Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better!

Oaks winner Inglorious faced the boys today in the Queen's Plate, and showed them how it was done, becoming the 34th filly in the race's 152-year history to win the Canadian classic. Woodbine faithfully puts up videos of their races, so be sure to watch! After the regular replay is a second one from a different angle - also worth watching.



It was a great day of racing - but Inglorious was the star of the show. Can't wait to get to the easel to work from some of these photos. Hopefully I'll actually manage that!


If you don't 'get' the title to this post, check out this YouTube link - dedicated to Inglorious!

A Big Day!

It's a long road from the time you start contemplating breeding a mare, until you actually find yourself with a racehorse, if you even get that far! Picking the stallion, the vet visits to determine when the mare is ready to breed, van ride to the breeding shed, then the waiting begins. Waiting for two weeks to see if she's in foal...two more weeks to make sure she's still in foal....45 days, 150 days...and so on, till hopefully around 340 days you're sleep-deprived from night watch and baby finally arrives, safe and sound. February 10, 2007, little Miss Peaks joined us on the planet, and she was a big strong girl from day one.

"COME ON, PEAKER!!!!!!"

She had her ups and downs - she had surgery when she was less than a week old for entropian, at three months she had an R. equi infection and resultant pneumonia, though not as serious as some of those cases can be. Once she started training, she had a few setbacks as well, and was back and forth from track to farm a few times for some rest. I've been scanning the entries every day for the last week because I knew she was finally ready to run...and yesterday was the day! And she made us all proud - after breaking slowly and spotting the field a few lengths down the backstretch (some 13 lengths behind the leaders), she started picking up horses on the far turn and really came on in the stretch to get up for third, beaten just over a length. A couple of jumps later she had them - and she still hasn't got everything figured out! You can watch the replay, courtesy of Woodbine Entertainment, here. (Her real name is Clever Peaks).

The Morning Line

Plate morning! There’s always a special feel around the backstretch, whether you’re running in the big race or not. I remember we always made sure the shed was leveled and raked even more carefully than on normal days, and the apron and lawn outside was particularly clean. We even polished the brass on the halters. Being stabled close to the receiving barn, we witnessed the arrival of the horse guards first-hand, something that was sure to set my dear girl Petunia over the edge! Not her favourite morning, that’s for sure.


When I turned the foals out this morning, they spent the first five minutes running and playing. It was probably inspired by the cool, damp air, but I entertained that they just know it’s Plate Day! Gracie is backing Ginger Brew, because, of course, chestnut fillies rule. Billy’s dad Mobil ran second in the Plate, and Gracie pointed out that it was a chestnut that beat him (stablemate Wando, 2003). Billy kind of likes Not Bourbon today, being Ontario-sired and all, but he let on that he’ll be rooting for Uncle Jerry and Deputiformer. Nothing wrong with picking a longshot! Just ask Monster…her dad Tejabo sired a whopper in TJ’s Lucky Moon back in 2002.


Woodbine Entertainment and LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement are having a neat fundraiser after this year’s Plate. The saddle cloths of all the starters will be auctioned on eBay this week to raise money for LongRun. I’ll post a link to the auctions as soon as I have it so you can check it out.


Okay, so I’m hoping I’ve distracted you from asking about the Mike Fox painting. All right, I admit it, it’s not done. So I came up short. It’s getting very close though. At this stage I’m working on a lot of nit-picky stuff, so progress is a lot slower. Won’t be long now! And maybe I’ll start on this year’s winner a little earlier! Hope that grey sky brightens a little by post time!