[The son of Lost Soldier has won his nine races by a combined 59 lengths and never been in danger of losing.] He's an exceptional animal, ... and it's going to take an exceptional animal to beat him. |
After that, I had nothing left. |
Boy, he made that exciting. He just walked out of the gate. At the half-mile pole, I reached back and hit him to get his attention. I thought I had a shot at the top of the lane because he was moving, but when we hit the wire, I wouldn't have bet money that we got there. That was tight. |
Give me some good news Doc, I've only got three weeks, |
He broke well and we sent him because we didn't want to get into any trouble. I let him run a little down the stretch because I wanted him to get something out of it. People were hooting and hollering in the paddock before the race but it didn't faze him. All he does is keep making me look good. |
He still has that brilliant speed. He was tugging me to the lead. I had a ton of horse down the backside and everything was fine until the turn. When he switched leads, the track came away from him. He was slipping on the turn, and that's when the other horse got the jump on him. Normally on the turn is where he puts them away. |
He struggled with the track a bit. It was a pretty game effort. He's still a little green. It was only his second start and that first one was a long time ago. I'm pretty proud of him because he was struggling with the track and he could have given up, but he didn't. |
He struggled with the track a little bit, he's still a little green, and his first start was a long time ago. About the eighth pole I'd asked him, and he wasn't picking up ground. I asked him harder, and he got up. |
I love it when a plan comes together like that. Down the backstretch when Midwesterner came up outside of him, he grabbed the bit and didn't want him to get ahead of us. But on the turn when that horse dropped back, he relaxed and I knew we were all right. |
I saw the other horse close to the rail so I moved out a little to give myself some room in case anything happened and, sure enough, it did. But I was going to gather him in anyway, I felt. I knuckled him and he started to pick it up on his own and when I asked him in the stretch he went on real well. He's developing into a real nice horse. |
I shook the stick at him and boy, he gave me a good little punch. About a dozen lengths later he just quit. Just inside the eighth pole, I had nothing left. |
I think there'd have been a different outcome if I'd had a clean trip on the second turn. I was going for a hole on the fence and it closed. I had to steady her pretty hard. She's a big, long-striding filly, and it took her awhile to get her momentum back. I think she's going to be a nice filly. |
I think this horse will only get better with more distance. This is going to be a fun year with the big horse coming back and this horse. |
I tried to make him work a little more the whole way to make sure there was plenty of air in him. |
I was hoping that there would be a little more speed in there. My horse ran his race, but he just wasn't good enough today. |