Northwest Racing Circuit

Time certainly does go fast and now it is a new year. Hopefully things will get better and as usual, I have made the same old New Year's resolutions - lose weight, be a better person, have more patience and try and be 'greener'. HA! I have never kept any before for any length of time and I don't know why this year will be any different. But we will try.

The past few months have been okay for me. I got away for a week's vacation - to Texas - of all places but had a wonderful time with family and seeing the Alamo was the highlight of the trip for me. The Mission itself is so small but the ground they tried to hold was acres. Do you know what Alamo means in Spanish? Cottonwood - as in the trees. Okay, okay - back to life on the farm.

Arizona is still dry, about 12 inches below normal, and other than one good storm which produced more wind than rain we have stayed sunny and cold, nights in the 20's and days in the 40s. Bah! I hate having to break the ice on the water troughs - and speaking of water it remains frozen until late afternoon because I have too many large trees that keep the spigots in the shade - no automatic waterers around here. Poor Matt is the one that has to do the watering and he has to stand out there in the cold and the wind guarding the hose because every one of the horses thinks the hose is a toy.

Speaking of wind - the storm that roared through here made my yard look like a war zone. I was terrified! Wind clockings were reported at 70 mph and Arizona trees aren't made to stand that much wind. Matt of course was in Tucson attending the University Of Arizona's Racetrack Symposium. Was I ever jealous about that but that's another story! However, the house held together, I have kindling for the next five years and I lost only one red Christmas bow - which I am sure is in Vermont. I bet the horses were terrified but they were on their own as I was cowering inside and it all happened in the middle of the night. The first big branch that snapped - I hit the floor and stayed there with all the cats and dog huddled around me.

I finally got the yearlings over to the trainer and he wasn't happy with them. We did less with these two than we have done with any of the others. Usually we get them used to saddle and bridle and even drive them a bit before sending them on their way. This year I was just too old and so we just sent them. One of them, FD Icy has a bit of a temper and when Bilo (the horse breaker) tied him to the post he came unglued. He threw himself on the ground, got up threw himself upside down and then would do it all again. It took a while but he finally gave it up and now stands tied like a good horse, goes on the walker and they both are galloping around the training track. Teaching a horse to tie is never pretty but it is one of those things they just really need to know and people down the road in their lives will be eternally grateful.

My New Mexico trainer returned to Prescott for the winter and I left Newtons Theory at Sunland Park with an old friend, Alex Hartman (some of you may know his better known brother - Chris). He ran a super third about a couple of weeks ago for Alex and if the race had been longer would have won easily. If you are not a NM bred, it is very hard to get into a race and he was on the AE list going a mile but did not draw in so ended up going 5 1/2 furlongs and it just wasn't long enough. There is a race next week for him and I hope he gets in. Alex gave him a goat and he seems happier but I still wish someone would claim or buy him.

Nae Doot got hurt only a few days before he was to return to training. He hurt his hip on a steel post and had to be on stall rest for 30 days. He seems better and he is now out with a couple of others but he still favors it a bit and I am going to give him another month before I try and make a decision about what to do with him. He may never recover but you just have to be an optimist about such things.

Crown Secret did get to Phoenix and other than not wanting to work she should start the first week in January. I am beginning to think she doesn't want to be a racehorse. She works every week but most of the time does not go fast enough to get a recorded time. Of course her trainer is kind of the doom and gloom type and had me just as worried when she ran so well at Yavapai last summer.

For what its worth, I am going to start posting these articles in the BTB but will post them here first since this was the first forum that encouraged me to put them up, assuring me that I wasn't boring anyone too much.