We went to Tampa Bay Downs today with Beauty, the now four year old filly and Prediction, the now three year old. Beauty got her gate card last week but shows no speed. My plan is to gallop her an easy mile and in the second mile let her breeze out to full speed down the lane. She did that today and we will escalate the breezes until she becomes more fit in that second mile. I think three or four trips and then we look for a mile on the turf. We can hope that the turf might move her up a little and we want her fit enough to try the mile in her first race. If she showed any early speed I would approach this differently and use shorter dirt races but she seems to need distance and if we try dirt under 25k we will not be eligible for turf races. So we can try to see how she does on turf before dropping her in price on the dirt. That is a problem we all have here in Florida. Other tracks allow horses better chances to try turf even though they may have started in cheaper dirt races.
Since Prediction was all over the track and hard to guide in last trip (tongue was over bit), we tried different bit and dropped noseband on farm and planned to also add a tongue tie at track. She has not been a problem to handle at the farm and has been controllable but was a different animal at track. I don't want her getting bad habits and found a rider willing to work with me at track. He will take time to let her figure it out. Today she galloped two miles very easy with pony at side and then went to gates where she waited and watched activity until her turn to be walked through the gates various times. Once done she then galloped another easy mile and came off track cool and collected. She was on track more than half an hour and was not rushed.
We will follow the development of all the fillies…you will see how much time it may take to get the horse to the races soundly!
Next week Secret, the trouble maker, should be ready to go back to the track. She will be ridden a few times on farm and then back to the track!
Susie is on the fillies. It is now january of 2015! The fillies have been going to the track to learn the routine. Secret went with me to Ohio this summer and was ready to run when she managed to tear herself up in the trailer. She is truly a difficult child! I never got her going in Ohio as she needed to heal from tearing her hind leg and lacerating it to tendon. Fortunately she has recovered well. Beauty, the Indian Ocean filly, was turned out for the summer to grow. She is now breezing at Tampa but shows no speed so we will aim for training her for distance, with hopes that she can stay. We plan to try her on turf when she is ready…that may make a difference.
