December 22nd was proof of the saying ‘the truth is stranger than fiction’, or as Kenwood Racing co-owner George Katzenberger put it, “you can’t make this up”. Kenwood had two runners (one at Gulfstream Park, the other at Penn National). Both horses ran well, both finished a close second, and in both races the winner was disqualified and our horse was placed 1st. About 1 in 200 horses are disqualified each year in a race, so statistically the odds of two horses being disqualified in any two back to back races you run in, are 200 to 1 x 200 to 1, or 40,000 to 1. The odds of your horses finishing 2nd in both of these races and being placed 1st is literally beyond calculation. Suffice it to say, it’s something we can safely wager nobody reading this will ever see in their lifetime again.

Lost in the unusualness of the day’s uniquely good fortune was how well both horses ran. First up, Bobby Blue Eyes ran a super race at Gulfstream Park. He broke sharply, was sent to the lead, as instructed by jockey Nik Juarez, led all the way and got caught right before the wire to finish 2nd, beaten just under 1 length for the win. He was placed 1st when the favorite was disqualified for impeding the 3rd finisher in the stretch (nothing to do with our horse so we were simply lucky here). Bobby ran absolutely super; he deserved a break and he (and we) got it today. 

At Penn National, a few hours later To Honor Stephanie broke well, but was outrun to the first turn and shuffled back to 4th in the early going. He rallied between horses to take over 2nd down the backstretch, set sights on the early leader, drew alongside him in mid-stretch, but just couldn’t get by, losing by a head in a photo. Trainer Mark Salvaggio could see from his vantage point on the track that the reason Stephanie failed to pass the other horse was because the tiring leader was bearing out on him the entire length of the stretch, bumping him right before the wire, and immediately claimed foul. The Penn National stewards simply couldn’t ignore what they saw on the video replay and placed Stephanie first. He would clearly have won going away, if he wasn’t impeded and the stewards fortunately did their job properly.

Kenwood has been on a tear recently and will end 2016 on a great note with three wins, two seconds and a third from 7 starts in December. Bobby won for the 2nd time as a two year old, while Stephanie’s win gives us 4 two year old winners from our 9 two year old purchases in 2016. That’s 44% two year old winners, almost exactly 4 times the national average of 11.4% of two year olds who hit the winner’s circle at age two last year. In other words, if you bought 9 two year olds randomly, you should expect to have 1 winner (11%) and 5 or 6 not even make it to the races by the end of their two year old year. In 2016, six of our nine two year olds started (66% compared to the national average of 37.6% starters) and four won. Not to mention that the three who have yet to start are just a few weeks away from their debuts. Hard to fault our record with our two year old crop this year.

We always remind people in this game that it’s never as bad as it seems when you are losing, and never as good as it seems when you are winning. Remember today when we lose 20 races in a row, that’s a lot more ‘normal’ with a racing stable than what we witnessed on a very exciting and unusual day in December at Gulfstream and Penn National with two nice two year olds.