Report from the farm (with pictures!)

This is a fun time of the season for horse racing enthusiasts.  We had a chance to enjoy the George Morton Levy Memorial last night at Yonkers.  It was a race that lived up to expectations in my opinion with Razzle Dazzle holding off the incredibly game Foiled Again.  Interesting to see Annieswesterncard, a former victim of In Over My Head, finished a strong 4^th.  We contemplated entering Mo into the Levy a few years back (pre injuries).  You have to bang heads against very tough competition week after week after week.  However, I’m certain he would have held his own, if not flourished.  Maybe if he can stay healthy this season we’ll get out our checkbook and put down that $5,000 entry fee to give him a chance!  In reality I think the days of Mo chasing stakes horses are over.  It is fun to think about though.

In other news from this weekend, the Meadowlands was loaded with future stars, current starts and superstars for Saturday morning qualifying.  The Butenschoen’s had a couple of impressive entries with three year old colts Duel In The Sun and Johny Rock.  It will be fun watching them and all their other horses as they get started.  We wish them and everyone in the Butenschoen stable the best of luck. 

 

Lastly in non-harness racing news, we have the Kentucky Derby next weekend.  The first Saturday in May, which is also Laura and my wedding anniversary every 7^th year.  We may have to take a trip up to Louisville next time they line up.

With all of that exciting racing action going on, what do we have going with Mo and his young stable mate?  Well, we have new pictures!  Greg and Danny headed down to Harvard, Illinois to the Leonard’s farm on Saturday to watch both horses go training miles.  As Danny and I talked about, it is a little bit exciting and frustrating all at once.  We feel great that both horses are getting closer to racing, but it just makes us a little more impatient.  Especially when considering all the exciting racing action going on around us. 

The report from the farm:  Mo looks like a million bucks and everyone around the barn loves him.  That is the kind of report always makes his owners smile.  While the focus of owning a race horse is obviously the results on the track, I never get sick of hearing how much people like Mo’s personality and attitude.  It just makes me feel extra proud of him (and is also a big reason why he means so much to us).  It also makes being 850 miles away even more difficult, but I’ll get to see Mo in due time.  Patience is key on a number of fronts right now.  As for his time on the track, he just went a slow training mile.  That’s all we expect from him right now.  He’ll work his way down in due time.  His leg is feeling great and it has been smooth sailing so far.  Let’s hope that continues.

His new little buddy, Don’t Tell Wayne, is also doing well.  Oddly enough, both horses are on track to qualify in about mid-July.  Wayne’s only 2 years old and has never raced before so I’ll wait to provide much commentary about him.  You have to earn it little man!  We are very happy with his progress and hope he can be a pretty nice horse for us.  Time will tell.

Enjoy the new pictures of Mo and Wayne.  In case you can’t tell, Mo is the perfect looking dark monster and Wayne is the smaller, but still sharp looking, light brown horse.  Don’t feel intimidated Wayne.  It is tough to beat Mo in a beauty contest.

Stay positive and stay patient (the phrase of the day…at least until it is time to say Let’s Go Mo again!).

Mo's New Fan

So what is new with our friend Mo?  Slow and steady progress.  He’s been jogging and swimming consistently for the past two months and is about to begin the process of training down.  We are still two or three months from being ‘back’ so there isn’t a whole lot to report.  For once, however, there is a bigger story for me to tell.

The real news is that Mo has another new fan to add to his ‘stable’.  When I say new fan, I mean really new.  The new fan is Jordan Wayne Swenson, our baby boy who is just over seven weeks old.  Although not technically involved in racing at this point in his life, Jordan represents the fourth generation in our harness racing family.  His first move as a horse racing fan was to put a picture of Mo up in his room.  I was very impressed with his choice…and his ability to hang pictures. 

So how does In Over My Head feel about his new fan?  In a word, he was thrilled.  He’s made it well known how much he enjoys his fans and now can claim an 80+ year gap between his oldest fans (our Grandparents) and his youngest (Jordan).  Not a bad range.

The new addition to our team has also put a little bit more pressure on Mo. 

“Win one for Jordan,” was Mo’s second response when asked what his goals are for the season.  His first response was to just get healthy again, which is understandable.  Ideally, he’s like to see Jordan in the winner’s circle with him, but understands the logistical challenges when it comes to traveling with very young children (especially now that we live in Atlanta).  Mo is hoping that we will be up in Wisconsin for a summer vacation and the timing will work out well for us to make it to a race in Chicago as he gets his comeback going.  If that doesn’t work, Mo had another plan.  He said he’s just has to keep racing and winning until such time that Jordan could make it to a race. 

Whether or not this will actually happen remains to be seen.  However, the thought of our whole group making is back to the winner circle with Jordan in tow is such a fun one that we might as well ‘act as if’.  Act as if Mo will make it through his comeback just fine.  Act as if he will be a monster on the track again.  Act as if he will race this season and beyond.  Lastly, act as if Jordan will not only be able to meet that horse on his wall, but he’ll be old enough to remember the time when he ran into the winner circle on his own little legs with his Mom and Dad, Great Uncle Greg, Uncle Danny, Aunt Kacy and whoever else was at the track that day.  Now that would really be something.

I’ll keep you posted on his progress.  Stay patient and stay positive.

Another Interview with Mo

I found this article from the Mineral Point Times and thought I’d pass it along.  Gives a nice update on what is going on with Mo.  Don’t bother trying to figure out the origins of the Mineral Point Times.  Just enjoy the article!

Tomorrow’s Trailer Time
In Over My Head set to head out of Mineral Point to begin comeback

As the snow flies and the wind whips through the leafless trees, it really doesn’t feel much like horse racing season.  That doesn’t mean there is no racing.  Many tracks around the country are battling the winter cold and putting out a product that is garnering some nice handle.  The Meadowlands, in particular, has captured the attention of horsemen and women everywhere as they continue to increase handle and offer great racing.  “As the Meadowlands goes, so goes the sport” is a thought held by many in the industry and any green shoots of potential growth offer an untold amount of hope for those dedicated to the harness racing. 

Nearly 950 miles west of the Big M in Mineral Point, Wisconsin one of the sport’s local heroes is waiting for his next chance to hook up to a sulky.  That journey will begin tomorrow as he has a ride lined up to head south and start another comeback.  That day can not come soon enough for In Over My Head.  The seven year old horse sat down with us on Saturday morning to talk about the past, present and future.

Mineral Point Times (“MPT”):  Bring us up to speed on your rehab?
In Over My Head (“Mo”):  Well, the rest and turnout phase is finally over.  I love it here in Mineral Point, but I’m ready to get going.  Sounds like I’ll be heading back to Illinois tomorrow to start swimming and jogging.  It will be slow going for awhile, but it’s a step.

MPT:  So the leg must be feeling pretty good.
Mo:  No pain, no swelling.  That’s all I can tell you.  I’ve been off since July. That’s about seven months.  The initial diagnosis was around six, so I’ve done my time so to speak.

MPT:  Are you expecting this to be as challenging as your last comeback?
Mo:  Well, it won’t be easy, but you have to remember that the injury is not nearly as severe as last time.  It’s funny we are having this conversation today because it happened about three years ago to the day.  It was in the Exit 16 final at the Meadowlands and that series starts tonight.  I ripped my leg up bad that night.  That injury really should have ended my career.

MPT:  Why didn’t it?
Mo:  Because I’m one tough son of a gun!

MPT:  Well said (laughing).  Let’s talk about last season.  How rewarding was it to put together the season you did?
Mo:  It was satisfying to race and to win.  I had seven starts, won five of them and got hurt in the other two.  It was a little frustrating to only get seven starts.  Things were rolling along so well.  T-Boot (Tyler Butenschoen) and I would roll into Balmoral Park and just know we were the ones to beat.  Everyone else was looking up at us.  We had pretty big plans for later in the season.  Unfortunately, we never got there.

MPT:  Let’s go back to that race in July when you got injured.  Did you see it coming? 
Mo:  I did not see it coming at all.  I was feeling like a million bucks.  We had a nice crowd down that night.  My owners had a little fan club set up with a picture of Marcus (Miller) and I on T-shirts.  I have to tell you, when you come out to warm up and look over and see that…man, what a cool feeling.  Anyway, the race went fine.  Marcus angled me up the rail right toward the end and I was about to go by the field, then I took a bad step and bang…that was that.

MPT:  Did you know it was bad?
Mo:  Unfortunately, yes.  Knew it right away.  Just walked back to the barn.

MPT:  Let’s get back to a little lighter note.  One thing I’ve always wondered is how do you pass the time at the track?  I mean, you get there in the early afternoon and don’t race until late.  What do you do for all that time?
Mo:  We obviously have to warmup, but that doesn’t take up too much time.  One thing we do a lot at the Chicago tracks is play odds and evens with the horses in connecting stalls.

MPT:  You play what?
Mo:  Odds and evens!  You’ve never heard of horses doing that?  The premise is pretty simple.  One horse calls odds or evens…you neigh once for odds or twice for evens.  Then the calling horse stomps his hoof to countdown: one – two – three, then and on three both horses kick the connecting stall with either one or two hooves.  Add them up.  Odd or even wins.

MPT:  Do you think that may have added to your leg injuries?
Mo:  Now that you mention it, maybe! (laughing)  But, hey, I have to kill time somehow!  When you get in at 3pm and don’t race until 11pm…that’s a lot of time.

MPT:  Does it ever get heated?
Mo:  It can…some horses try and cheat.  They claim that they hit with one hoof instead of two.  You can guess how it goes.  Can’t prove they are lying since we can’t see each other, but I’ve been around long enough to know the difference based on sound alone.

MPT:  Who are the cheaters?
Mo:  I don’t need to call anyone out.  Just won’t play with them again.

MPT:  Who’s your biggest competition?
Mo:  Guru (Well To Do Guru).  That dude’s an all pro at everything he does.

MPT:  Back to the track.  The Chicago racing scene had some nice open horses competing this last year and for a period of time you were clearly the best.  However, a couple other horses had their own run.  You never faced the likes of I Am Bonesera, St. Elmo Hero or Holdingallthecards.  Do you think you could…(interrupted)
Mo:  They never faced me either (smiling).

MPT:  I understand, but could you would you stack up?  Could you handle them?
Mo:  Of course I could handle them!  Having that said, it doesn’t mean I would beat them every time.  There are very few horses that would worry me when I walk onto the track.  It’s just natural confidence.  Every horse should have it, but most don’t. 

MPT:  OK, so who can’t you beat?
Mo:  I’m not going to run to the Meadowlands and face Golden Receiver if that’s what you are asking!  There are a couple true monsters in this sport at any time.  If given the chance, I’d say hook up the bike and let’s roll.  I never have any fear.  I’m also not an idiot.  I mean, unless things go my way, I’m not going to be able to just sprint past a top open pacer in the stretch.  I’m fast, but not fast enough to catch some of those.

MPT:  Was there ever a time you could have taken down the biggest names in harness racing?
Mo:  I know my four year old year I was eligible to some open events that would have given me a shot at some top open horses that season and even last year we were hoping to get into the American Nationals.  There is no doubt in my mind I could hang…no one would ever get anything easy on me.

MPT:  You are dodging the question!  Would have you won?
Mo:  I’ll never predict myself to lose...and I realize I'm still dodging the question.  I never take a night off.  If my competition came to the track with a 90% effort, my 110% could go past about anyone.

MPT:  Could the driver make a difference?
Mo:  Not for me…I’d have Marcus.  He doesn’t make mistakes with me.

MPT:  Even against the top drivers in the country?  You’re telling me you’d take Marcus Miller over Tim Tetrick?  Ron Pierce?  John Campbell?  What about his uncle Andy?  You’ve had success with him too.
Mo:   OK, let me clarify.  I’m not saying that Marcus is necessarily better than those guys.  Heck, he’d say that too.  What I’m saying is that Marcus is my guy and that’s all there is to it.

MPT:  What are your hopes for this season?
Mo:  To stay healthy and be able to race for a number of months without having to take a prolonged break.  I’ve been told that my days of chasing sub 150 miles on the big ovals may be over just because my body isn’t getting any younger.  We’ll see.  I don’t really care where I go.  I’d just love the chance to go out and race.

MPT:  A number of people thought that after your injury last July, you were going to be retired.  What happened?
Mo:  I’m a miraculous healer!

MPT:  Seriously?
Mo:  We all look to our vet to give us the straight answers.  Tony knows his stuff and won’t mince words.  I think we were all waiting for him to tell me to hang up the hobbles.  However, he said just the opposite.  Said I was healing very well and if everyone was willing to be patient, there was absolutely no reason I couldn’t come back.  So, seven months later, here we are.

MPT:  Are you ready for this?  You have a lot of work ahead of you.
Mo:  What’s my alternative?  Sit around for another 10 months and hope to get a couple mares to breed…nothing against that by the way…or get turned into a pet?  That will be a good life someday.  I’m just not ready.  I have more wins to pick up.  Telling me I can’t race would be like telling Brett Farve he can’t throw a football.

MPT:  But even Favre retired.
Mo:  Yeah, but he still throws the ball around in those Wrangler commercials.

MPT:  Good point….wait…how do you get to watch TV commercials?
Mo:  I use Hulu on my IPad.

MPT:  What?
Mo:  No more technology questions…I don’t want to give away my secrets.

MPT:  Well big guy, I wish you the best of luck.  When can we expect to see you back on the track?
Mo:  If all goes well, probably sometime around June.  I have a long road ahead of me, but trust me, I’m ready.  Plan is to start in Chicago.  If I can have success like last season, we’ll just go from there.  One step at a time.

MPT:  Any last words to your fans out there?
Mo:  Don’t give up on me yet because I’m not giving up on myself.  Life will always put obstacles in your way.  It is up to you how you want to deal with them.  Try and win your day to day battles and never lose sight of the long term goal.  And when I get there, come on out to the track and cheer me on.

MPT:  Thanks Mo.
Mo:  Anytime.

Howdy Folks!

Last year at this time, we were just winding down In Over My Head’s racing season.  Unfortunately, there are no races this year.  Our original thought process post injury in July was pretty dire (his career is sadly over).  However, at this point we are seeing this as a nice break to repair and refresh of the equipment before comeback version 2.0.

While I really enjoy people coming back to check out the blog, I have to share with you the following piece of information:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwVpSBKzQYo

I apologize to those of you that traveled a long way to get here, but at least I sent a security guard out to great you.  What moose was he referring to?  Well our marketing department decided it was not a good idea to place one of those guys outside of Mo’s official blog site…I’d hate to have any of you go through what this family went through.  Such disappointment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtyrDZG-eDo

All National Lampoon’s references aside, thanks for continuing to surf your way over to Mo’s blog site.  Good news is that he is going quite well.  He’s enjoying his time up in Mineral Point, WI at the old horse barn.  His leg is healing very well and we are more optimistic than ever about his return to the track next year.  He won’t be doing much of anything for another couple months, so when I write my next blog entry it will have to be full of unrelated (or very loosely related) references to 80s and 90s movies.  If that is something you enjoy, come on back because before you know it we could very well be back on the roller coaster of horseracing with our favorite horse as the star.

Before I sign off, I thought I’d leave you with one more clip of an often forgotten star of the National Lampoon’s movies.  Cousin Eddie.  Enjoy and Let’s Go Mo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bu4MwNTJwA

Just Doing A Little Bit of Jogging

Or is it yogging…it might be a soft ‘J’…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-LnP3uraDo

(That link was also for those non English speaking readers who know what that cryptic language was on the bottom of the screen…sorry, that was the only version of that link could find.)

You might be wondering why I haven’t put a post up in awhile. Well, up until a couple weeks ago, all I could really tell you was that Mo was standing. Standing in his stall. Bored out of his mind. If he was bored, how could I possibly come up with something interesting to write about? Despite my unique ability to make a story out of virtually nothing, I can’t make a story about absolutely nothing.

However, the horse gods have breathed a small, but crisp breath of optimistic fresh air into the world of Team In Over My Head. Our tough as nails horse’s leg is healing very well. So well, that he actually has been jogging for the past couple weeks. Based on the feedback we got from our vet, we have made a decision. As of today, October 12, 2012, we are aiming toward Mo comeback version 2.0. It will be a long road and one that could obviously get derailed at some point, but we are going for it.

Keeping with the movie theme I’ve started this post with, I’ll wanted to give Mo’s comeback a snappy tagline like a movie sequel. Here were some of my early ideas.

- “Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the track”… I actually liked this one a lot, but I took it from Jaws 2: Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water. I didn’t think that Jaws 2 was any good, so we are tossing that one.

- “If at first you don’t succeed, lower your standards”…just kidding. I just put that one in there to pay homage to Tommy Boy.

- “Same make. Same model. New mission.” That one is kind of cool (from Terminator 2), but his mission isn’t really new so I had to toss it.

After careful consideration and nearly 10 minutes looking at old movie taglines (surprisingly fun by the way), I have come up with the following:

- Mo Comeback 2: Expect the impossible again.

I could give you a clue where I borrowed that one from, but it will self destruct in 10 seconds…

So you may be asking yourself, will this comeback be successful? Well, dude, we just don’t know. I do know that in life when you decide to do something, you have to believe in it 100%. If we don’t believe in it, who will? We do know that it will be awhile until he would race (likely early next summer). He needs quite a bit more time off and we are going to give him all the time he needs. At the end of the day, it is really just going to come back to the advice we get from the Butenschoen, our vet and from Mo himself. We’ve always said that the day he is brought out to the track and just isn’t interested any more is the day we quit. According to Tyler, that is the furthest thing from the truth at that point, so we will keep going. Slowly, but surely.

Something else happened to our little stable last weekend: we added another horse. This can really be traced back to Mo and his accomplishments of this past summer when he put a few more shinny nickels into the old race account. Greg, Danny and I are now the proud owners of a to be named horse who has already made it back to Illinois and, according to Tyler, is already jogging…or is it yogging…either way, Ron Burgundy would be proud.

Let’s Go Mo (and new guy)!

Hurry Up and Wait

This blog has always been a blow by blow take on what it is like to own a racehorse and luckily for me, it has been pretty easy to keep this exciting. However, you may have noticed that I haven’t put up a new blog in weeks. Well, I’m doing that to spare you from an unfortunately slow time in the Mo’s world. He continues to stand in his stall and heal, anxiously awaiting the opportunity to run around and in the words of Doc Smith from “Seabiscuit”, just ‘be a horse again.’.

We were treated with a nice bit of optimistic news early this week when we got the results form the most recent scan (x-ray) of his bad leg. Our vet said that it was healing extremely well and the ligament fibers are showing now signs of scar tissue, which is vital to an effective healing of this type of injury. He also stated that our plan to let Mother Nature do her work over the rest of this year and early next year is the formula Mo would need for him to have any shot at comeback #2. While are certainly not hell bent on a comeback (like we kind of were last time), we are still hopeful. The tear was much less dramatic than last time, so it is not at all unreasonable to think that he might hit the track next summer. Either way, it was fun to think that we might be able to put our ‘Team In Over My Head’ t-shirts on again for a race.

In other news, we continue to reach out to people about options for Mo to stand as a stallion this breading season. Given the fact we will likely try one more comeback, location of where he stands is pretty important and given the fact his home is in Marrengo, standing in Illinois is likely the best option.

There are a number of issues with standing Mo. The first is his I Am A Fool bloodline is not nearly as favorable as say a Western Hanover or Artsplace. However, the sire bloodline is certainly no guaranty of success. Take the Illinois sire Yankee Skyscraper for example. His offspring have really not performed at a high level, nor have they sold well starting this year. From my personal perspective, the state of Illinois is in need of a new sire. The issue is that since Governor Quinn vetoed the gambling expansion bill, Illinois racing remains somewhat in purgatory and new investment in the state’s racing program is going to be limited. Well, I have the solution for you Illinois based breeders and his name is In Over My Head. He is the PERFECT physical specimen of a horse. If you don’t believe me, just head out to Marengo and take a look. If he stamps his offspring with any of his looks, they will extremely well. He has the prefect temperament and is extremely intelligent. The speed he showed on the track along with his winning percentage speaks for itself. Given the fact that facts are facts (he is an I Am A Fool), we will be offering him at very reasonable price. The final figure is still too be determined, but it will be below anything else out there to entice breeders to give him a shot.

And for all your skeptical Illinois based horsemen and women out there who are still unsure of this whole I Am A Fool bloodline what about Shadow’s Finale? I realize that Incredible Finale won over a million on the track, but he didn’t have much of a bloodline at all and produced a TON of big time Illinois talents. If Mo could produce a fraction of that he’d be a big success.

Anyway, that’s my pro Mo rant for the day. Thanks to all of those who keep checking in. I’ll try and do more writing.

Still The Same

If you ignore something long enough will it go away? In Over My Head hasn’t raced in over a month and I haven’t been able to bring myself to post about it. I did start an entry shortly after it was over, but never finished it. Here we are, a month later and unfortunately nothing has changed.  On July 7th, we had a great group at the track and high hopes. Why wouldn’t we? Mo was on a 5 race win streak and was the favorite to win his 6th. There wasn’t single horse in the race that Mo hadn’t beaten multiple times. They simply weren’t in his class. That’s not being cocky or overconfident, it was just a fact. Our team included first timers Brett and Sacia Wheeler and Gary and Jane Sporle. It was going to be a fun first experience. Our group was large. Including the newbies, we had Danny, Kacy, Laura, her parents, her grandparents and myself. We had t-shirts made. Spirits were beyond high.  What we saw was really vintage In Over My Head. Well, almost vintage. We don’t know exactly when it occurred, but we know he took a bad step going into the first turn when horses were jockeying for position. We know that he looked like his old self when he was bobbing and weaving in the stretch, firing up the inside and looking like he would make it six in a row. Just a few strides from the wire, everything went horribly wrong.  When he made a break at the wire, my heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t made a break in years. When Marcus pulled him up just past the wire, my heart sank. It was obvious that something was very wrong. When he turned him and Mo nearly buckled over then was unable to jog back to the barn, all I could do was lean on the fence and shake my head. Shock. Disbelief. An overwhelming sense of sadness. The only thought going through my head was that we had just watched his last race.  When I first wrote that above paragraph nearly a month ago, I didn’t know what the outcome would be. Now, a month later, we have a better idea. He has definitely gone his last race of 2012 because what happened that night was another injury to Mo’s bad leg. The harsh reality is that it may be enough to push him into retirement. We may try and make a comeback next year, but we will withhold that decision until next spring. If he healed well and the vet is on board, we may put him back into training. We will see.  There was one more part of that month old entry that was never posted that I wanted to share. I assumed that it would stick with me and now that we are a month out, it still does:   One lasting memory will when Mo walked off the track on Saturday night. Danny and I both said we were so glad we were there. We had enjoyed the good times and we had lots of them. We cheered, laughed and felt the thrill of victory while others had to taste defeat. Saturday we got to be there for Mo during a tough time. We all walked into the barn together. Everyone was crushed, except for one member of the party. When he was in the bath stall, Tyler, Marcus, Danny and I just stood looking at him. No one said a word for what felt like forever. In that moment, it was Mo who broke the tension. You could see it in his eye. “What the heck are you guys doing? The race is over. This is the time we hang out and play. Stop standing there and get over here so I can take a few nips at you.” And finally we did. That was the moment I actually started to feel at least a little bit better. He was still Mo and we were still beyond lucky to have him.  Much like the point up until his leg popped in the stretch, his attitude back in the barn was also vintage Mo.  So what happens next? Well, that’s a really good question. We are currently working the phones to find a place for Mo to stand as a stallion this breeding season. His pedigree is good, but not great. His race resume is good, but not great. It is the intangible things that will make his offspring great racehorses in my opinion. First, he is a perfect horse looks wise. Second, he is fast, has guts and is a winner. His most important trait, in my opinion is actually what is between his ears. Mo is a very intelligent horse. It just happened that I was reading an article yesterday on the great trotting sire Kadabra on usta.com. Below is a quick quote:

Asked what separates his stallion Kadabra from others, David Heffering said in one word, “intelligence.”  

Anyone who watched last week’s Hambletonian trials noticed that both colts were well-behaved in quite different trip scenarios. Prestidigitator was forced wide around the opening turn and the final turn and didn’t lose his cool on either occasion for Ontario-based trainer Dustin Jones and top pilot Sylvain Filion. Knows Nothing and driver Jody Jamieson had to keep their cool as well sitting inside without racing room until midway down the homestretch. The Jeff Gillis trainee knew exactly what to do when room developed and responded with a victory.

We are not sure yet where he will stand, but our hope is that he will get some solid mares because I’m quite sure the result will be some very nice offspring.

Beyond that, it may be time for a new horse for Team In Over My Head. He’s made enough money for us that we can get another one with ‘house money’ so to speak. We haven’t’ added a new horse to the stable since we purchased Showtime Shark in 2010. Laura always says that she feels bad for the next horse to follow up In Over My Head since he will never live up to expectations. She makes a good point, so we my have to consider something other than a pacing colt for the next step.

No horse will ever be In Over My Head. We aren’t trying to replace him, just looking to move forward. You can’t replace something so unique, so special and so Mo.