the middling figures and NW3L claimer being the only place to run her in. She’s no match for anything on one or more legs, either, finishing last of six, only on a good track. She’s another who could use a birthday party or something to pick her up.

Surgeon Wars<\/STRONG>, my pick-up from earlier in the series who had never tried grass before arriving in my hands, went for two wins in a row on the turf. The son of Archers Bay was entered into a point-allowance on Friday, and much like the other start for me, he closed well late. But the rise in class from a *85 to a *200 was not enough to do better than second. Still, a good effort for an eight-year-old in turf sprints, and even if he’ll never be a Sunnybank or an Allied anything, he’ll be definitely serviceable on his own terms for me.

Blushing Pony T<\/STRONG> is a reasonably well-bred colt—away from his perfectly fine but not upper tier sire, Onyxly—who needed a perk, so I found a cheap point-claimer, a $4000*185 claiming event, to hopefully give him the “I’m glad to be back on dirt” bounce in his speed figures next out. He did as well as could be expected, eighth of eight on his un-preferred surface.

This wide array of performance, from pleasing to strategic to blecch, netted me a slight profit of $2,613, raising the stable bankroll up to $20,293, but also sent my BP levels up to 192. Pretty nice, all things considered, but my goal remains but a dream.

WEEK 3070:

Boldly Reveal<\/STRONG>, my Sea Cliff X Gone West six-year-old, found his way into a $4000*175 claiming event over a wet track, and this time, the off going seemed to be a tonic, as he turned around his recent form somewhat and stayed contentious throughout. He wound up third, beaten less than three lengths, and for the conditions set forth, i was satisfied. I was pleased just to hit an 80 on his figures. You have cheap horses, little things mean a lot.

Lea Peril<\/STRONG>, my other two-year-old maiden by Chain Of Command, by waiting one week managed to do better than the other two-year-old maidens in my possession, because I found a RODOTS maiden claimer the Tuesday before. Considering my travails, that was a victory itself. And she ran….well, well enough, beaten only three lengths overall. That’d be fine, but she was still seventh in that $15000 claimer. But for the first time in four starts, she remained competitive, so…it’s all about baby steps. Still, saying she’s the best young horse of her age in my barn is like saying I’m the best skier in Guatemala.

Lafayette Blues<\/STRONG>, the four-year-old son of Touch Gold, was drowning in a track-restricted claimer and a *100 allowance in his first couple tries for me. But finally, I gave up hopes of flattering his pedigree and dumped him in a $2500*195 claimer that was pretty much a last gasp for him. And he did not disappoint, showing more life than in recent memory. Turning back to a flat mile helped, and even if he only wound up beaten about nine lengths, he was fourth, and last I checked, fourth still pays out. His speed figure of 80 is like a figure of 100, for him: it’s all about perspective.

I M Random<\/STRONG> is, I would guess, a randomly-selected casserole of three different modest, turf-leaning pedigrees. So, naturally, the pedigree yielded a miler on dirt in cheap claimers. Never one to question the random machinations of the Sim, I dropped him to the lowest form of winning Sim life: a $2000 claimer with a NW2L condition. He stalked the pace, sat second throughout, and was no real threat to the winner while second. Stretching him out helped a little, and so did keeping him reasonably close among that field’s leaders, but the 71 didn’t exactly wow me.

Toleranz<\/STRONG> isn’t just what people should have more of, but a two-year-old who appeared up against it on either surface. Her first two races were against colts in MSW company, and her last was on the grass, but no matter what, she appeared badly overmatched at that level. But taking into account the notion that horses in the Sim who hate turf usually improve returning to their favored dirt surface, I entered her back, against fillies, on dirt, in a $4000 claimer. The improvement, even going just five furlongs, was immediate. She found fillies she could contend with, and closed very well from off the pace to nab second, at 6-1. She earned just a 56, but that’s six points higher than her last dirt race, and 12 points higher than her turf race. She might not win a lot of races as of yet, but you could sense the ideas of how to win are forming in her head, and she might not be so bad eventually.

Despite some positive growth, the week wasn’t as profitable as I thought. I actually lost money on the week, being able to ship more freely than in the past, and I lost $498 while jumping the BP up 61 points, to 253.

A new year always brings new challenges, and with the barn increasing in age, hopefully there’s more than a few growth spurts long overdue for this bunch. Will it mean hitting my targets sometime before Spiderman III comes out (May 4, 2007, for the incurable optimists among ye)? We shall see. Happy birthday, faithful, bumbling steeds o’mine.<\/FONT><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…Or, Spend A Buck To Lose A Buck?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}