The Owls Approve: December 2014

Archie

So, first, lemme apologize for not being the best commenter or question-answerer this past week. Sorry to those of y'all who had issues with the InLinkz coding! I'm gonna make a tutorial and post it directly after this. I'm afraid that my brain has the potential to be shit this week, too.

Making of the Horse

Last week, we talked about our babies. This week, let's talk about our greenies. Who trained your horse? Is your ponykins still in the process of figuring out this whole monkey-on-my-back thing, did you send off for thirty or sixty or ninety days, or did you buy a horse with all the bells and whistles? Who has helped your horse become what he or she is today?

Thanks to the super-informative post that Carly did on all things OTTB, I was inspired to play around with Equibase. I fell down the rabbit hole and ended up finding out some information that I never had.

When Archie was sold at auction. Twice. The first time was as a yearling, for $4k, and then again a month later for $4k. Unfortunately, I can't find photos! Do they photograph those things? They tried to sell him again a third time, but it doesn't appear that he sold. The first and third auctions were at Fasig-Tipton and the second was at Keeneland. I think.

It never dawned on me prior to this research that Archie flipped hands as a kiddo. I'm not sure how it happened, but from the Neil Pressin, agent, he somehow ended up with Cinda Boone as his trainer. I don't know much about her. I do know that she now resides in or around my hometown and appears to show hunters. I don't show any other wins or anything under her name, so Archie may have been her only racer.

I think I've gone over his race record a few times, but he raced seventeen times from April, 2000 to May, 2002. Not a very long time! Of note: his jockey, Jorge E.Callazo, Sr. (at least for his last race), has become a Multiple Stakes Winning Jockey.

Oh. My. God. AND HIS COLORS WERE BLUE! Thank you for the connections, @voidivi! #boldarcher #ottb #offtrackthoroughbred #racehorse #beulahpark

A photo posted by bekaburke (@bekaburke) on Nov 11, 2013 at 12:02pm PST

And here's where things get weird, but it's his training.

I was told that after being a racehorse, Archie became a 4-H horse. And promptly flunked out of the program. From 2003-2005, he was lolling in a pasture, being a horse without a job. My understanding was that my trainer had acquired him for the sole purpose of resale. I've often wondered (and never asked) why a lesson barn would have a young, gorgeous Thoroughbred doing nothing. We had solid riders and a couple of working students. Anyways, no one touched him until I started working him the summer of 2005.

On of the earliest photos - I don't think I have any from the summer prior.

Since then, he's had no professional training. I've taken lessons (albeit sporadically) and kinda sorta brought him along by myself. I've come to terms with the fact that Archie could easily have achieved way much more as a show horse with a more qualified rider or professional training. Fortunately for my crushed ego, I didn't buy him to be one.