Post by Isabelle on Jan 30, 2018 20:32:22 GMT -6
*-* Y17 RETIREES *-*
- EVERYDAY SMILE - | An addition to NDM after the season began, we’ve been very happy with how Smiles jumped into HOTY racing, especially as a six year old. She’s proven herself to be a capable distance runner, and we have her in three more races for the season. Depending on how she performs in them, we will decide if Breeder’s is in the cards for her. She competed there once as a juvenile, so we’re hoping she might be a contender depending on the field. Next season she’s due to produce a foal for Firestone Racing.
- GET LOOSE - | A fast, last minute purchase early in the year, Get Loose came to us lightly raced, and he’s really shaped up into a nice undercarder. Consistently placing, we’re sad we couldn’t get another season with him, but are hoping he can win one more race by the end of the year so he can retire at grade two. He is up for public stud next season, and within a few breeding years he’ll be giving NDM some foals.
- BARELY A SOUND - | After a mixed season, Barely A Sound will be retiring. She wasn’t able to get up into HOTY form, so she will not be attending Breeder’s as we’d hoped early on in the year. We’ve put her down for a few more light races to finish up her year, and she has some fresh new lines to give us for future foals. Her career overall was respectable, and she may throw some triple tiara filly prospects.
- FINAL CONQUEST - | Ender took Conrad for the beginning of his final racing season, and like Barely A Sound he couldn’t quite find his place in HOTY company. We’ve got a few more races for him and he’ll be ending his career. We’re very excited to have his unique lines, and he was very dependable as a dual racer. We’ve got some matches already planned for this NDM favorite!
- IMPRESS THE MOONLIGHT - | Mid-way through the year the decision and official announcement of Impress the Moonlight’s retirement was determined. We are thrilled to have had her inducted into the Hall of Fame shortly after, NDM’s very first inductee who we raced ourselves! It is quite an accomplishment for us, and there is still buzz around the stables. She will have a year off to play, and then she’ll have a foal by Dead Empire from Intrepid Racing.
- CROOKED INTENTIONS - | After another rough start, Crystal took Tia on in early April to see if she could get the filly focused. Unfortunately Blackwood Racing closed its doors shortly after, and the mare once again took training with NDM. She had reached grade two at this point, the fresh faces and training at BRS gave her a perk. We’re really hoping she can pick up her very last win by the end of the year, otherwise you will see her on the tracks for a few more races to finish her up. She’s still got some gas in the tank, but she’s just so bratty we want to send her to pasture!
- LUMINOUS WAVE - | We were very pleased with the opportunity to race Lumi this season. We previously sold her as a weanling to Valkyrie, and loved the chance to try her on the tracks. Unfortunately she hasn’t sparked for us, and has not had a win with NDM silks yet. She has several more races coming up to finish her year, and we’re crossing our fingers that we can get her to cross that finish line first for us before she heads to retirement. Her overall season has not been bad at all, and her competition has been quite fierce. That won’t stop us from continuing to try!
- SUGAR DEMON - | An explosive entry into the season saw Suda churning up the high stakes races. She dropped off for a while out of the wins, but still remained a threat on the tracks during the summer. She’s picked up a bit again this autumn, so we’re definitely sending her to Breeder’s. Dubai will be her final race, the last of a hard fought career.
- TIGER HEART - | Bursting out this season as Sugar Demon did, Tiger won race after race at the onset of Y17. He has become our mature star for this year no question. After his difficulties during his classic season we didn’t expect how he performed for us. We can’t imagine he’d repeat his success next season, so he will be retiring. He’s entered in the last Dawn Treader Cup, the Dubai Cups at GHF, then Breeder’s, and finally he’ll enter the Dubai World Championship, the first year NDM will be competing in those races.
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*-* Y17 RETURNING SENIORS *-*
- DRAGONHEART - | We will be continuing our work with lease Dragonheart through his last year of racing. Our plans are to focus on continuing to get his rising consistency stabilized, and work up through the grades as much as we can. He’s got some work to do, but we have confidence in him, he’s an Everyday Hero baby! With hard work, we’ve seen his progress this season, and hope that boosts him to a nice six year old year.
- SIMBA - | Our beloved project pet, Simba has reached grade one! We’re so excited for him. He’s been struggling in the HOTY classes, but we’ll be doing HOTY only from now own. He’s headed for Breeder’s, and with some luck and continued training we’re really crossing our fingers he can come out strong and stay with it through his final year of racing. His career has been an experimental one for NDM, and we’ve learned so much from him, we really hope to focus and give him the best we’ve got.
- FANTASY ISLAND - | Purchased from Valkyrie Stables early in the spring, we’ve been thrilled with the rare lined Tacy. Although her temperament has been less than sweet, to say the least, we’ve found a great little niche for her at NDM. She’s surpassed our original expectations and is showing she’s blossoming into a great racer! We’re so happy to have her with us, and will be focusing on HOTY next season. She’s super close to grade one, she has one more undercard left and then it will be highest level for this mare from here on out.
- HOT LOOKS - | We had our eye on this filly in sales before, but she got snapped up by other stables. When her current owner MA put her up for lease, we leaped at the opportunity-especially since it came with several foal reserves. She’s been having some struggles this year, but she is very close to grade one, and we’re hoping with some fresh new trainers and workout buddies, Hottie will get back to burning up the tracks.
- LIKE A LIONESS - | Ren told us we could keep her if we wanted or give her back. We said . . . we’re keeping her! We convinced KC Racing to give this lady a surface supreme and extend her furlong abilities, and she is proving she can do it. With older proven lines and some famous siblings, we hope we’ve set her up for a nice strike off in Y18. Although she’s only won on dirt this year, she has done very well in undercard and HOTY on turf. Another one of our mature horses just on the cusp of grade one, we’ve got her primed for an amazing final season.
- SEIZE THE THRONE - | MA was doing a mass lease out, and we nabbed another project horse! Seize The Throne is much like our own Simba, in that he is a created boy who started racing at age four. He hasn’t had the amount of track time that we had with Simba, but we’ll be taking him through his five year old year and seeing what we can do with him. With the increase in older horses starting later these days, it’s anybody’s game, and Seize The Throne just might be the one to beat.
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*-* Y17 RETURNING CLASSIC RACERS *-*
- BLUE HEROINE - | Taking on this lady from Grayson Meadows, Blue Heroine has officially become a member of the NDM team. We’ve been working on building her back up from her layoff, and we’re pleased she’s still remaining strong. She’s getting closer to being HOTY ready again, plan on seeing her getting back there next season.
- DON’T COUNT ME OUT - | If there was ever a filly who loved to repeat herself, it’s Callie. She’s gotten almost the exact same racing results two years in a row! We’ll see how the next couple races turn out, but she’ll get a bit of a break and then head into her senior year of racing. We attempted to move her into HOTY, which hasn’t gone very well, so we’ll see how things go next season. We’re assuming she’ll do as she’s been doing, but we know well enough now that ponies can surprise.
- ETERNALLY SMOLDERING - | Our Kentucky Open and Universal Cup winner has only placed out of the money once this season. We’ve got him pegged for Breeder’s, and next year a full HOTY schedule for the mature races. We don’t want to hold our breath, but we’ve got a lot of hopes and expectations on this boy to continue his high class racing.
- ITALIAN BEAUTY - | Having pushed Beauty too hard, we kept her running in HOTY in hopes she just needed a bit to settle, but after she continually lost her races we switched her to undercards. Sadly there she found herself up against mature horses who hadn’t yet graded up, and was again finding the losing place in races. Next season we’re going to try and be more cautious with her, and with some maturity under her belt she should start getting back on track soon.
- JUSTA LITTLE CUTIE - | Like Don’t Count Me Out, Cutie has done very similarly this year as she did in her juvenile season. She hasn’t won since last May, we’re hoping she’ll get another win to finish up the year with a little boost for her morale. We don’t have any special plans for her, mostly keep her going as she is and let her do her thing.
- LIBERATED TREASURE - | We were stunned with Trish’s victory in the first let of the TST! Sadly she placed last in the second two legs, but she’s definitely become a sprinter to look out for. We had no idea she’d accomplish what she has this year, and are definitely considering her for a try at Breeder’s. We’re really hoping she can get to grade two quickly so we can push her right into HOTY quality racing for her senior year.
-MALEFICENT - | Having been bounced around a bit, we’re giving Maleficent a stable stable for a good solid year. Raced pretty hard this year, we’ll be letting her run for NDM two times in November, but that’ll be it until we get her going next year. She feels like she could use some time off, and then we’ll be working her in undercards while she builds up in grade.
- NUTCRACKER SUITE - | After placing out of the money in half of her juvenile season, we didn’t have high expectations for Dancer. We even considered selling her for a time, but we’re glad we stuck with her. She hasn’t placed out of the money at all this year! True the season hasn’t ended, but even if she does get a low placing, the trainers are just so pleased that this girl picked herself up and worked hard. She’s just into grade three, so it will be another year of undercarding for her.
- PHOENIX INFERNO - | We’re having some hard runs with Phoenix. In the last two seasons he’s placed third 15 times. His career thus far is still respectable, but he hasn’t visited the winner’s circle since May. With his half-sister Authentic Aura’s success as a juvenile, we’re hoping he can get motivated to moving along.
- PIED PIPER - | A last minute toss into the TSC got us a second and two thirds. Pips won the Boy’s Party, and seems to be favoring dirt. Similar to Liberated Treasure we’ll definitely be working on getting his grade up as best we can while trying to give him as much HOTY exposure as possible.
- STYLISHLY WILD - | Powering through wins early on in the season, Wild has been out of the winner’s circle now for a while. We tried to give him some HOTY exposure, and hope the experience will pay off as he goes into Y18. We certainly don’t want to push him too hard, but we want to maximize his talent.
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*-* Y17 RETURNING JUVENILES *-*
- AUTHENTIC AURA - | Miss Aura has been a fighter this season, both losing out and beating the boys in the open juvenile divisions. We’re hoping to get her prepped up for the Triple Tiara next season, so she’ll be put more into filly only categories. She seems to really love that ten furlong mark, but we’re hoping she’ll do well with more exposure in mile and nine furlongs as well.
- CHASING THE SUN - | We had no idea we had a half-brother to Cyclonaria when we took in Chase! He’s shaping up nicely for an undercard racer, pushing a lot of seconds. Hopefully he can pick up a few more firsts soon, and going into the grade five divisions in Y18 as a three year old should give him a leg up. He’s got a famous sister to live up to!
- CHOCOLATIER - | Our strongest juvenile at the start of the year, Coco then spent most of the year in third and fourth places. He did recently capture a fresh win, so we’ll go ahead and give him a go at Breeder’s. Next season will be a refocus to get him into sprinting so he can potentially be a competitor in the Triple Sprinter Crown.
- CLASSY LADY - | Lady has got so much try in her. She’s just gotten her second win for the year after her debut victory. She’s been battling so hard in the HOTY class and just missing out on the wins. She has a very solid HOTY foundation outside of wins, and we’re on the fence about Breeder’s exposure this season. We hope she can bounce up from this season and perform well enough to try the Turf Triple Tiara.
- CREEKSIDE - | With eight thirds, Creekside seems to have found her lot in the races. She placed out of the money only once this year, so she’s a determined little girl. Being created we can only plan what we think she’ll work well with, and we are hoping she could race in the Triple Sprinter Tiara later next year.
-ENGLISHMAN - | It’s been slow going for Endo, with just a single win. We got him from Blackwood Racing’s closure, as he wasn’t wanted by anyone else. We’re definitely suckers for a stray, and we’re thinking he will take the place Final Conquest had for us. With Conrad retiring, Endo is a 9-12 dual colt as well, and we can see similarities in their racing styles and results. Englishman just needs a bit more love and care.
- FRENCH QUARTER - | We’d pegged Rennie for a different sort of season, but we’re okay with his results overall. Originally believing he’d be a strong HOTY racer, he’s turned into a solid undercarder. He hasn’t won for a bit, and we’re sure he’ll change that soon and get into grade four either by the end of the year or early next season. If he can get some oomph under him he might be an entry for NDM in the Canadian Triple Crown.
- GHOST - | Ghost has us a bit perplexed, but of course not every horse is a winner. Half of his season has been out of the money, but with NDM trying to break into sprinting more prominently, we’re willing to give this boy some more time. He might be one who needs a bit more miles under him before he starts to get his meter going.
- LUX AETERNA - | The third unclaimed horse from Blackwood that we took in, Lux also has struggled. He broke his maiden in July, but we needed more sprinters, and he fits into that category with a reduced length of 5-7. It’s typical for NDM sprinters to favor the shortest furlongs, so this boy fits right in with the crowd. Next year we’re hoping he’ll get confidence competing with younger horses.
- MISS ABILENE - | A surprising little lady, sweet Abby has shown us she’s got some talent! In our attempts to get her moving into HOTY we’ve found some stumbling blocks, and she is another one of our early starters who hasn’t won since May. That may change before the year ends, and if she gets her momentum going next year she will probably go into the Turf Triple Sprinter Tiara.
- TWILIGHT REIGN - | Another of our third place runners, Lili did find her stride in racing six furlongs in the last few months. Out of some unusual and slightly unproven lines, she’ll pave the way for her siblings that are coming up in future years. We don’t think Breeder’s will be best for her this season, but she might be able to improve her performance soon.
- VIRTUOSO - | This colt has us a bit flummoxed. He pulls of very good marks in undercards, but he seems to fail in HOTY. After his win the Horseshoe Futurity we pegged him for needing more, but it seems he still needs some time to sort out his legs. He is our only hopeful for the Triple Crown next year, depending on his abilities in prep races.
- WINGS OF ANGELS - | This lady has built up quite a season. Similar to Virtuoso, she places either very well or very badly. Although she seems to really be favor the longest furlong, we will see if she can take on the shorter distances in order to prepare for the Canadian Triple Tiara. If not, we will point her towards the BSD distance series.