We begin our stable notes this week with the happy news that Wise Honor, who Kenwood helped rescue from a kill pen a few weeks ago, is doing great at War Horses farm. Everyone who helped come to his rescue with a contribution has reason to feel very proud. Kenwood puts the welfare of the horses first, even those not in our care. Needless to say, the work Barbara Luna is doing (and many others like her) is the most important thing, but they need all the help they can get! The letter below from Barbara speaks for itself….

From: Barbara Luna [mailto:warhorsesottbs@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2016 12:43 PM
Subject: To all of my favorite (and only) board members

You have probably heard of War Horses' situation with saving a 10yo gelding from slaughter 3 weeks ago. If not, instrumental in his saving was the generosity of Kenwood Racing (Robb Levinsky) and partners donating over $2,000 for his "bail" and shipping, with plenty left over for the blacksmith and his upcoming dental work (oh, and of course the 100 pounds of carrots he seems to consume).Kenwood partners did not know the horse, never had anything to do with him (registered name is Wide Honor, but now he's our little "Buddy.")  I asked for help, and in 24 hours they had pledged more than I ever could have asked for. All checks and Paypal donations were in my hands/computer within 3 days! Amazing! I am attaching what I hoped would be an appropriate letter to them for their generosity (Hermosillo, shown in the letter also, is their Champion Eddie Broome-bred NJ-bred from a few years back, who Robb and his partners also sponsor so he can live his life out with me in VA. If you ever see Robb at Monmouth where he currently has horses with Steve DiMauro, please thank him as well as the partners for us. You'll find them in the winners' circle, I am sure! You all will understand that there is always a horse out there that pulls at your heartstrings--Buddy is a sweet boy, and well deserved the ability to break out of the kill buyer's lot (after running through the New Holland auction) and retiring here. Upon first examinations, he seems fully adoptable and someone will be lucky to get him!Best to all of you. We all have buddies like our Buddy. Barbara

Turning to racing news, on June 5^th Kenwood claimed the three year old filly Dance N Denae at Monmouth Park. When she stopped badly to finish a well-beaten 8^th, some people might have understandably wondered if we had made an unwise move in claiming her, but as explained many times, it’s how they come back to the barn much more than where they finish that matters the most. On June 26^th this was proven again in her Kenwood debut as she broke slowly, rushed up to battle for the lead and finished a good second, beaten about 1&1/2 lengths for the win while picking up over $3,000 for her effort. Having lost by 12 lengths the day we claimed her, it was an obvious turnaround, made even more impressive by the fact she was running on the dirt, not her preferred surface (it was our only option to run when a grass race failed to fill three times). Now we can look for a race on the grass next time and have reason to expect this filly to be a nice horse for us the rest of the season at Monmouth and beyond.

There was a full house on hand for our 3^rd free seminar at our office and online via GoToMeeting on Saturday, June 25^th on reading the Condition Book. Our final seminar of the year, Purses & Claiming, is July 9^th and space is very limited.  

June 25^th featured a fine morning of workouts at Monmouth, with 5 horses all making really good progress. Note that High Five Cotton, by far the quickest horse (not necessarily the best horse when all is said and done, but the fastest at 3 furlongs for sure) is shown as having one of the slower works. He worked in company (side by side) with Lead Investor and we kept them together and wanted them to go slow to teach High Five Cotton to harness his speed. Someone looking at work times would assume he’s one of the slowest of the horses below; if all five lined up together for 3 furlongs and went as fast as they can, right now at least he’d easily outrun all the others. A good lesson in what workout times do and do not mean.  What matters most with young, unraced horses is that they make steady progress and learn how to be a racehorse. If you compare the times just below for June 25^th with the times from the previous week listed further below, you’ll see these horses are doing just that.

Here’s some links to videos-photos of these workouts on our Vimeo and Instagram pages;

Kenwood Instagram Page:

https://www.instagram.com/kenwoodracing/

Kenwood's Vimeo Page:
https://vimeo.com/user7224967

If you want to link directly to the videos from recent training dates, here are the direct links:

Authentic Kitten/Win Money My Honey (Saturday, June 25, 2016)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHFCpjbBLtF/ 

Pink Cashmere (Saturday, June 25, 2016)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHE-KznhObC/ 

Lead Investor/High Cotton (Saturday, June 25, 2016)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHE9sGtBByU/ 

Pink Cashmere (Friday, June 24, 2016)​

https://vimeo.com/172222147

 Win Money My Honey Gate Training (Thursday, June 23, 2016)

https://vimeo.com/172221734

On June 24^th, Scuba Sue broke nicely, made the lead easily, and simply had nothing left in the stretch, tiring to finish 5^th. While it was a solid group and a fast run race and she was ½ length from 3^rd, she was favored in here and should have run much better once she made the lead by herself. She’ll stay at Penn with Mark Salvaggio now and we’ll make a plan together to get her back to the winner’s circle.

June 19^th featured a super morning of workouts as all the horses went well and in hand.  Just FYI, High Five Cotton had a sizzling fast work, best of the day. We’ll leave it to you to decide why that work doesn’t appear here….. Note that Lead Investor and Win Money My Honey worked together, side by side the entire way, head and head at the finish, and the different workout times below. Workouts and what matters is very different than the public perception folks!

June 18^th was the date of our first “Business of Thoroughbreds” seminar at Monmouth for 2016, another sold out event. 12 lucky guests began their day viewing morning training, then headed to a private Parterre Suite for an afternoon of racing, food, drink and a visit to the paddock and the racing office. Our 2nd seminar in July is sold out, a very few spaces remain for the seminars in August and September.

June was a busy and exciting month, and July should be even better! Thanks to all our partners, co-owners and friends for your support.