New addition and updates

This time of the year is considered breeding season because broodmares are foaling and are also being bred. Breeding season usually starts around Valentines Day (no pun intended) and can go all the way until late June. Because thoroughbreds all technically have the same birthday (January 1st), you usually want to get the foal on the ground no later then March so they have time to mature.

Wundelia foaled a beautiful looking Yes Its True filly (picture below) in early March. Foaling proved to be difficult because Wundelia was a maiden mare and the filly was abnormally large for a maiden broodmare.



Both Wundelia and Top Royelle are back in Kentucky at their boarding farm, Arundel Farm, and reports from Arundel are that all is well with both foals and mares. Top Royelle has already been bred to Desert Party and we will hear towards the end of April if she is in foal. Wundelia should be coming into cycle relatively soon and will go back to Yes Its True as long as the foaling didn't take hurt her in anyway.

We are in a transition period with both horses and people. Our trainer Chuck decided that it didn't make fiscal sense to come back to Chicago and we have assigned Richard Scherer to run our dwindling Chicago team. Albin, Mr. Mojo Risin, and Surfer Rosa will come to Chicago towards the end of April. Gondorf is being sent to Canada and will be under the care of Brian Lynch.

We have been flirting with the idea of running our best horse, Prospect Knight, in some of the higher quality stakes coming up, such as the Wood Memorial or Illinois Derby. After his blowout win, he confirmed that he wants to be a good horse as he ran 2nd in one other than at Parx, where he was much the best to a horse that got a great trip. After talking it out with Chuck, we have decided that we will enter back in that same allowance race at Parx Racing on Saturday, to run on April 5th and then he will get a well deserved month off so we can point towards a summer campaign. Our long term goal is going to the Pennsylvania Derby, which is run on September 24th.

Big Shake is getting his chance to have one shining moment on April 8th at Penn National. We have come to the unfortunate point where if he doesn't win this race he will be retired to the best retirement program in the country that is run at Parx Racing.

Mizz Liza was the receiptant of some controversy in her return race as while she was entering in the first turn she stumbled badly because of a bug boy that failed to look over and see their was a horse in his path. Jose Luis Flores, who we have had alot of luck with, was hurt in the spill and is out 3-4 months. It is hard to look on the bright side of an injury, but Jose and Jason Nguyen are lucky that Jose's injury was not worse. Here it to hoping that Jason finds new work in a different occupation.

Albin is gonna run on April 20th down at Tampa Bay Downs which will be his return race after being off for over one year. He has been working good and has stayed sound throughout the process, which is obviously the most important thing.

Gondorf is being picked up on Thursday to go to Woodbine and we are hoping to get a race into him in April. Hopefully we will have a plan put together by Mid April.

Rochelle Rochelle ran back yesterday. She finished fifth but after watching the race I'm not real sure it was her to blame considering our jock made 3 different moves throughout the race. She will point towards a race at Atlantic City Racecourse towards the end of April.

No news on Surfer Rosa and Mr Mojo Risin is back into full training after a minor foot aliment.

Two sides to every coin

As always in life, there is two sides to every coin. With the spring time coming, changes are coming, horses are going to their spring and summer locations, and plans, yes, I said plans, are starting for one of our horses.

On the good side, Prospect Knight was flattered yesterday when a horse that he drilled by almost 10 lengths came back to run 3rd in a stakes race at Turfway Park. According to Chuck and assistant Susan Ditter, he has really turned into a 'monster' and things continue to look up for him. We are pointing towards either a starter allowance race or allowance race at Parx Racing next week. If he were to run to his last race next week, we will point to bigger and better things, such as the Illinois Derby or even the Wood Memorial (assuming a short field because of Uncle Mo)

Rochelle Rochelle continued her winning ways when winning a starter allowance race yesterday at Parx Racing. Our Parx string has been on absolute fire lately and there is no better place to be on fire with your racing stable then Parx Racing. Rochelle was dead last at the 1/4 pole and ran them down on the outside to win by a nose. It is a toss up for me on becoming our most exciting race in BGR history with Surfer Rosa's closing performance at Arlington last year.

Now on that other side, the bad side of the coin, Big Shake is just not progressing like we have hoped, matter fact he just hasn't gotten better out of his first race. He got drilled at Parx Racing in a bottom level maiden claimer race and after that there just isn't many options for a maiden 10k turf horse in this country. He is getting one more chance to win, at the bottom level at Penn National, and if he doesn't win, he will be retired to the Philadelphia Retirement Program or our assistant trainer has asked about turning him into a stable pony.

The Magic Bus stumbled and fell at the end of his race which caused all of his connections to almost faint. Something like this has never happened before to not only us, but to Chuck, who has been involved in racing for over 20 years. Luckily, he came out of the experience with just some scraps and we are currently evaluating him. There is a race on March 20th that we are considering but we are proceeding with caution considering the circumstances.

Surfer Rosa ran a disappointing race last week at Tampa Bay Downs in her two turn debut. We thought she was perfect for that race but she obviously tried to tell us different. She was very anxious before the race and very hot, which we are hoping lead to her disappointing effort. The same race has been carded back for March 16th and we are considering that spot.

Albin and Mr Mojo Risin are getting closer to racing and Mizz Liza has shipping to Parx Racing for a race towards
the end of March.

Top Royelle gave birth to a good looking chestnut Cactus Ridge colt the last week of February.



Dr. McCrosky does a great job in downstate Illinois and we are looking forward to Wundelia's foal, who should be coming any day now. Wundelia will go back to Yes Its True and Top Royelle has been assigned to the Darly stud, Desert Party.