Christmas Week
It was a very good Christmas week all around. Tuesday, late afternoon Brad, Lauren & Oliver arrived to spend nearly a week with us and we were very excited about having them here (a) for such a long time, but (b) more importantly to share Christmas morning and week with them. Was just a wonderful time. From a racing perspective, the dark day for the week was moved from the usual Wednesday to Thursday Christmas Day, and so Gulfstream ran a Christmas Eve card. I had four selections on the day and felt pretty good about them. Though, as I noted to Brad, the quality of racing in the last couple years here during the winter is far different. It's not very typical to have a lot of confidence in many of the selections so as I said to Brad Friday morning, I wasn't all that surprised that despite the "confidence level" I had had before the racing day, that I finished 0-for-4 with a second and three thirds. Friday was the next racing day of the week. I had seven selections from the nine-race card and again, thought I had a better than fair chance to win. I opened the day with a third at 2/1. Then in R3 I debated about upping the bet. My pick the favorite, Step Slow, was stepping up from a maiden $12.5K race to compete here in a $20K event. I typically don't like that, but he was the only horse in the field who had run to par and that offset the class rise. But when he was being pounded at 1/5 odds heading to the gate I thought, maybe I should up the bet. But then decided that while the crowd might be confident, I was not in this kind of affair. Smart move on my part as he was a non-threatening 2nd. WOW. Ran fourth with my next choice and I began to wonder if this week was going to be "one of those weeks" where I struggled to find the winner's circle. Finally got on the board in R5, a claiming event going 6f. Didn't have a world of confidence in Sheshimaintainence but she was going first off the claim for a barn that wins with nearly 30% of those. Broke sharply to be part of the pace but then through the opening half mile gradually dropped back, back, back and back until being last heading into the turn. WOW, I thought. But then I saw the rider ask for run and the response was immediate. She began rolling and picking off horses into the lane and by the time they hit the 16th pole she had all the momentum and blew by to score as the even money favorite.
Fell back into the "go figure" realm when Our Town was sent off as the 1-2 favorite in the next race but could only manage to be a distant third. Wow squared. Race 7 was a conditioned allowance event going a mile on the turf. On the one hand, it did look to be a competitive affair, but as I noted in my analysis, it was hard NOT to note that One Stripe had run in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile and the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile in his last two starts. Those were his only two tries in North America for trainer Graham Motion. Wasn't sure how to evaluate his 6-for-9 record in his native South Africa, but that they had thought enough to try back-to-back Gr 1 races made me think he'd probably run well on the big class drop today for jockey John Velazquez. Sent off at a generous 5/2 price Johnny V kept him in the clear into the turn while the betting favorite was boxed in with nowhere to go. 'Stripe burst to the front heading for home and by the time the favorite shook loose it was way too late. WHOOOO HOOOO that $35 payoff helps. Finished the Friday card with a 4th in the featured Rampart Stakes with the 6/5 post time favorite.
Saturday is typically the "big day" of the racing week but two things held me back from making it the usual all-day affair. First, with the family here and especially with the 6pm departure for the hockey game I knew I wouldn't be completely focused nor spending the typical amount of time on racing. And secondly, the big Opening Day card at Santa Anita had been postponed from Friday to Sunday. With the multiple graded stakes on the card, and with Brad's family leaving around lunch time I thought this would be the "bigger" of the two days. The day started like the rest of the week as my pick in the Gulfstream opener ran 2nd. But for the first time this week I seemed to hit my stride with picking winners. I was only playing Gulfstream and the Fair Grounds today. In the opener in New Orleans I thought that just maybe today was the day that finally Bluegrass Town would get his first elusive win. The switch to Jose Ortiz in the irons gave me a degree of confidence. Tracked in fourth to the stretch then swung into the clear and ran by the leaders to score at even money. I'd made him a "conditional" bet that I would see how the betting went, so I was happy with my decision.
Awesome Train
Higgins Boat
Montador
Private Thoughts
Synthetic
Knightsbridge
Majestical
Sunday: Opening Day at Santa Anita
Authentic Wave
Equitas
Waymark
Nysos
Social Media this week......
Human interaction this week was plentiful as our youngest son Brad and his family arrived on Tuesday afternoon and stayed until mid-day Sunday after Christmas. Loved having them here for the extended time and in particular enjoyed being able to chat with my son & grandson. Christmas Day was one of the best we've had in this household as we shared the holiday gift giving and present unwrapping with the extended family. The best photo of the day came when Kim and I modeled our Christmas Panthers Winter Classic hoodies while Oliver had his jersey on with the matching beanie.
Saturday was Panthers hockey night and we all sported newly acquired Winter Classic attire. Multiple photo ops on the evening. The only downside was the loss to our bitter rival in a game that was unfairly officiated....and that's not just from a Panthers' fan perspective. Truly not a fair "fight" so to speak!
Heard from multiple social media pals. Pammy was a WISE student of mine and while we don't have frequent contact, it's nice to know we are still in touch. She's got such a cute family - good for her!
Lauren Pastrana & I exchanged several contacts this week. One such was a reel she posted when the breeze caught her just right for one of those staged "fashion moments" LOL. And later in the week we exchanged holiday greeting messages.
Karli Barnett and I don't have nearly the amount of contact we used to have, but after last week's FB live chat interaction, this week she was in her Instagram messages and saw my photo of the snow on the pool deck and reached out to me. When I replied, she wrote back right away.
Teri Hornstein was interested in the snow-covered pool deck as well and inquired about how I was able to do that.
On Christmas Eve Day I reached out to our Orlando realtor, and gal-pal Sophia to wish her and her family a Merry Christmas. For the next hour or so we chatted about the holiday and in particular about her baking cookies. When I asked how her daughter had done as a helper Sophia shared a photo of Juliette taking such care to make sure to get the sprinkles just right :)
My Disney-girl Amanda and I also exchanged Christmas greetings and photos. Found it interesting that she brought up the use of Chat GPT AI tool and how they had used it on their family pic.
My "adopted daughter" Jillian and I also exchanged holiday greetings via FB messenger.
But my favorite social media story of the week involved my most favorite former student of all time, Kimmy. Since moving to North Carolina and starting their family my exchanges with Kimmy have become more spotty. But to her credit as a busy working woman, mother of two we still keep in contact. But on this day when I reached out to wish her Merry Christmas she not only responded but we had a "conversation" over the next hour. Two comments that really made me feel good came when she first remarked, "I love all the pics." Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so......the last couple of trips as I have shared photos during the trip I rarely get a return comment, and since it's a text all I know is it was delivered. I have hoped that Kimmy still enjoys my sharing and she's seen them, but I haven't known for sure. This remark tells me - I believe - that she has been enjoying them (and will encourage me to continue sharing!) and that she is just unable to respond/reply for various reasons. The second comment came when I said to Kimmy, ".....on my Christmas list is to see her some time in 2026." And almost immediately came the reply, "That would be awesome!" Truly made me feel good and I will reach out to her and try to get some kind of plan together, as difficult as that may be.
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