Sun, 16 June 1996
Hi Al,
I managed to get a message posted to The Clubhouse.
I'll be interested to see what kind of response you
get from it. A brand new adventure for you....
As for TX, there are some interesting developments. It seems that although the idea of having 3 class 1 tracks was to keep a year round circuit running, the 3 tracks are vying for the same group of dates for 1997. Lone Star's inaugural meet is Dec 14th to the end of the year, I believe. However, the grandstand is not actually supposed to be finished until April 1. Therefore, they would like to have 1997 race dates that will allow the race-goers access to the stands. They also would like to start their meet at the conclusion of Oaklawn's meet.
Trouble is, Sam Houston would like those dates, too. And Retama. And Remington (not under TX jurisdiction, but they can sure have an effect, as well as BE affected, by the TX dates). SHRP wants 140 days, Lone Star 75. So what is the Tx racing Commission to do? If it were me (which it most definitely is NOT--AND, I'm not very impartial), I would give LSP it's 75 dates following Oaklawn. They are the newest track with the biggest potential. I would give SHRP the following dates, and Retama the fill-in dates. Let Trinity run a TB only meet during SHRP's run, and let TrM run a mixed meet while Retama is on. Perhaps we could draw horses following the Oaklawn meet, and draw them further into SHRP and Retama, if all goes well.
I talked to Steve Hicks a few days ago. He is very pleased with Kay, the Mr. Redoy filly we sent to him. To be quite honest, I'm a little surprised he liked her so much. He loves that she is very correct, which she is. They are spending some time with her on the lead shank to get her used to dealing with all sorts of people, which is something she needs. He was also pleased at her condition upon arrival, (which was very *robust*). She is a very easy keeper, which is unusual for a TB. It sounds as if they will have a reasonable number to handle at the sale. They are bringing 15, and usually, they end up handling a few others that have been prepped at home. That should make for busy days, but not terrifically unreasonable (if you can call handling yearlings at a sale anything close to reasonable).
Well, I had better be going. Always, more work awaits me... Say hi to the family for me.
Later,
Jill
The Running Horse (https://www.isd1.com/alauck)