The Newturf Experience

A look into the day of a rookie Newturf owner, trainer and jockey.

With a month now under my belt, I’ve started to gain a little more insight into the daily nuances of this game. With it also comes a desire to challenge myself to raise the bar overall. I’ve enjoyed decent success with the claimers but I yearn to have the right horse(s) to challenge in the higher class races. In a bit of a bid to fill that void, I’ve been purchasing low priced lots from the auction. Some are fillies with decent bloodlines, so if they don’t pan out on the track there’s always the shed. I’ve also picked up some 1 yr olds who I hope will be the raceable type.

With almost 15 new horses arriving at the barn today, I set about giving them a test run. Some show decent speed, others make me cringe. Some are difficult to judge as they’ve been sitting idle for some time. Those I hope will show improvement within the coming days.

A good many saw their first action today with mostly poor performances. There were a couple bright spots in the lot. The poorly performing ones I will try to withhold judgement until they run another race. If they’re still stinking up the track, they’ll be removed from active duty. With a grand total of 2.40 paid for the entire lot, I’m not too worried about it.

I’ve been improving quite steadily lately with the handling of my longer rides. Most of my 1600M rides today were done as properly as possible and it paid off with a couple wins. I also scored a 2200M win in a team race which brought an audible “Whoop” as my guy just held on for the win. I still make occasional mistakes as in one race today where poor location programming resulted in my horse being boxed in badly and losing out on a paying position. It’s little things like that that can cost you a race. My main goal is to watch riding in an over aggressive manner in which I’ve been prone to do in the past.

I’ve been chasing bigger sprint races with a horse called Caze Proteine. He’s been my highest level winner so far with a win of a Listed race on Jan 2, followed by a Group II win on Jan 7. The Group II win was a great feeling as it was my biggest take in a Newturf race so far, just slightly under 5 Euro. His next outing, a venture into the unknown Group I racing, proved a little too much as he finished 3 of 3. I’ll try one more time for the Group I.

While I don’t do a lot of riding and training for other owners, I do catch drive a few for one of the newer Team Buzz owners, Grange Park. Grange’s horses were on the ball today as I was dragged along for a couple wins. Most impressive was Kendo de Qer, who scored his second win in a row, this one the grade B Channel derby. The 3 year old flat running colt is packing a nice punch so far for this fledgling stable.

Well that’s all for now. Hope to see you on the track at Newturf!

Mike
Ontario Racing