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.