Category Archives: Farm

Churchill Cancelled for a second day

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The Churchill Meet is 2/3rds over and has come to an abrupt halt due to the cold temperature’s and snow we have gotten this year. They have cancelled the card two days in a row. The last time they cancelled a day in the fall meet was in 1986. They did cancel a couple of spring days in 2011 when tornado’s came through.

They are suppose to add extra races each day to make up for the lost two days (hopefully we won’t lose anymore). Thanksgiving has always been a giant day at Churchill as well as Friday and Saturday.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas will open six weeks after Churchill’s meet closes with the bottom purse for $5000 claimers being $18,000 and purses up to $62,000 for maiden special.

Still time to claim one at Churchill to run at Oaklawn this winter.

 

 

 

Mister Pollard wins The Too Much Coffee Stake

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It was a big day for the stable on November 1, Breeder’s Cup Day. The classy little colt MISTER POLLARD won the $150,000 Too Much Coffee Stake beating older horses for his owners W. Scott Farrar, Jim Farrar, Falcon Racing and Penny Lauer. He has an amazing attitude. Doesn’t get excited, just handles himself with class all the way around with everything he does.

It was an exciting race and finish. If you didn’t see it live last Saturday, you should go watch the replay.  Falcon Racing and their guests were so sure of his victory when he crossed the finish line. Even though they were standing about 20 yards before the finish line. There was no question in their mind that Mister Pollard was the winner. That was great, but I watched the last step on the TV and I wasn’t quite as convinced as they were. One thing the actual wire is about 4 foot past the center of the finish line post, and the way a fan would stand is not the angle that the wire is. It can be quite deceiving. Results of head bobs is one of the reasons I no longer have a full head of hair.

I did get encouragement when the track video was following Mister Pollard after the finish of the race, since he has a wall of screens viewing the race in the control room. He is usually right in those close calls. It didn’t give me encouragement when all the horses came back and the only two left was us and the four horse, which told me the jock on the four horse was not conceding.
But the Falcon Racing party was still jumping and hugging. They were 100% convinced. And after what seemed like eternity, Falcon Racing was right, which was truly outstanding. To say the horse ran a great race would be an understatement. He had the lead, lost the lead, came back and got the money. The competitive spirit of the horse has always amazed me in that situation.
Rafael Hernandez did a great job of riding the horse. He had breezed the horse the Sunday before, which is another credit to the colt. He won three of these Indiana Bred stakes this year with three different riders. Ricardo Santana, Juan Saez and now Rafael Hernandez. It wasn’t my choice to do that, it was just the circumstances played out that way. Ricardo Santana was riding in the Breeders Cup and Juan Saez lost his life in a tragic accident a few weeks ago. Mister Pollard was the last winner he rode at Indiana Grand on October 4th prior to his accident. Juan was the leading apprentice rider at Indiana Grand this year and they have named the award after him in his memory.
Mister Pollard had nine starts this year, three wins, two seconds and won $246,603 for 2014, which takes his lifetime earnings to $375,151.
As of right now he is the leading Indiana Bred money winning horse of 2014.

Indiana Thoroughbred Racing Video

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euDRZuqCOBs&feature=youtu.be

Above is a link to a video that the Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders put together to help educate and spread the word about the impact racing has on the local economy. We all need to do what we can to help promote our product and to encourage people to get involved and enjoy the sport as much as we do.

Let me know what you think.

August Recap

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Overall August was a very productive month for the stable. We ran at four different racetracks (Saratoga, Indiana Grand, Presque Isle, Belterra).

We made 5 starts with the three horses we took up to Saratoga for their 40 day meet. We had a win, one second, two thirds and one fourth. One filly was claimed and we collected over $72,000 in purse money. That is the first time we have had horses at Saratoga in over seven years.

We ran one horse SNEAKIN AWAY at Presque Isle the very last day of the month and he was a winner.

At Indiana Grand we won three races. Two of which were stake races. We won the Governor’s Stake for the second year in a row. This years winner was MISTER POLLARD for owners Scott Farrar, Jim Farrar, Falcon Racing (Mike Johnson) and Penny Lauer. We also won the 1st Running of “The Paul Tinkle ITOBA Stallion Season colts and geldings stake” with another homebred HOOSIER NEIGHBOR. DREAMIN BIG ran third in a stake and then came back a week later to win an Allowance race.

Hopefully we will get a few more 2 year olds running and with the three tracks (Indiana Grand, Churchill Downs, Kentucky Downs) all running in September; we hope to have another good month.

We always need your help. Ready and willing to claim one for you. Don’t forget the September Sales start on Monday!

 

Sports Update

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College football started this weekend and the pro’s start next week. Saratoga and Ellis Park meets close on labor day and Churchill will open on Friday night for the 12 days of September. Kentucky Downs will open on Saturday for it’s five day meet and the Keeneland Yearling Sale opens on Monday, September 8th. Roughly 3500 horses to be sold at auction where I am sure we can find one just for you.