On July 7, 2012 Marq Your Bible aka "Marcus" marked a major milestone in his life, by competing in his first race. He was in the 10th race at Colonial Downs, a 5 furlong race on the turf for Maiden's, with a Claiming price of $25,000.
It was super hot, again, but this time no sign of any storms, thank goodness. Reports are that last week there really was a tornado at Colonial Downs that was spotted crossing the far parking lot, jumped the grandstand, where a good sized crowd was hiding, and touched down in the infield, before jumping the barn area. Colonial Downs, all the people, and all the horses, were very lucky last week, for sure.
With Marcus race being the 10th, it meant a very late night, as the post time was 10:54 PM, but it also meant cooler temperatures for his race, though the humidity was still very high.
Right before the 7th race, I was surprised by a lady I had only previously known via emails and Facebook. Mary contacted me a few years ago after acquiring Perfect Pet aka "Hope", a filly a bred and then sold, who happens to be Marcus' full sister.
Hope raced 20 times, won once, and had 10 seconds, including a second in a stakes race, with earnings of around $60,000. Mary now rides Hope all over trails, up and down mountains, through rivers, takes her swimming, and more. She says she loves it when people find out Hope is a pure Thoroughbred who raced successfully, because she is so calm.
Mary wanted to help cheer Marcus on in his first race and drove almost 2 hours to get there.
Mary and I sat and talked and I really enjoyed her company. She helped the time pass so much more quickly for me, as the waiting was really hard.
I had earlier tried to pass the time by picking a few horses in earlier races and I did pick one winner, which was nice, Queen of the Disco.
After the 9th race we all headed over to the Paddock to await Marcus arrival. He walked in calmly and nothing seemed to bother him one bit. Even when a nearby horse flipped out and started kicking the walls of the saddling stall he was in, creating a lot of noise, Marcus did not seem bothered one bit.
Ryan Fogelsonger was Marcus jockey and came out and got a leg up with no problems. A few more laps around the Paddock and out to the track he went where he was led by a beautiful Paint horse.
Again, Marcus was as calm as he could be, trying to look at the crowd, despite his blinkers. he remained well behaved during the warm-up and then it was time to go in the gate. The horse led into the gate right before Marcus acted up and flipped over, prompting a delay to the start of the race, as the other horses had to be backed out of the gate and the fallen horse gotten up. That horse was scratched at the gate, to make sure he was okay, they did not want to race him. So, they had to wait to get that horse away from the others and then the field started the loading process all over again.
This time all went well and Marcus had a slight awkward start, but the horse next to him had broke sideways which may have caused this, as the report does say the horse interfered with the horse on the other side of it, as well.
Our trainer, Diana McClure had told us before the race that Marcus had recently been changing his attitude and that before they thought he was going to be a sprinter, like his full sister, but in the last few weeks, he had been showing signs of rating and then finishing stronger the longer his gallops and breezes had been getting, so she told us that the race may actually be too short for him, but only the race would tell us, so we watched in anticipation.
He was 6th at the top of the stretch, but as they neared the wire, he did seem to be picking up speed and he did close the gap between him and the 5th place horse, by several lengths, but still ended up 6th, but that last kick showed us he did have something, but he needed a longer race.
After they crossed the finish line, Marcus was just getting going, into top speed, and quickly passed the slowing horses, passing all of them quickly. It did take Ryan some time to slow Marcus down and his report back to Diana echoed what Diana had started to suspect the last few weeks, Marcus needs a longer race.
So, now we will look for a race at about a mile to try him at next time.
We'll see how he comes out of this race and that will depend on how quickly he is put back in a race.
he cooled out very quickly and seemed fine after the race, so if all is well, there is a chance he could run again next weekend, but that will be up to Diana to decide. We will be happy whatever she decides, whether it is next week or we wait two weeks, we'll let Marcus tell Diana when the next race will be.
We are very happy with his performance, last night, he did beat 2 horses, including the overwhelming favorite. Diana had him truly fit, which he showed several times and finally with the quick cooling out.
So, with his first race under him, Marcus is now officially a true racehorse!
No comments:
Post a Comment