Another CVF Artist

We're happy to welcome another artist to the Castle Village farm partnership. Here's a painting by new partner Teresa Fasolino, of the Belmont paddock.

Barn Report - December 12, 2010

Iguazu finishes 2nd at Aqueduct 12-9-2010

Iguazu made a very nice return from a long layoff this past Thursday. He competed deep into the stretch before tiring and finishing second. It’s quite possible Iguazu will get another start before he reaches the age of four.

Iguazu was chomping away on his hay when Vinny, Steve and myself stopped by on Sunday to congratulate him on his big effort. Bruce Brown thinks Iguazu will be ready to race again by the end of the month. Iguazu had a 68 Beyer speed rating and that number has proven to be competitive at this level. Bruce is considering the Maiden Claiming $60k-$50k on 12/29 and the Maiden Claiming $35-$25 on 12/30. Probably only one of these races will be used, so Iguazu will be entered in both. Bruce and his staff have done a great job schooling Iguazu and now he needs to experience racing. Hope to see everyone at Iguazu's next race.

Castle Village Farm continues to be active racing and looking for new additions to our stable. Here is where we are:

Bruce Brown expects Bishop of Nola and Metrology to come back from their freshenings and have competitive four year old campaigns.

The Fall/Winter Claiming Partnership has exceeded its goal of $25K and continues to grow. Steve and Bruce have not seen anything so far that interests them, but the process continues.

The Two-Year Old Partnership information will be available towards the end of January.

Thank you all for your continued support and have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season.

Barn Report - December 5, 2010

Iguazu with Joe, Mary Ann and John C.

Cold weather, the inner dirt track at Aqueduct and Iguazu is ready to race. Patience is a strong virtue to have when waiting for a young horse to develop. Partners seem to enjoy the anticipation and unknown potential in this type of partnership. Iguazu is entered in the fourth race this Thursday (12/9) at Aqueduct. We hope to see something positive in his first race off a long layoff and the second race of his career.

Bishop of Nola and Metrology are getting a winter freshening in upstate NY. Thank you all for your interest in visiting them, Mike Shrader at the In Front Training Center says he needs a day or two notice for a visit, so just get in touch with me and I'll be happy to set things up.

Fall/Winter Claiming Partnership has reached 90% of the initial monetary goal. Steve sent out the first evaluation a few days ago. If anyone didn't receive this information, either from Steve or myself, please let us know. Shares are still available for anyone interested.

The two-year old partnership is drawing quite a bit of interest as the list continues it's steady climb.

We will be in the Man of War room by noon on Thursday and hope many of you can join us.

Barn Report - Sunday September 19

CVF Partner Vinny DiSpigno with Metrology and Bruce Brown

With Steve still out at Keeneland, Joe had all the fun at Bruce Brown’s Belmont barn this weekend, accompanied by partners Esta, Stu, John, Vinny, Paddy and Ellen. Here’s his report:

Bishop of Nola has been given the nickname of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". Bruce said the Bishop acts like the perfect horse and then suddenly something will just set him off. Bruce attributes it to nerves and nothing physical. The Bishop lost a shoe during the night, and it’s tough to find a blacksmith on Sunday, so Bruce had him jogging around the shed row for 20 minutes. When the Bishop returned to his stall, he eagerly ate carrots fed to him by partners,. Bruce and Steve will be looking at October turf races for Bishop of Nola. Iguazu was also jogged around the shed row this morning. Bruce is being cautious with him, but at the same time wants to keep him moving forward. Partners and I all noticed how muscular Iguazu has become, and a comment was made that Iguazu looks like a Pletcher horse. Time will tell, Bruce said it has only been a week so we will see how Iguazu progresses.

Metrology is doing very well and seemed to enjoy the attention given to him. Bruce brought Metrology to graze in the grass outside his barn, and, after a little bit of hesitation, a group of us were able to feed him carrots. Everybody was surprised at that, because the word when he’d first arrived in the barn was that he was pretty mean. He’s nicer now, but (this is meant for Ellen and others who like to hug our horses), Metrology is still not the huggable type. Bruce said Metrology likes to be left alone at times (every one of us immediately could relate to that feeling). Bruce is pretty confident that Metrology will be racing in October. Steve and Bruce will soon start discussing next race possibilities.

Talking Blues had a very nice breeze yesterday morning. Bruce Brown with stopwatch in hand, along with the partners, watched Talking Blues breeze in company (he won by a long neck). After the breeze, Bruce said, Talking Blues is ready to go. Bruce entered Talking Blues in dirt races for this Thursday and Friday, but neither race was used, so Bruce will try again for a turf race on Saturday, 9/25. Entries for that race are due this Wednesday. As soon as we have confirmation we will do another posting. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again at Belmont Park.

If you’d like to join in our weekend barn visits, just get in touch with Joe. Email is CVFSales@gmail.com and the toll-free phone is (888) 989-RACE (7223).

Meanwhile, you can catch up with what Steve’s been doing at Keeneland by clicking on:

Barn Report - Sunday, August 29th

Most of the New York racing world was focused on Saratoga this past Sunday – understandably – Rachel Alexandra was racing that day. But, even though things are a lot quieter down at Belmont, the backstretch is still full of race horses that need to be exercised every morning. The training track is closed for repairs, so Joe, Steve and partner Vinny DiSpigno couldn’t have their usual couple of hours hanging out on the rail near Bruce Brown’s barn. Instead, they visited with Talking Blues and Bishop of Nola, who were already back in their stalls, after their morning breezes, and then went over to the main track to hang on that rail for a change.

Most trainers send their horses out one at a time, a lot go out in pairs, and, every now and then, there’s a group of three or even four. But the railbirds got to see Christophe Clement’s horses all come out onto the track together. There must have been a dozen of them, prancing and huffing and circling, all in matching saddle cloths. No other trainer in New York sends out that many at a time, mostly because no other trainer can find that many exercise riders. But Clement, who hails from France (and quit smoking Gauloises only a couple of years ago), still trains in the European manner. His exercise riders double as grooms and hotwalkers, so he can keep more of them on as full-time employees. We have to tell you, if races were decided by how a trainer’s string looked in the morning, Clement would win hands down.

On most August Sundays, that would have been the end of live racing for the day for the Castle Village Farm guys. But, at 11:00, as he was driving home from the Belmont backstretch, Steve got a call from Bruce. “Don’t go home yet. Come up here to Saratoga. That horse you wanted to claim, the one I thought wouldn’t be available, well, he is. You want him, we’ll go for him.” So, Steve did, and here’s his report:

Beautiful day for a drive up to the Spa; made it in just over three hours, in plenty of time before the seventh race.

Bruce and I checked out our pick, Dallas Stewart’s three-year-old Henceforth, as he came into the paddock. Nice big, well-muscled horse, walking well, no obvious problems. So Bruce dropped the claim slip at the racing office while I watched from outside the paddock; if a potential buyer is inside the paddock before the race, the claim can be voided. That actually hgppened to us a few years ago. One of our partners found himself inside the paddock at the wrong moment. It wasn’t fun.

Henceforth was a little on edge getting saddled, and was the only horse leaving the paddock for the track to show a lot of kidney sweat. That’s never a good sign. As the gate opened for the race, he stumbled, then tried to make up ground from his far outside post position, racing wide the whole way around. He made some headway down the stretch, but, by the sixteenth pole, he’d faded. He finished next to last. He had lots of excuses, but for someone who’d dropped a claim slip on him, it was not a great feeling. But, I thought, it was the wrong race for that horse, wrong surface, wrong distance, and the horse had a terrible trip. I still wanted him.

So Bruce and I went back to the racing office to see if we had. There’d been a bunch of other claims dropped on that race. We didn’t know who they were for, but so we figured at least a couple of them must have been on Henceforth. We were more right than we’d ever have guessed. There were seven claims in the race – and all seven of them were for Henceforth. The line-up at the racing office counter included Gary Contessa, Dominick Galluscio (dressed for the nineteenth hole in a bright magenta sports jacket), Mike Maker (Maker wasn’t there himself; one of his assistants was standing in for him), Scott Everett, a couple of other trainers, and us.

The racing office is always full of people who don’t seem to have anything to do, maybe because some of them have very specialized jobs, like managing the shake when there’s a bunch of claims on the same horse. In Saratoga, that job belongs to a little guy with big glasses. With seven claims, Little Guy must have felt like he’d done a full day’s work. He slapped the seven claim slips face down in a row on the racing office counter, as if he was dealing a hand of cards.

I thought the shake would be next, but something else happened first, something I’d never seen before. As Little Guy was laying out the claim slips, one by one each of the seven trainers put $100 in cash on the counter next to the slips. Nobody said anything about it; nobody even blinked; they just did it. It was pretty clear that the winner of the horse would also get to take home the $700.

Little Guy dropped seven numbered balls into a cup that looked like it had been made for a couple of dice, gave the cup a good shake, and then tipped it just enough for one of the balls to roll out onto his palm. It was a four. Laboriously, Little Guy counted out the claim slips, from left to right, one to four, and turned over the Little Guy dropped fourth slip. It had Mike Maker’s name scrawled on it; Maker had gotten the horse for owner Ken Ramsey. And his assistant had gotten a cool $700.

A Second Career for CVF Horses -- Right at the Race Track

Castle Village Farm takes its responsibility as a thoroughbred owner very seriously. In particular, we try to make sure that all our race horses have a comfortable and productive second career once they're no longer racing. Some of our former horses have become broodmares (Seneca Falls' first foal, Sweetsouthernman, just won a maiden at Calder). Some, including Pinecall and Through Thicknthin, have moved on to become ribbon-winning hunter-jumpers. Some, such as Cinnamon Light, are working in therapeutic riding programs, and some, like Candooz and Key on Richie, are just hanging out with caring, responsible owners.

And three of our former racers are right back where they enjoyed success -- at the race track, working as stable ponies or outrider ponies. We hope, and I believe, that they are delighted to have found a way to keep active in a place that they love.

Diligent Gambler & Leah Gyarmati on the Belmont training track

We claimed Diligent Gambler, a big gray gelding by Diligence, in 2004, and he went on to win 8 races for us from 28 starts, missing an in-the-money finish only five times. Including his efforts for other trainers, his lifetime record was 44-12-8-10, with earnings of over $365,000. And in 2004 he won a total of 9 races, including those before we claimed him, and was named Florida-bred Claimer of the Year.

By 2007, DG had long since been claimed away, and his racing career was winding down. Our partners generously contributed enough money to buy him back from his last owner. We gave him some time for rest and recuperation, and then Leah Gyarmati, who had trained DG for us for all of those 28 starts, was able to bring him back to the track as her stable pony. Every morning DG takes Leah to the track to watch her horses work out. DG also loves to teach the new two-year-olds how to act like professionals. Right now, DG is with Leah at Saratoga, enjoying the clean, fresh upstate air and looking forward, at age 9, to many more years of useful work at the track.

Brave Sir Robin (r) working on the Belmont pony track

We bought Brave Sir Robin (Runaway Groom-Brave Hearted; if you know Monty Python, you’ll know how he got his name) as a yearling in 2003, and he raced for us until his retirement, some 39 races later, in 2008. Although he only won three of those races, Brave Sir Robin tried hard all the time, finished in the money in nearly half his races, and earned over $150,000. Jimmy Ferraro trained Brave Sir Robin for us.

When we retired Robin, complete with a retirement party at a Long Island restaurant, we were fortunate enough to be able to send him to the late John Hettinger’s Akindale Farm in upstate New York. It took him a year or so before he was ready to go to work again. And then trainer Bobbi Rossi, who had been one of Jimmy Ferraro's assistants, decided that he would make an ideal pony. So Bobbi, now training on her own, brought him back to Belmont, where, as the above picture shows, he takes his job of teaching babies very seriously.

Charlie, trainer Keith & groom Curtis head for the Hialeah track

And finally, the first horse ever to run in Castle Village Farm’s colors, Warwhatisitgoodfor, is still, a dozen years later, on the race track, working as an outrider pony at Gulfstream and Calder.

Charlie, as we knew him, for his Charlie-Chaplin-like walk, was claimed by a group of friends who all lived at the Castle Village apartment development in upper Manhattan. Hence the stable name. Along with trainer Keith Sirota and co-owners sportswriter Paul Moran and ace handicapper Stuie Rubin, we raced Charlie in New Jersey and Florida, getting win pictures at Hialeah and the Meadowlands and enjoying the thrill of being in the races.

Charlie kept running until he was 10 years old, then seamlessly transitioned into his role as a pony, leading the young ‘uns to the starting gate. We wish him many more years of productive work at the track.

Bishop of Nola's Etymology

Castle Village Farm's newest horse is Bishop of Nola, a three-year-old New York-bred gelding by Devil His Due. We claimed Bishop of Nola on July 30th at Saratoga, and just 15 days later, on August 14th, he won a NY-bred allowance for us, leading all the way and drawing off by five lengths at the wire.

Intrigued by our new horse's name, Steve did a little research. Here's what he found:

Bishop of Nola (the equine version) was bred by well-known New York breeder Joe McMahon and, until we claimed him, was owned by the Brooklyn Boyz Stable, a group of friends from, naturally, Brooklyn. The horse was named in honor of the most important feast day at the Brooklyn Boyz' Catholic parish in Brooklyn, the feast of Saint Paulinus, who was the Bishop of Nola, Italy, in the early 5th century. That feast day is celebrated on June 22nd, during the Feast of the Lilies, during which statues of Saint Paulinus are carried on the shoulders of the faithful.

The Brooklyn Boyz also had a filly named Lily of Paradise, referring to the same celebration.

Nola is a small town a few miles outside Naples. It is probably best known now as the home of the philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake as a heretic in 1600, in part at least because of his premature belief in the infinite size and nature of the universe, and his conviction that the sun was just one among billions of similar heavenly bodies, not to mention his pantheistic tendencies, all of which caused considerable discomfort to the rigid theological guardians of the Inquisition

Bruno, although a Dominican friar, was never Bishop of Nola. The best known Bishop is Saint Paulinus, who lived from 354 to 431 A.D and was Bishop from around 410 until his death.

Paulinus came from a wealthy Roman aristocratic family, served as Governor of Campagna, the Roman province that included Naples and Nola, and then doubled the family fortune by marrying well, to Therasia, a "virtuous Spanish noblewoman." But when their child died in infancy, he became a highly observant Christian and retreated into an almost monastic life, eventually being ordained and then, in 410, appointed as Bishop of Nola.

By all accounts, Paulinus was a model of Christian piety, giving away his fortune to help the less privileged, doing good works, and at one point even offering himself as a slave to a barbarian ruler in exchange for the release of one of his parishioners. He was widely regarded as a living saint even before his death, and was swiftly canonized after he died.

Paulinus was also a prolific writer, both of theological letters to other figures in the Church, including St. Augustine, and of erotic poetry, one example of which is included in the Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse. Most of his love poems were addressed to his longtime friend Ausonius. It's not clear that anything happened, but the poems definitely display a gay sensibility.

(The equine Bishop of Nola, by the way, is a gelding, which pretty much settles any issues he might have about sexuality.)

Although our horse was apparently named for Paulinus, there have been other notable Bishops of Nola as well. The tomb of first Bishop, St. Felix (around 200 A.D.) was reputedly the most-visited sacred site in Italy in the 5th century apart from the tomb of the Apostles Peter and Paul. And many of the early Bishops have been canonized; for details, see here.

Lots of theological and historical baggage for a horse to carry, but, as Bishop of Nola showed when he won for us last Saturday at Saratoga, he can definitely carry the weight.

Barn Report - Sunday August 1

Steve and Jean had an adventuresome trip up to Saratoga last Friday, to check out a possible claim for the Castle Village Farm 2010 Claiming Partnership. That partnership had lost its previous horse, Good Law, to a claim back in June, and we’d been looking for a replacement for nearly two months. With Castle Village Farm’s very rigorous criteria for making claims, and with the dearth of good claims available at the Belmont meet – compared to the claiming frenzy going on at Monmouth – Bruce and Steve were beginning to wonder if they’d ever find the right horse. Here’s Steve’s report:

Jean and I drove up to Saratoga for the race, since I don't like to make a claim without seeing the horse myself, no matter how many replays I've watched and how thoroughly I've studied the past performances. I trust Bruce's contacts -- and his judgment -- but there's just no substitute for that last look before dropping the claim. And besides, who can resist a trip to the Spa?

Of course, when the trip is there and back from New York City all in the same day, it’s not quite the relaxing vacation it would be if one went up for, say, a week. Three and a half hours each way does eat up a chunk of the day. And, if you’re planning on lunch or dinner along the way, without losing a huge chunk of time, the options are, to say the least, somewhat limited.

The horse we’d spotted in the past performances was Bishop of Nola, a New York-bred three-year-old by Devil His Due, running in a $25,000 claimer for horses that had never won two races. I don’t usually like to claim out of those N2L events, since the reason that a lot of horses are in them is that they have an aversion to winning, but the quality of the races at Saratoga has been well above what it was at Belmont, and Bishop of Nola was relatively lightly raced and had looked eager and competitive in the video replays that we’d watched.

Bruce and I were on the rail when the horses were coming into the paddock, and we both decided that Bishop of Nola looked just fine, although he had bell boots on his front feet (those little protective rubber thingies). That's sometimes a sign of a weak hoof, but he was wearing regular shoes with nails, and not the glue-ons that trainers sometimes use when a horse has hoof problems. And Bruce noted that Bishop of Nola’s trainer, Dominick Schettino, often used the bell boots, even when there were no foot problems.

So, Bruce dropped the claim slip, and then we watched while Bishop of Nola decided to misbehave in the paddock, bucking and rearing up, and showing a distinct unwillingness to let jockey Jose Espinoza get aboard. I was worried that the colt might get scratched then and there -- or that he was leaving his race right there. But Bruce didn't break a sweat. He just murmured something about how he’d have to give the horse a little more education. Eventually, Espinoza managed to stay on, and Bishop of Nola came out, well behind the rest of the horses in the post parade.

The Bishop tracked the early leader, Lion Under Oath, through the first three-quarters of a mile in a relatively easy 1:13.2, then took over the lead at the top of the stretch and picked up the pace, finishing in 23.5 seconds for the final full quarter and a very healthy 6 flat for the last 16th of a mile. He kept Lion Under Oath at bay, and was too quick for the late charges by Cullinan (also claimed out of the race) and Exclusive Strike. I don't have the Beyer figure yet, but Equibase, which produces speed figures for the track program, gave Bishop of Nola a 95, the best he's ever done. Looks like we claimed him just as he's getting to be a very good horse.

And we did claim him. To my surprise, we were the only ones to drop a claim on him, so there wasn’t even a shake to see who’d get him.

With yesterday's win, Bishop of Nola's record goes to 11-2-3-1, with earnings of just over $70,000.

Bishop of Nola came out of the race in good shape. Understandably, he was a little tired after that effort, but he was completely sound and walked the shedrow by the morning after the race.

Bruce plans to keep Bishop of Nola up at Saratoga, so they can get to know each other. Also, horses can be trained on the turf at Saratoga. Bruce expects that, if all goes well, we'll run Bishop of Nola back in a NY-bred N1X allowance before the end of the Saratoga meet.

It's definitely nice to have a horse again, and especially one we can have so much fun with. It almost made that long drive back to New York worth it -- even though, after the drive up and an exciting and exhausting, albeit successful day, it felt longer than ever.

And, to make the trip feel even longer to Steve, he had to drive the whole way home. Usually, Jean shares at least some of the driving, but they weren’t even to Malta when she fell asleep. To give her credit, she’d wake up every now and then, just enough to say, “I’ll drive if you get too tired,” and then she’d fall asleep again.

Barn Report(s) Sunday July 24

Saratoga just opened this weekend – and lots of trainers have moved most, or all, of their strings up there. But there are still a bunch of horses, including Talking Blues, down at Belmont. So the Castle Village Farm team split up for Sunday morning. Steve was up in Saratoga for the weekend, and Joe did Belmont duty.

Bruce Brown has 20-plus horses stabled at Belmont, another dozen or so at Monmouth and 18 up at Saratoga. He would have preferred to stable a few more at Saratoga, but trainers are at the mercy of the racing secretary (P.J. Campo) who decides how many stalls each can have. And 18, which is what Bruce got, is actually a lot for a new trainer. So he brought up to the Spa the horses he thinks will run there first, and he’ll be shuttling most of those back to Belmont as soon as they’ve run, to be replaced by the next group to run.

Our New York-bred gelding Talking Blues isn’t slated to run till later in the Saratoga meet, so he’s still stabled at Belmont. Sunday is his regular breeze day, but with the heat (it got up near 99 even before training ended for the morning), not to mention the humidity, Bruce and his assistant Maria, who’s in charge of the barn when Bruce is upstate, decided to go easy on their horses. Talking Blues, who had a bullet work just last week, breezed the half-mile this week in an unhurried 53.55 seconds, though in that heat, he still worked up a sweat. This was his first time going a half-mile, after the two good three-furlong breezes earlier.

Up in Saratoga, Steve made the rounds on a wet and muggy opening weekend. Friday was opening day. Despite the weather that day, which took most of the turf races off the grass, and which flooded the brand-new Danny Meyer restaurants – Shake Shack and Blue Smoke –there were big, big crowds and lots of great racing. All three days of opening weekend featured big fields and exciting racing. Going head-to-head against Monmouth Park’s three-day a week, “million dollars a day in purses” strategy, and even with last year’s Horse of the Year, Rachel Alexandra, racing at Monmouth on Saturday, Saratoga came out way ahead on attendance and betting handle.

Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack at Saratoga

Like other CVF partners – Debi Kral, Ann Killory, John Burke, to name just a few – we look forward every year to “Saratoga Charlie” Barringer’s opening day party under the trees between the paddock and the Red Spring. It wasn’t quite a wash-out this year, but close. The rainstorms drove everybody under one of the tents that NYRA had thoughtfully provided, and several partners – including the above-named – never made it. But it was great to see Charlie and Ann and their ever-growing passel of beautiful grandchildren, and we look forward to lots of sunny afternoons, this year, as always, sharing a brew with Charlie on the backstretch.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and hot. Steve went first to the Oklahoma training track to meet up with John Couture, who’s just joined CVF’s new Saratoga Claiming Partnership, John’s wife Mary Ann and their friend John Serbalik, who’s also going to be involved in our Saratoga claiming group. Since the Friday rains had drilled holes in the Oklahoma training track, they all walked across Union Avenue to the main track to watch the workouts from the gap at the top of the stretch. Crossing the street, they weren’t the only ones in the cross walk; the traffic police held up the cars for the people – and for the race horses gravely clip clopping across. The gap is a great place to catch the morning action, as any clocker will tell you, though one does have to be a bit careful not to be in the way when the young horses get excited.

After a breakfast break – beware the Oklahoma-side track kitchen! – it was off to the front side of the track, catching up with lots of folks -- CVF partners, trainers, jockey agents, other owners, all the people that we get to see just once a year, because everybody comes to Saratoga. But, first, had some licensing to do for CVF partners, since the licensing and credentials offices had been closed between the Belmont and Saratoga meets. As always, the line out the door of Lew Kobel’s NYRA credentials office was almost as long as the line at the Shake Shack; seems like everybody waits until Saratoga to renew their NYRA badges and get their parking permits, so they can be part of mornings on the backstretch.

On Saturday, with the sun out (but the temperature well over 90), Steve spent the afternoon at another one of the hidden gems on the Saratoga track, the main track backstretch. Lots of Saratoga regulars, including partner Ron Lacey, who was there with his lovely wife on Saturday, regularly set up their folding chairs and tables under the trees and watch the races from there. The snack bar offers decent food at half the price that they charge over by the finish line, and you get a great close-up view of the start of the sprint races. You can lean over the rail, just yards from the gate. It’s especially fun when the starters are two-year-old maidens making their racing debut, and really not sure they want to go into that gate. You can even hear the starter counting down, and the jockeys and gate crew yelling “no, no, no, no.” Except for those frantic minutes when the gates open, and the horses charge out in a pack, hooves pounding, jockeys shouting, it’s quiet back there, almost like being in the country, deep shady trees, patches of meadow, and the rows of dark green barns behind. No grandstand, no clubhouse, no crowds at the betting windows and on the rail, no fancy restaurants. Just acres of grass, three mutual tellers and a handful of betting machines. What more could you ask? Oh yeah, one could ask for televisions that aren’t 20 years old and that actually show a picture, so you could maybe see the finish of the race. Good thing Track Announcer Tom Durkin is the best in the business; otherwise it would have been tough to know who won.

Babies Behind the Gate at Saratoga

More of the same on Sunday, then back to the city for the week. Steve will be up in Saratoga the first week in August for the yearling sales, and will be spending mornings at Oklahoma. He looks forward to seeing you there – and also, in the afternoons, on the main track, in the paddock area or the backstretch. Steve and Joe will both be up the weekend of August 7 – 9, so there’ll be more chances then to get a CVF guided tour, morning or afternoon. And, of course, they’ll be there whenever we’re claiming a horse or whenever Talking Blues or any of our CVF horses race.

In the meantime, whenever they aren’t both at the Spa, the CVF tradition of Sunday mornings at the Belmont backstretch will continue. Give Joe or Steve a call if you want to join them this, or any, Sunday.

Barn Report - Sunday July 18th

Some days can be really fun -- even if they end up being really frustrating.

Joe and Steve, along with Castle Village Farm partners Paddy O'Hara and Vinny DiSpigno, got to Belmont around 7 am on Sunday. It was already pretty warm -- the temperature reached the mid-90s by the afternoon -- but it was the last day of the Belmont meet, and the horses, riders and trainers were in good spirits. With the Saratoga meet just around the corner, there was lots of talk about vans packed with horses, SUVs packed with kids and lawn furniture -- and, getting back to business, of how Saratoga might do against the newly energized Monmouth summer meet.

(As it turns out, even Belmont didn't do too badly against Monmouth, with substantially higher betting handle than the Jersey track. See Steve's analysis at http://businessofracing.blogspot.com.)

Our four-year-old NY-bred gelding, Talking Blues, back from some R&R at the farm, breezed for the second time since his return to the race track. Even without changing leads, and without a lot of urging from the exercise rider, Talking Blues had a "bullet" work, the fastest of the day at the distance, going three furlongs in 36.09 seconds. The work marked a huge improvement for Talking Blues; he'd never even had a breeze that was in the top half of the horses working that day, much less a bullet. And he's looking much bigger and stronger than before he got some time off.

After that, it was off to contemplate claim prospects for our 2010 Claiming Partnership. The partners had done really well with our first claim, Good Law, who had a win and a second in two races for us before he was claimed back by his prior trainer, Tom Bush. But now they're anxious to get a replacement, and we've been looking actively for a claim at Belmont for over a month. Bruce Brown and Steve thought they had one today, with the three-year-old NY-bred filly Australis Princess, entered in the 9th race for $25,000. On paper, she had lots to like: good speed figures, in the money in seven of her 10 lifetime races, able to run on both turf and dirt (though not on a wet track), and with her New York allowance conditions still available. And the replays of her races looked pretty solid; sometimes she tired in the stretch, but she didn't give up.

Her race, though, wasn't till the 9th, so it was a long afternoon of waiting. Plenty of time to watch the Yankees beat Tampa Bay in a mere 3 hours and 47 minutes. And time to catch up with a few more trainers on their way out the door, heading for Saratoga. Time to watch another Jimmy Ferraro longshot get in the middle of a carefully handicapped exacta.

Then down to the paddock to check out our claim prospect. Bruce and Steve watched her walk in from the detention barn. (That unloved facility was celebrating its final day; the concept is being retired as of the start of the Saratoga meet.) What they saw -- at first -- was a nice big filly, who looked race ready and alert. All systems go.

Oops, doesn't that look like an offset knee in the right front leg? Sure does, but that's not disqualifying, right? Lots of horses just stride right through an offset knee. Hmm, but she's not really striding right through it. More like shifting her weight to compensate.

(Department of Way Too Much Information: A horse's knee is offset when the forearm bone above the knee and the cannon bone below the knee don't line up in a straight line; the more offset the knee is, the more stress there will be at high speed.)

And then the coup de grace. Bruce's system of inside information -- talk to someone who knows someone who used to work in the other trainer's barn -- came through -- with about five minutes left to the claim deadline. Yes, there was something to worry about -- and it was something about that knee. So, the decision was made: better safe and sorry. We'll pass this time around.

It was a long day. Ten hours after we'd arrived at the training track that morning, we were -- finally -- back in the car, heading back to the city -- with nothing to show for it -- except a couple of exacta tickets cashed.

Like Harvey Pack always said, it isn't the last race -- or the last claiming possibility -- that counts, it's the next one. So, on Friday, it'll be on to Saratoga, where we'll still be looking for horses to claim. All in all, a bit of a letdown at the end of the day.

But, still (and, this time, the quote is from William Murray -- though Harvey probably agrees) -- Even a bad day at the track is better than a lot of other days in a lot of other places.

Barn Report - Sunday July 4th

No fireworks on the backstretch for the Fourth. While trainers are as patriotic as anyone else, it definitely scares the horses. In fact, trainers whose barns are close to the backstretch at Saratoga are always pleading with NYRA not to have even the relatively small-scale fireworks show that accompanies the annual Travers celebration at the Spa. So far, with only limited success.

Of course, at 7 am on the training track, there wasn't much concern about fireworks or anything else other than getting horses out for exercise before the day got too hot. Most trainers tried to get all their horses out before the 8:30 break, so they, and the horses, could retreat into the relative cool and shade of their shedrows.

The hot topic for Castle Village Farm is whether, as trainer Bill Turner suggested, our three-year-old Iguazu should be gelded (i.e., castrated). Iguazu, who's down on the farm in Virginia, has recently been displaying a healthy, perhaps too healthy, interest in the opposite sex. Bill, like many trainers, thinks that gelding a colt tends to focus the colt's mind more on racing and less on adolescent hormones.

To help us make up our minds, I've done a little research. Over the years, most of the outstanding American race horses have been colts, which of course means that they can go on to become stallions, perpetuating their bloodlines and, not incidentally, earning considerable stud fees for their owners. Once a colt is gelded, that opportunity disappears.

There have, however, been some geldings who were fabulous race horses and earned a lot of money for their owners. In the US, these include Kelso, Forego and John Henry and Kentucky Derby winners Clyde Van Deusen, Funny Cide and Mine That Bird. And the famous Australian runner Phar Lap was also a gelding.

Generally, if a horse has some pedigree and has the promise of being a stakes winner, owners are loath to geld it too soon. Most of the well-known geldings had little or no pedigree value, though a few were gelded because of behavioral problems or for medical reasons. Sometimes, gelding is pretty much a no-brainer. John Henry, for example, was an ill-tempered youngster with absolutely no pedigree, so gelding him had little downside and considerable upside, both for the safety of barn workers and for his ability to focus on racing.

Although talking about the details of makes most men pretty nervous, it's a relatively straightforward procedure, with little risk. (For those who want all the gory details, they're here.)

In a few cases, trainers have reported that gelding a horse makes him too mellow, taking away some competitive spirit. That's certainly a result that you don't want with a race horse. But more often, gelding results in a horse that can stay more focused on its work and is usually a better race horse.

In the case of Castle Village Farm's Iguazu, the decision isn't cut-and-dried. Iguazu does have some pedigree potential. He's sired by Smokle Glacken, the Eclipse Award-winning champion sprinter of 1997, his dam is a multiple winner, and he has two stakes winners in the second generation of his pedigree. So there's a chance that he could have some value as a stallion prospect when he gets to the races, if --and it's always a big if for thoroughbreds -- he turns out to be a graded-stakes winner. On the other hand, if he really is getting too distracted by adolescent hormone surges, maybe gelding him would be the better way to go.

Our partners, as always knowledgeable and passionate about their horses, come down on both sides of the issue. That's part of what makes it both fun and educational to be in a racing partnership like ours, where partners have the opportunity to discuss their horses and how they should be managed. For now, we'll keep discussing the issue and see if a consensus emerges.

Another warm Sunday morning by the rail at the Belmont training track. By 7 am, the temperature was already in the 80s, so we were treated to the not very edifying sight of several of the trainers (and the guilty shall mercifully go unnamed [Bill Terrill]) walking around in shorts, t-shirts and big bellies. Not a look to inspire confidence. And, no, not any of our trainers.

The women on the rail, though, were hoping to see a couple of the exercise riders or jockeys in shorts and tees. They would look really buff. Unfortunately for the rail birds, who had their cameras ready – and even more for the riders themselves, who had to sweat it out -- shorts and flip flops were out. The rules say safety vests and helmets. For good reason. And there are equally good reasons for boots and long pants – reasons like the horses and their great, big, heavy hooves. But all that gear makes for a pretty warm working environment, and we could see the riders sweating as they came off the track.

Castle Village Farm trainer Leah Gyarmati figured out a compromise between being too hot and being unsafe in the saddle. Jeans and riding boots, yes. But, safety vest and helmet, no. Of course, she can get away with it, because the rules don’t apply to trainers, and because her “pony” is Diligent Gambler, whose now nine years old, and as solid and steady as they come. He’s so reliable, if she started to fall, he’d turn around and catch her. It’s hard to look at him now, big and comfortable, and put that together with the race horse he was, back in 2005, when he won nine races in a single year. A couple of years later, when his racing career was over, grateful CVF partners bought him back and gave him to Leah, who was in need of a “pony.” (And, yes, that’s a ridiculously wrong name for the great, big horse a trainer uses to escort fractious, young race horses onto the training track, and to teach the two-year-olds what it means to be a race horse.)Every once in a while, Leah takes Diligent Gambler for a jog around the training track, just for old time’s sake and because he gets a kick out of it. If he took it into his head to turn that jog into a fast lap, Leah might very well need her helmet and vest, but he had no intentions of doing anything of the kind on Sunday. Probably as hot as the rest of us, and, though he kept an eye on his charges as they cantered by, he was also busy courting the attention of the railbirds, even to the point of agreeing to having his picture taken with a friend’s baby.

Diligent Gambler and Friend

The CVF contingent this week consisted of Steve, Joe and partner Vinny DiSpigno, and since we’re discussing trainers’ wardrobe mistakes, we should hasten to add that the three of us were all neatly done up in polo shirts and khakis. Vinny is planning a trip to France next month, so the conversation turned, of course, to race courses in Paris, and how to get to them. (Why bother with the Louvre when you can check out Longchamp.) Lucky for Vinny, we ran into Pont Street Stable partner Pat Hammond, who was just back herself from a springtime trip to Paris, and had gone to the races while she was there at both Longchamp and Auteuil. Steve also had fond memories from some years ago, when he was at Longchamp for the Arc de Triomphe. So, between them, they filled Vinny in on the things every racetracker needs to know – the nearest Metro stop, where to find the English-speaking pari-mutuel tellers, how to bet when there are no Beyer numbers and the card’s in French, why not to wear jeans or shorts (the restaurants won’t let you in), what you’ll find in the gift shop (it tends to be high-end, lots of 75-euro [that’s about $90 US] Hermes ties; no baseball caps, no t-shirts saying “My father went to Longchamps and all he bought me …” – not even in French).

Pat also filled us in on trainer Del Carroll Jr., who trained the Pont Street horses for many years. Del and his wife have moved to North Carolina, and though they moved there because he was supposed to be retiring, he’s managed to stay involved in racing by developing a second career, this time as a bloodstock agent. Steve will probably catch up with him at the Keeneland yearling sale in September. Since Del retired, Pont Street has moved its horses to Bruce Brown’s barn, where they now share space with Castle Village Farm.

Just one more hard-working Sunday morning for the CVF crew. If you want to join us any Sunday, just give Joe or Steve a call, or drop them an email.

Barn Report - Wednesday, June 23rd

Steve and Jean went to the track on Wednesday afternoon, not because a Castle Village Farm horse was running – none was – but just to be handicappers again. It was an exceedingly warm afternoon, so they found it a special pleasure to sit, out of the sun, in the third floor grandstand, with a Diet Coke and a cooling breeze, and the most beautiful race track in the world spread out before them. Belmont was at its quietest. Belmont is very quiet on a Wednesday. They had almost an entire section of the grandstand to themselves. Well, them and six guys sharing their betting strategies with each other – “Go for the 5 – I hate the trainer, but nothing can beat that 5.” “That 7 couldn’t hit the Board if they aimed him at it.” (Yup, you guessed it: at the finish line, the 5 was way down the track; the 7 up for first.) There were at least 10 seats for every person in the third floor grandstand on Wednesday, and the six guys had spread themselves and their racing forms accordingly, so their shared handicapping had to be pretty loud. (Not so much “I gotta have the 4 in the next race” as “I GOTTA HAVE THE 4”) which meant the Zorns got the benefit of every insight. It always helps to know which horse not to bet on.

Best overheard repartee of the day:

“Last I heard, NYRA’s run out of money. They’re gonna tear this place down and put up a senior citizens center.”

“Whaddya think it is now?”

[Note to NYRA: Much as Jean and Steve and the other senior citizens enjoy their peaceful Wednesday afternoons, maybe it’s time to consider going to a 4-day, or even a 3-day week. Even though Wednesday’s cards were pretty small, the track still probably needed more grooms for that afternoon than there were people in the stands.]

Steve was feeling badly, because he’d been too busy to visit Strings & Arrows on Sunday. Nobody wants Strings to feel that, just because he isn’t racing any more, he’s yesterday’s news. The short drive from the track to the barns took Steve and Jean back into a countryside that hadn’t existed since Tom Sawyer set his friends to work painting picket fences. The wooden barns stretched like sleeping cats in the warm sun, and wide-canopied oaks and maples cast patches of shade across the dappled grass. Inside the dark, cool shedrows, fans whirred, a hen clucked, and horses slept and dreamed of races to be run.

Strings was glad to have some company, gladder to see a couple of carrots. He already looked less like a race horse than he had just a few weeks ago. With his morning workouts reduced to sedate walks around the shedrow, he’d put on a few pounds, and, compared to his sleek racing self, was positively plump. But his coat and mane were as red and glossy and Secretariat-like as ever. In the paddock, a big, handsome white horse stood watch over the shedrow, like a wild stallion watching over his herd. It was Diligent Gambler, who once upon a time was dark gray and a pretty good race horse himself (Florida bred claimer of the year, in fact, in 2004, when he won nine races and raced for Castle Village Farm). He, too, was happy for a couple of carrots, and, after the first batch was gone, nosed the Zorns’ pockets, hoping to find a few more. But he was more interested in chatting with Steve about racing and memories. Nose to nose, they carried on an earnest colloquy for a while, while Jean contemplated skipping the rest of the races in favor of stretching out under one of the trees with a big summertime novel in hand.

Barn Report, Sunday June 6

Hot topic of conversation on the rail at the Belmont training track this morning: Uptowncharlybrown’s disqualification from a 5^th-place finish, and a $30,000 share of the purse, in yesterday’s Belmont Stakes.

Uptowncharlybrown was on or near the lead early in the race, then hung on through the stretch for 5^th. But when jockey Rajiv Maragh weighed in after returning to the unsaddling area, he was eight pounds too light. It turned out that a lead weight from the saddle had fallen out near the turn, heading into the stretch. Trainers on the rail this morning, including Bruce Levine, Tim Ritvo and Heriberto “Ocala” Cedano, couldn’t recall when something similar had last happened. They said that so few races now require the jockey to carry a lot of extra weight – the Belmont weight was 126, but most everyday races are at weights of 115-118 pounds -- that hardly anyone needs the eight-pound lead weights that Maragh was carrying. Maybe trainers have forgotten how to secure them in the saddles.

Too bad for the 60 New Jerseyans who are partners in Uptowncharlybrown. Tough way to lose a pretty big piece of change.

Barn Report, Sunday May 16th

Lots of worried horsemen and women leaning on the training track rail at Belmont on Sunday morning. Everybody’s talking about the possibility of no racing in New York. Consensus at the rail was that NYRA isn’t crying wolf when they say they are running out of money. Neither New York State nor NYC OTB are paying what they’re supposed to. Worse, we’re still, after nine years, waiting for slots at Aqueduct. It’s beginning to look like NYRA really might have to shut down some time during the Belmont spring-summer meet. If that happens, it’ll be hard to gear up again for Saratoga. You know it’s bad news when even the jockey agents – those guys whose job it is to be incurable optimists -- are nervous.

After all that gloom, Joe, Steve, and new claiming partner Vinny DiSpigno, were only too happy to quit the rail in favor of Bruce Brown’s shedrow, where they got to say hello to Good Law. Our recent winner was acting much more frisky than the railbirds, and wanted to do more than the jogging he’s been limited to since his last race. In Bruce’s absence, Kay, who rides Good Law in the mornings, said that he’d be getting some stronger gallops the next few days, and that we’d be looking for a race in early June. We like that timing for another reason: Bruce will be back by then.

We also saw Strings and Arrows gallop by on the training track, looking very strong. Leah wasn’t at the barn, but Assistant Trainer (and grill chef at CVF summer parties) Herbie Castillo said that Strings and Arrows is ready to run right back – maybe as early as May 22nd, but definitely, assuming the racing office obliges by using a race for us, before the end of the month.

Barn Report, Sunday May 9th

Good Law on Sunday morning -- fast asleep in his stall -- with his eyes wide open -- but not seeing a thing. Steve tried talking to him, but he might as well have been talking to a kid who'd fallen asleep on the living room couch -- good mostly for hearing the sound of your own voice.

Over by the clockers' stand, nobody was sleeping. Much talk about whether the politicians in Albany would come to their senses in time -- and pay the money the state owes to NYRA. If the state doesn't pay, the track closes. Consensus among the rail birds: pretty pessimistic.

Joe's Barn Report - Sunday May 2nd

A spectacular summer day at Belmont! Temperature was climbing toward the 80s, and one of our group, who shall go unnamed in deference to the fashion police, was wearing shorts.. The group, by the way, consisted of Steve and Joe, as usual, joined by new claiming partner Vinny DiSpigno and by Bagavond veteran Paddy O’Hara.

Much time was spent on the rail at the training track, mostly because the weather was just so perfect. Can’t think of a better place to be on a weekend morning than leaning on that rail, picking up some trainer gossip, watching the experienced horses breeze and the young ones see if they can throw their riders. As the MasterCard ad goes, the feeling is priceless. And it’s made even more so by having three horses on target to run over the next couple of weeks – Good Law this coming Wednesday, Strings and Arrows on Saturday, and Bagavond, we hope, on May 20th.

Even Bruce Brown got into the swing of things. We first spotted Bruce over in the “paddock” (actually it’s more like a 10-by-10 foot square of grass in front of the barn), getting in some quality sun time while holding onto a shank that had Repole Stables’ stakes horse Digger at the other end. Digger was too busy chomping on that sweet spring grass to pay much attention to us humans, but we had a nice long chat with Bruce. In fact, Bruce had Good Law brought out for us, so GL got in 15 minutes of grazing time too, with Bruce holding on. Steve asked whether Bruce was short a groom today, to account for the fact that he was doing the work himself, but Bruce said no, he was just enjoying the sun and the horses. That’s kind if the way all of us feel on a nice day on the backstretch.

Much good feeling down at Bill Turner’s barn as well. Bagavond was getting his morning bath as we arrived; he was just back from galloping, and will most likely breeze in the next couple of days. Our veteran campaigner knows the barn routine pretty well by now – he should, at age seven! – and seemed to be telling his groom and hotwalker just how he likes his bath done.He’s such a professional horse. No pulling on the shank, no shaking all the water off all over his handlers, and nary a kick in the direction of us four interlopers.

Nice to see Pat Turner back at the barn along with Bill. Pat had stopped off in Virginia for a while after the horses shipped up from Palm Meadows, and had gone out to visit Iguazu at Diana McClure’s farm. Iguazu, Pat reports, is doing well, and both she and Bill expect great things when our colt returns this summer.

We never did get down to Leah Gyarmati’s barn, which is all the way down at the bottom of the hill, as far as you can be from that rail next to the training track. But, we didn’t really need to pay Leah a visit, because, while we by the rail, she rode by twice on our old campaigner Diligent Gambler, who’s now, in retirement, her stable pony. Leah decided not to wear a helmet on the track – trainers, it seems, aren’t subject to the same rules as exercise riders or jockeys.We think the no-helmet rule applies only when a trainer is on a pony, not riding an in-training race horse. But, with Diligent Gambler, Leah has to be pretty careful. It hasn’t been that long since he was racing, and every now and then, we’d notice him looking longingly at the younger guys breezing down on the rail, as if to say, I can do that.

We arrived at the track just as Strings and Arrows was finishing up a five-furlong breeze. Naturally, none of us spotted him until he was galloping out, but even slowing down, he looked strong and ready to go. Herbie Castillo breezed him, and Herbie said he was fit and ready to go.The breeze should set him up nicely for next Sunday’s race.

Steve and Herbie

No first-hand report on Talking Blues this week, but, sometime during the week, Joe will be stopping by Dave Rintoul’s farm– which is all of five minutes away from Joe’s house – for another update.

Steve and Joe are always happy to have CVF partners (or future partners) join them on the backstretch on Sunday mornings or at Rintoul’s farm on another day. Give Joe a call at (888) 989-7223 or email him at cvfsales@gmail.com to set it up.

If you don’t like the weather at Belmont, wait a minute. That’s what it’s felt like this spring. A couple of weeks ago, it had felt like summer – and now that’s back. But when Joe and Steve were at Belmont on Sunday morning, it was cold and rainy yet again. So cold that Joe and Steve were on their own – unlike last week, when, in bright sunshine and balmy breezes, they were joined by partners Vinny DiSpigno, John Capece, and Ellen Cohn. And, so rainy that a lot of the horses just jogged around inside the barns, rather than getting their feet all muddy on the training track. That was probably better for the horses – and their riders – but visitors beware! It wasn’t so great for Joe and Steve, who barely had time to leap out of the way whenever a horse came jogging around the corner of the shedrow.

We checked out Good Law at Bruce Brown’s barn as he was getting tacked up for his jog. He’s happy and in good shape. Jogging around the shedrow, he was bouncing along, up on this toes. He’d had a breeze this past Wednesday and is all ready to go. We’re hoping for a starter allowance, and there was one in the condition book for closing day at Aqueduct, but that wasn’t used. It was brought back for opening weekend at Belmont, but, again, didn’t go. If it doesn’t fill next time either, we’ll look for other races for him.

At Leah Gyarmati’s barn, it wasn’t just the horses who pined for better weather. With all those horses galumphing around the shedrow, Leah’s two Jack Russell terriers had to stay in the office. Instead of being grateful that she was saving them from all those hooves, they were leaping around even more wildly than Jack Russells usually do, whenever anybody made the mistake of going in there.

Strings and Arrows looked in good form. Leah passed on the turf race scheduled for closing day at Aqueduct because she didn’t like the looks of the Aqueduct turf. She’ll enter Strings and Arrows for a NY-bred maiden special on the turf at Belmont. There’s one in the book for May 8.

And at Bill Turner’s barn, now back to (almost) full strength with most of the horses back from Florida, Bagavond was up on his toes and looking like he can’t wait to get back to the races. Bagavond came back from his winter vacation in Virginia in such good condition that Bill thinks he’ll be ready for a race after just a few more breezes. There’s a seven-furlong turf sprint at Belmont on May 20 that might be a good target for his first race back.

Iguazu is still missing from Bill’s Belmont barn. He’s at Diana McClure’s Carousel Farm in Virginia, where he is living the good life, spending most of the daylight hours in the paddock.Diana reports he’s happy to be out in the fresh air, playing in the big paddock with a bunch of other horses.

Joe and partner Marilyn Miller visited Talking Blues at Dave Rintoul’s farm in Suffolk County again on Wednesday morning. Talking Blues is getting to know that, when Joe and Marilyn show up, that means carrots. He spends a good deal of his time in the big round pen where, as the attached photo (taken by Marilyn) shows, he gets to roll in the dirt to his heart’s content.

If you’d like to join Steve and Joe at Belmont any Sunday morning, or if you’d like to visit Iguazu or Talking Blues down on the farm, just call Joe at (888) 989-7223 or email him at cvfsales@gmail.com and he’ll be happy to set it up for you.