September was an up and down month that began and ended on a winning note, but lot of horses run off the board in-between. Overall Kenwood Racing had 2 wins, 1 second, and 5 thirds from 22 starters for the month and a lot going on. Here’s a recap of another exciting and busy month…

All good things eventually come to an end, and so it was with Long May You Run on September 2nd in his Monmouth Park debut, as he put in his usual game effort to finish 3^rd, outrun by the heavily favored dropdown and just failing to hold 2^nd late and was claimed from us out of the race. While not unexpected, all of us who have enjoyed having this horse in our barn for four great years of racing were understandably sad to see him go. Long May You Run made 25 starts for us from age two – five, with an excellent record of 7 wins, 3 seconds, and 4 thirds. We purchased him back in 2013 at the OBS March two year old sale for what we felt was a bargain price, given his excellent confirmation and racehorse pedigree. It’s hard to find good horses for $40,000 at any sale, let alone a select sale by the outstanding sire City Zip. Long May You Run proved to be a bargain indeed, earning over $175,000 for us while giving all his owners many thrills, winner’s circle photos, and making co-owner group #15 profitable. If all horses were like this, it would be an easy game. Kudos to our entire sales team, including Steve DiMauro and Adam Parker for selecting him at the sale, and especially to trainer Mark Salvaggio for managing his entire racing career so well from his Penn National base for the last four years.

Annual Mini-Golf Challenge: Kinsella stuns defending champ and last year's favorite in final strides, O'Halloran and Driscoll both no-shows...

Kenwood hosted its Annual Mini-Golf Challenge on Saturday, September 3rd at Bluegrass Mini Golf at Monmouth Park. Late entry Patrick Kinsella posted a blistering 20 on the final nine holes to steal the coveted crown from defending champion Jack Czajkowski and last year's favorite Robb Levinsky, who led for most of the contest and faltered on the final hole with a two over double bogey 4 in Kenwood’s 2^nd annual mini-golf tournament held at the Monmouth Park on Sept.10th last year. Listed at 12 to 1 on the morning line with a note "late entry steals crown", Kinsella looked hopelessly beaten on the front nine with a score of 25 that had him languishing in 4th place in the star studded field of 6 world class competitors. But, a hole in one on the challenging 14th hole where his main competitors posted a 3 and a 4 put him back into contention and with a solid final four holes, Kinsella found himself with a score of 45, one ahead of Levinsky and Czajkowski, who tied at 46 after trading the lead several times during the match. Another late entry, George Katzenberger was four back at 49, while the two shippers Mark (MBF) Friedman and Richele (Fire) Grieb were never factors posting scores of 51 and 55 respectively. "The filly just couldn't keep up with the boys today" Grieb stated, i'm going home to lick my wounds and prepare for next year". "I'm stunned" said Levinsky "I played my best game for 16 holes and let it slip away on 14 & 18". "I was ill prepared and had faced weak competition on the NorCal circuit", explained Friedman". "Next year I'll prep against stronger competition prior to shipping to the east coast". "Congrats to new reigning champ Pat Kinsella" said George Katzenberger, who like Friedman, vowed to return next year prepared to take the coveted crown.

Joe O'Halloran, 2nd place finisher the previous year who had vowed revenge on winner Jack Czajkowski and Chris (Sky Ace) Driscoll, who was 4th in last year's tournament were both late no-shows and lost their coveted automatic invitations for future tournaments. Neither could be reached for comments directly after the match, but Driscoll later offered a commentary and O'Halloran issued a challenge to all the competitors to return the following week for another round "I checked the media reports this morning, and they are basically viewing this golf match as a wild card playoff with the championship still "in the balance" stated Driscoll. "I am inviting anybody who is willing to play THIS Saturday, the 17th. Time TBD" said O'Halloran. This was, of course, immediately rejected by all the players and the league. As last year's champion Czajkowski explained, "Sounds to me like 2 local golfers looking for excuses after they missed their Tee times and chance to compete with the pros. I think you two need to have a two person playoff just to see who gets to enter the next tournament". "I agree with Jack 1000%, excuses from golfers afraid to compete who missed their tee times" said Levinsky "The time was listed and you didn’t show, you are both lucky as neither of you would have stood a chance against the field this year".

Sonny's Pharoah finally was claimed from us on September 24th at Penn National, after a 4th place finish when she had a very rough trip. While we wanted very much to see her leave our barn on a winning note, this filly was a lot of fun for us. After showing nothing as a two year old last season, she won three races this year while honoring the memory of Kenwood co-owner Darren Nebel (who named her for his late father) and his family. Darren died in a tragic auto accident on July 16th, leaving behind his devoted wife Barbara, his two boys Paul & Bryan and a large group of loving family and friends, including everyone in the Kenwood Racing family. Darren's spirit had to be guiding Sonny right to the winner's circle when she blew away the field to win going away by 11+ lengths on July 20th at Penn National, for her second career victory after her maiden win on June 30th. Trainer Mark Salvaggio and Robb Levinsky prepared a tribute to Darren which the Penn announcer was kind enough to read before the race. He said among other things “I’m sure the entire Kenwood family is watching and cheering her on here and all over the country” and of that there could be no doubt. Sonny won three times with a second in nine career starts for us (for Darren & his family!).

Ending over 15 years of training horses for Kenwood Racing on a (winner's circle) picture perfect note, trainer Steve DiMauro's final starter for Kenwood, Bobby Blue Eyes, became our first two year old winner of 2016 on September 29th, with an easy win at Gulfstream Park. Congratulations go out to all the members of group #28, especially co-owner Ellen Gaynor (who named him to honor her late husband and our dear friend Bob Gaynor), and Co-Owners TK & Michele Kuegler and Eric Riedi, who celebrated their first wins as an owner (after several close, in-the-money finishes). Eric and co-owners Rafael Lopez, CynSeo and her daughter Nica all celebrated in the winner’s circle together, and a happy and attractive group it was!

Steve recently announced his retirement from the training ranks to take the position of one of three Stewards at Gulfstream Park. "As you can imagine, as a 2nd generation trainer who has worked with horses all my life this was not an easy decision for me", Steve explained. "The opportunity Gulfstream offers is simply too good for many reasons for myself and my family to pass up. I have trained for (Kenwood founder) Robb for over 15 years and it has been a great experience. Kenwood's co-ownership program is very special and has the potential to revitalize our industry by continuing to bring new owners into the game. I think Kenwood's future is very bright and I am glad to have been a part of it".

The 5 and 1/2 length maiden-breaking romp for Bobby Blue Eyes was a fitting way indeed to celebrate 15+ years training horses for Kenwood as part of a fine training career that saw Steve win over 1000 races, nearly $26,000,000 in purses, and dozens of major stakes. "We will all miss working with Steve" Robb Levinsky explained. "He's a class act from start to finish. I know this is the right decision for him and his family and we will be seeing plenty of him in his new position at Gulfstream".

Lead Investor is developing into a nice horse for us. In his debut on September 7^th at Delaware Park, we weren’t expecting much from him because we felt he was bred to run a distance and would be better at age 3 than 2, so he just didn’t fit in a sprint debut, facing a talent laden field as the longest shot on the board at 39 to 1. Thus, we were thrilled after seeing him drop back to last early to then start picking off horses to finish a well-beaten, but fast closing third under a patient ride by veteran jockey Gabriel Saez. After the wire, he galloped out ahead of the first two runners, so off his debut, we had reason to feel confident this was going to be a solid horse for us as he matures and stretches out. In his second start on September 30^th at Penn National, he took another step forward, coming from dead last on a sloppy track not favoring closers, to be a good 2^nd, well behind the winner and well in front of the rest of the field. Trainer Mark Salvaggio reported he lost a shoe when bumped at the start, making the effort all the more impressive to say the least. We think this horse may be even better on grass and the best is yet to come here.