The Challenge-Week 42

Things were looking good this week.  Four horses were entered and the oddsmakers made them the favorite  or second choice.  When that happens, you just want to start filling out the deposit slips to bank the money before you earn it.  That can really backfire and all your high hopes are popped like a balloon.

Things were not that bad.  Only one runner didn’t live up to expectations and that was ALTERED KILLER, who ironically was claimed away from the stable.   This was his first start for the stable after being claimed a month ago in a $2,500 claiming race.  He was entered this week, at the same track (OR) at the same distance (5.5f) and a slightly higher tag ($3,000).    After finishing fourth with a 96 speed, I was upbeat with the 7/2 second choices chances.  Apparently he didn’t get the message that he was expected to run well as he finished 6th with never being a threat.  So after one race, he has been claimed away, leaving a vacancy to fill and a G-sire card.

Also racing for the first time for the stable was KYRGYZSTAN, who stayed in IRE where I claimed him in a 9f race that he won.  I had him in a local starter allowance race with a $5,000 tag at a slightly shorter 8.25f distance.  As the second betting choice,  he quickly stumbled to the rear quarter of the 13 horse field in the 11th spot by the first call, he passed by a few by the second call, but trailing by over 10 strides looked to be a bit much to overcome as he only won once with this size deficit before.   By the third call, he was in 5th and six behind the leader.  The stretch run was terrific as he got his mojo going, took the lead and drew off to win by over two lengths.   A fantastic run worth 40 BP’s.  Three sire cards were picked up with the win which had a rare D-card with a pair of G’s.

Long distance runner RESERVATION FOR ME took to a 12f, $12,500 starter allowance race going on the turf for the first time for the stable.  He has previously hit the board 6 times on the grass in 6 starts.  The track would be in good condition, and the chalk 3/5 favorite has not won on a wet track (but has been ITM in the two outings he’s had in off-track conditions).   The field was small with only four runners and Reservation ran well off the lead in second.  He made a surge to the lead by the half but was joined with the eventual winner who loved the conditions more than Reservation did.  The second place finish delivered 10 BP’s and earned one G-card.

Two year old A THOUSAND JOYS, a horse that was bred using sire cards and named based on The Challenge objective of obtaining 1,000 BP’s.   This was her second career start and comes on the heels of finishing second in a MSW in her debut.  This week she added a furlong in distance to 5.5f and moved to a $35,000  claiming race.  She entered the gate as the 2/1 favorite and like her first start, she went right to the lead and it would be a lead she would have to fight hard to retain.  The horse running second would not go away and inched closer and closer until they were head-to-head as they fought through the stretch.   The pair hit the wire together and A Thousand Joys would break her maiden with a win by a nose.  The 70 speed was a nice improvement from 62 and even nicer were the 37 BP’s which came along with a pair of G-sire cards.

The week brought in 87 BP’s, advancing the kitty to 256 which may be enough to find a decent DDS to breed with the shares in American Pharoah and AP Indy that are waiting to be used.  One D-card and 6 G-cards this week are added to the 6 F and 4 G’s from last week.   So trading sets of 5 cards upward clears out all the G-cards (total of 10) to 2 more F-cards (giving 8) which trade up to one E a(and 3 F’s left over).  So after all this swapping, we have 1-D, 1-E and 3-F cards.

The vacancy left by Altered Killer being claimed has been filled by ALWAYS CONFLICTED, a horse that was claimed and housed in the farm and will be making his first stable start in a few weeks, most likely on the dirt, a surface he has not raced on.

As I like to give 2-year olds a decent race between starts, A Thousand Joys has been sent back to the farm and VYZA FRANCE has been moved out of the farm as the replacement.  Vyza was claimed a few weeks ago and we’ll be looking for her to add to her consistency in hitting the board (12 of 17 so far) and delivering some of those BP’s  (which I’m sure everyone will agree are more valuable then bitcoins).

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