The Yearling Fillies of Longwood Farm

After meeting Red Devilette, I was introduced to the other two  yearling fillies that I would be working with, Miss Slewpy and Cathys Con.

Miss Slewpy was the blood bay that I had sensed something special about, along with Red Devilette, and Cathys Con, was the cute chestnut filly that I sensed was a nice horse, but I just didn't sense that she wanted to be a race horse, at least not to the same level as her two pasture mates.   Miss Slewpy did have an air about her, similar, but not exactly the same, as Red Devilette, the "I'm special."  attitude that I could sense in her.   I tend to believe that good racehorses know they are good and I can just sense this about them, even at an early age, long before they are ever tested on the track.

Miss Slewpy was interesting, at first.   She hated the sound of metal on metal, so when we were tacking her up, we had to be extremely careful not to even let the buckles of the girth jingle, or it would send her into a frenzy.   When I mounted her, I had to be careful that the stirrup didn't hit anything metal on the rest of the tack.   Exercise riding saddles don't have much leather, so sometimes not all the metal is covered.

It took some time and work, but Miss Slewply finally overcame this fear of the metal sound and became a pleasure to ride.   You could feel the power under you and she was very controlled about it.   She could get worked up, from time to time, but most of the time she was just fun to ride.

After working on the farm for a bit over a month, another young girl was hired to help me with the horses and since I had Miss Slewpy going so nicely, and the men trusted me with the more difficult horses and not knowing this new girl's abilities, they said to let her now ride Miss Slewpy, so after that, I only rode her from time to time.

Cathys Con started out being pretty easy to ride and deal with, but after awhile, something changed and she started having some issues for some reason.   It took some work, but after spending a lot of time going back to the basics and just being patient, she finally came back around to the gentle filly that I knew she was.   To this day, I have no idea what happened and why she started acting up, but the other girl was riding her, during that time, and then she was given back to me, to see if I could fix the problem and I did.

Miss Slewpy was by Slewpy (by Seattle Slew) andout of Capp It Off.   She went on to have the race record of  26 starts, 14 wins, 6 seconds, and 2 thirds, with earnings of $535,862.  In 1996 she won the G2 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct and the G3 Carousel Stakes at Laurel, as her two biggest wins, but she had many more stakes wins and placings.

Cathys Con was by Acallade and out of Conniving.   She raced 15 times, had 1 win and 5 seconds, with earnings of $6,595.   So, though she did end up a winner, I was right in that she just wasn't of the same quality as the other two fillies.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I truly believe that Red Devilette could have done a lot more than her record shows, based on what I felt, observed, etc when I worked with her, if only things hadn't gone wrong for her.  Red Devilette (Oh Say out of Red Lamp) had 14 starts, 3 wins, and 2 seconds, with earnings of $30,112.

Unfortunately, Miss Slewpy passed away shortly after her racing career.  From what I heard she tore during a rectal exam and developed an infection, which eventually lead to founder and she had to be euthanized before she could produce any foals.

Cathys Con doesn't show as having any Thoroughbred foals, so I have always wondered what happened to her.

Red Devilette re-entered my life in November 2004, but I will share that story another time and detail her produce record, as she is the only one of the three yearling fillies that I worked with at Longwood Farm, to have foals.

I wish I could remember more about the fillies, but almost 20 years has passed since I worked with them.   I probably remember more about Red Devilette, because I rode her more than the other two.   If my memory gets jogged by anything, I will be sure to write it down and share it.