goodbye, timonium

No dice at the yearling sale. I went down on Sunday to look at the yearlings on our list and by late afternoon we were through. Thanks for coming. The mildly frustrating part is that we didn't spot anything that even bordered on making the cut. Sure, we went back and looked at a few twice, but I've always favored prospects that really announce themselves that first time out. Maybe it means that I'll miss a few good ones here and there, but I'll likely save more than my fair share from the ones that I manage to dodge. No harm in going down, though. It was good to catch up with Tim and have a look at what some of the young sires are getting (some quite nice, some not too pretty).

Mass Romantic and Veiled Reference are both in good order. Depending on how she works this week, we might enter Mass Romantic to race early next week down at Delaware Park. She's plenty fit and her knee is still solid, knock on wood. Tim doesn't have her cranked, I'd say, but it's time to start her back and just see where we are, both in terms of the knee and whatever kind of ability she might have. After the few starts, we'll know more one way or the other.

Veiled Reference did much better out of the gate in her most recent work from the gate. She broke with the other filly she breezed with, as opposed to her bunny hop out of there the last time, and worked nicely in company with her workmate. We'd always suspected it, but Tim reported afterwards that she's most definitely a two-turn type filly. She seems to have a nice, high cruising speed that she's able to sustain, so we'll make plans to get her going long after a debut sprinting. Tim will work her from the gate once or twice more and we'll look at something perhaps toward the middle of the month at Laurel.

Doug reports that Nautical Agent came out of her race in fine fashion. I have to take a look at the condition book to see what might make sense for her in a few weeks. Based on what we saw at the sale, I'm more and more inclined to maybe breed her next year. The knock on her is that she's small, but I'm not entirely certain that her size is a deal-breaker. It's countered in a big way by her pedigree (very deep), heart (very large), soundness (knock on wood a second time) and conformation. Now that we've seen her handle the main track up at Finger Lakes, dirt is very much in play for her offspring. If we can add a bit of size and brilliance to the mix through a stud (the brilliance would hopefully bring out the speed throughout her pedigree), we might get ourselves something nice. That said, breeding racehorses makes racing them look like sticking your money in t-bills. Can't take it with you, though, right?