Horse and Stable Updates

A few of you asked for a stable update so I'll try to cover everything in this post.

First we had a tragic accident with one of our babies. We had just named our filly out of Gazette by Stormy Business when I got the call. She had broken loose off a walker, fell, cracked her skull and had a seizure shortly after the vet had arrived. It was another painful reminder that horse racing is a variable thing, loaded with both highs and lows.

This accident was particularly painful in our eyes in that she was the last Gazette baby we bred, and her death came shortly after we had just lost our son's beloved golden retreiver (Hunter) a couple weeks earlier.

The nobility of pets, who never ask for anything but give everything, always takes a little piece of your heart when they leave.

On a happier note, our other two year old out of a Speightstown mare by Stormy Business, is doing well, has been broke and was named Twin Cities Magic. He and Oaks winning Blazing Angel, PJ's Angel, AJ's Angel and Victory Ice will soon be joining Gary Scherer to prepare for racing at Canterbury. If all goes well, we will have all 5 horses running at Canterbury this summer, and we are optimistic we will have another profitable year with Tom and Felicia Lindquist.

In MN breeding, years ago when I was on the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association board and the Minnesota Breeders Fund Advisory group, I started encouraging state fund and purse distribution improvements consistent with contemporary breeding states. Today mediocre results, considering the huge increase in MN purses we started realizing in 2012, have still done nothing to change antiquated and uncompetive thinking. As a result, our MN breeding has been minimized. We are keeping only one Minnesota broodmare, selling all others including Demiparfait and our stallion Stormy Business (the leading sire of Minnesota bred winners and earners over the last 4 years). 

Our one Minnesota broodmare, BJ's Angel, is in foal to Sidney's Candy and should foal out in March. We will continue to race and breed, but will limit breeding in the future to the more advanced breeding states that engage in intelligent dialogue, and better support breeding as a state agricultural activity.

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