A lot to tell, as the fall begins after a fine summer season. A ton of wins everywhere but our home base of Monmouth Park this year!  

First up this week, Long May You Run faced a small, but super tough field with the favorable outside post at Penn National and finished last of 5 horses on September 24th. He was in an ideal stalking position for much of the early going, got shut off badly turning for home, but in truth was already backing up at that point. It was the toughest group of horses he’s ever faced, far and away. While he certainly off his best races could have been closer here, he also will get some class relief for his next start.

Next up was Boardwalk Run on September 26th at Penn National, who ran her record to 9 straight in-the-money finishes with a closing 3^rd. While it was not a bad race, she didn’t fire in the stretch the way we had hoped here.

A large crowd was on hand for closing day 2015 at Monmouth Park on Sunday, September 27th to watch Mackinaw Pharoah and Hardrainsgonnafall finish 7^th and 8^th respectively in their debuts (as an entry) in the 1^st race.  We knew going into the race that Mackinaw was likely to be a better horse on turf (we hope!), so we felt her race was a decent prep for the upcoming Meadowlands all-turf meet. Off this race we hope to run her on October 9^th and expect some improvement. Hardrain had trained well for this and we expected a better race from her. She broke well and was sitting a good trip in 3^rd for most of the race, but completely fell apart in the stretch. She was blowing hard when she returned to be unsaddled and appeared to be really tired. The race will do her good and she too should move forward off her debut, albeit we were disappointed in how badly she stopped. As we’ve said so many times, a first race is not by any means the final word either way with horses. We said that when both Title Fight and JW Racer won their debuts impressively for us this summer, and the same applies with these two fillies. They are just learning the game and it’s a long term process.

It was a very disappointing meet for us this year at Monmouth Park, with just one win (Huamantla) and a bunch of close 2nds, but nonetheless, it was not at all what we are used to. Having been on Monmouth Park's leading owners list with many wins four of the last five years, obviously it was a real letdown for us not to do better this season at our home track. We’ve had a fine season overall, but this year we’ve won a number of races at Gulfstream Park, Delaware Park, Parx and Penn National, and less at Monmouth. Again, as said so many times, it’s really important to look at long term results. We had not won a single race at Delaware Park in THREE YEARS (although all but one were 2^nd or 3^rd); this year we have 2 wins and a 3^rd in three starts there. Some years, for whatever reason, all successful stables do better at a different track, or with claiming horses, or two year olds, or fillies, or grass horses, etc. The key is to look at your overall numbers year after year and try to avoid short term thinking (true with all investments, not just horses!). Always keep in mind that it’s never as good as it feels when things are going well, and never as bad as it feels when things are going badly. We advise something many people have in short supply, patience.

October promises to be a very busy month with all horses pointing for races at The Meadowlands, Penn National, Parx, Gulfstream Park, Belmont Park and beyond.  Hoping to continue to good results we had this summer at many of these tracks!