Anyway, hospital Wi-Fi sucked, and I didn't spend any time at the barn anyway, so no updates for you!
Jason is doing well now, and I have some time between studying for finals and writing end-of-term papers to write about this past Sunday.
Bekka has been exercising a three year old filly on the farm, and Sunday the filly was entered to run in a 7f claiming race. Her name is Devilofanargument - she's a Closing Argument baby, out of a Devil His Due mare who never did much.
We drove up to Philly Park to meet up with her trainer, who signed for us to get back behind the stable gate. We caught a few morning workouts before heading back to hang out with The Devil in the barn. She was very tense - the normally sweet filly was very quick to pin her ears and bear her teeth in a mock bite, and her lower lip was quivering. We chalked it up to race day excitement and tried our best to distract her with face kisses and hay.
She was in the 4th race of the day, so Bekka and I walked down the track to catch the first two races. The opener was nothing special, but I really liked one grey filly in the second race. She broke quick and was held up by her jockey, and they fought for the first two and a half furlongs of the 5f race. By the time the rider let her out, she came up strongly to place. I think she could've gotten up to win it if they would have just let her run. We spoke to her trainer when we were walking back to the barn, and she seemed like a real person, saying how she was proud of the filly for putting in a strong run.
Devil was a spaz in the paddock, whirling out of her stall kicking at her trainer and her grooms, and jigging the entire walk around. It was very unlike her - she's normally a very mellow filly, but the paddock at Philly freaked her out. It was her first time there, and it's a very enclosed space compared to the open-air paddock at Monmouth, so she may have just been reacting to the echos and confinement. She jigged her way to the gate, and hardly ran any sort of race to come in 4th out of a seven horse field.
The mood was dim after that, and both her trainer and owner believe she needs a break. I haven't had a chance to get out to the farm to see her yet, but I'll check up on her tomorrow. Her owner and the trainer went to some sale on Monday and hopefully picked up a few more horses, because currently Devil is their only horse on the track. They have a handsome colt working his way back from a layup, and a retired filly waiting for a new job.
Anyway, on to the pictures from the day :)
Pretty filly not really sure where she is...
No face kisses!
She spent a lot of time chewing the wood on the side of her stall to try to calm down.
The lovely gray filly
Devil in the paddock
This was a filly we worked with at our old farm, Jackie G. She'd been claimed a few times since we knew her and didn't look that great. She ended up finishing last.
The Devil and Jackie G walking back after the race
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