Barbaro Updates: 395
udpates are now here.
Update 2509: Off back to Presque Isle Downs to get ready for the races this evening. Real Lace is in the seventh. I am also running one in the first, there are also a couple of others running from Fair Hill so should be a busy and fun evening. Here are the entries for tonight.
Update 2508: Update from Penny at timwoolleyracing.com:
I cannot be more sorry that there have been no updates in the last few days. Time is getting away with me. It is Wednesday morning at 5:30 am and I am on my way to Baltimore, Maryland trying to get the sales grounds ready for the upcoming yearling sale. We will be selling around 900 horses and I have been swamped. Anyway, we had some great visitors on the weekend. There were four Fans of Barbaro that came to visit and spoil the horses with lots of treats. We can't say thank you enough for all of the special effort that you horse lovers have put out. You all are very special. There was a wonderful basket for Gator Nation which I delivered personally on Sunday after the barn work was finished. Real Lace is off to run at Presque Isle today. The race will go off about 8pm if anyone is interested in watching it. The race came up very tough with Steve Assmussen having several horses that have run beyer numbers in the 90's. We thought we would give her a chance since she is training so well. Hopefully training on the surface will give us an edge with Real Lace the way it did with Who's Happy. Speaking of Who's Happy, she has come out of her race just fine. She is her normal self around the barn, you don't hear a peep from her. We will try to find one more race for her and then she will have the winter off. Now it is time to teach her little sister (chestnut filly by Bowman's Band) how to be ridden. I haven't seen her yet but I hear she is quite nice. Mass Romantic continues to do well and was rearing up yesterday. She must be feeling her oats. Grandma is having a few days off. She seems to have some filling in one of her front legs so we need to figure it out. I am stopping over at the barn to see her before my drive to Baltimore. Red Aspen is training well and seems to be fine. She is still giving the guys a hard time to catch her especially in the evenings. Returning to her past form has been no problem for her. Hopefully we will get her to a few more races before the year is over, if not she has deservs a few months off. Anyway, must go for now. I will give hugs and kisses to the horses before I go. Thank you everyone who visited again and Thank you to Jim for the bag full of apples.
Update 2507: I received the following e-mail from John Holland, copied in full:
We have all been holding our collective breaths wondering if Cavel will go for another appeal and try to get one more TRO. I have been predicting they would not because they are already up and running in Canada through their deal with Natural Valley Farms. I have just heard that the killer buyers have been told exactly what I expected.
They say Cavel will not fork over for another round of appeals (estimated to cost them $250,000) but will instead shift operations completely to Canada. This is further supported by the fact that Cavel is reporting that Jim Tucker has "retired". It all fits, and I think we can say with a very high degree of confidence that slaughter in the US is finally and at long last relegated to history. Nobody is going to invest in new plants here with federal legislation pending.
Now we face one of the long feared consequences, and that is the dramatically increased exports, especially to Mexico. The one thing that pro-slaughter and anti-slaughter people have always agreed about is that Mexico is a far worse fate for a horse than a US (or Canadian) plant.
The pro-slaughter people think the answer is to reopen slaughter in the US, but that is a pipe dream. There is no going back. Therefore we must push HR.503 and S.311 with all the energy we can muster. Since we no longer have to fight on three fronts, we should be able to put sharp focus on our Congress people, especially in the Senate.
Congratulations to everyone who made the Texas and Illinois victories possible!
John Holland
Update 2506: A cloudy day here at Presque Isle Downs this morning. Its likely to rain I think. A nice easy morning for me. Chuck Lawrence shipped six of his horses out back to Fair Hill last night so I did not have to work for him this morning. I had two to take care of, Tiger Supreme and Real Lace, and both walked the shedrow. I got on three for a trainer from Great Lakes Downs. All galloped and galloped nicely. I took Real Lace's "papers" over to the front office, and now I have about an hour to kill before going back to feed lunch. Certainly things are quieting down now on the backside as the meet moves through its last week.
Update 2505: Keeneland's September Sale is over, and despite a slow start during the first two "select" days, the overall sale was a success. Foriegn buyers helped this success, fueled no doubt by a weak dollar: Keeneland September Sale Ends With Second-Highest Gross and Median Ever, excerpt:
"The sale has been -- as I have said more than once -- phenomenal; it's my new favorite word," said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland's director of sales. "Buyers and consignors were more enthusiastic about this year's sale than last year's record sale; there was a better feel throughout. Look at the amount of people we've had, even through today. The bidding has been fast and furious. There was a more upbeat, positive attitude."
The gross and average rose from 2006 in 12 of the sessions, and the median was up in 11, the same in two, and down in only one. Since the sale was one day longer than in 2006, no comparisons could be made using the numbers from the final session, but the area behind the sale ring was crowded and the most attractive prospects sparked brief flurries of offers.
Hiya, FsOB! Wishing each of you a productive day in all the myriad efforts on behalf of horses. Is it possible that I'll be the first poster today? Let's see.... RMH
Posted by: Robyn Hoffmann at September 26, 2007 10:47 AM