like this?

Well, whatever she has going on upstairs in her pretty head, Veiled Reference is still wired to run. She had a fantastic debut on Wednesday at Laurel Park, finishing second after all sorts of excitement and trouble thrown at her straight out of the gate (chart here). It wasn't too surprising to see her break a touch slow and to the inside (these morning sessions do matter), but her break wasn't a total disaster and she gathered herself up quickly after the start. She was fairly keen to go on and pulled her jock up on the inside in and behind other fillies all the way down the backside. It was nice to see the speed from her, but she pretty much zipped into a dicey tactical position in the field, trapped behind the speed and boxed in by the outside stalkers. Typically, horses absolutely hate that kind of trip, as they get covered in the dirt kicked back by the other runners. To her credit, though, she took the dirt like a real trooper and held her position without protest, which is rare for any horse, let alone a first time starter who might or might not talk to dead people in her stall. At the top of the lane she was still boxed in behind other fillies and I was fully prepared for her to call it a day after all the dirt she had eaten through 3/4ths of a mile. So, for her to angle out, chase after the winner and spit out two other fillies that had every right to pass her was sweet, to say the least. She galloped out strongly, pulling up past the winner and gave every indication that the more ground to cover, the merrier.

I didn't get any brilliant pictures, but I'll post what I have from Wednesday just to showcase how well she's developed over the past year. She's a really nice looking filly with perfect balance and proportion, muscle and athleticism. You can see it to look at her straight on, and you can sure as heck see it when she's in motion. I'll try to get some video up, too, to show what I mean. Have to get on to my IT department.