hit me, baby

One more time for Nautical Agent. She's back in at Colonial Downs on Friday, 7/27 in the day's sixth race. Tim was down to saddle another one of his horses, Gator Nation, on Friday and said that she's doing well. No need for her to do more than jog between starts, as she's as fit as she'll be and the weather can get rather hot this time of year. She's eating well and has clearly taken to the new venue, so let's hope that the additional class relief on Friday and few weeks at the racetrack have her set to fire.

The Fasig-Tipton NY-bred yearling sale from Saratoga is in a few weeks, so it's time to study up. I'll head up for the preferred session and scope out the scene. The game plan is to identify things that are appealing in certain pedigrees, nix the pedigrees that are just of no interest and then travel up to look for real athletes, regardless of where they are in their development. It's an art of matching up balance and lines with pedigrees and requires a certain amount of creativity and projection. (It's that last part of the equation that's the trickiest.) If you can spot the ones that stand to bloom coming out of the sale and get them at a fair price relative to their potential, you can do fairly well for yourself. The ones that can be spotted as good looking horses with little effort are the ones where the bidding just gets silly. Usually, I'll grab a sandwich when those lots come through the ring.