Incredible Upside Update 12/26/10

It has been about 4 weeks since a filly I own in partnership named Incredible Upside arrived at the Alameda County Fairgrounds to train with Kent Molinaro.  She's been getting acclimated to her new surroundings and has begun to build a foundation that will be important as she moves toward her racing career.

From what I can tell, she's coming along nicely.  She's definitely lost weight from when we brought her over from Bobby's farm.  But, Kent was saying she hasn't seen a feed tub she didn't like, which is a good sign that she's healthy and growing.  She did a couple mile gallop over a sealed track and appear to be moving nicely.  Given all the rain we've had in the Bay Area over the past few weeks, its good to see the "real dirt" track has held up ok, and hasn't compromised her training. 

I expect her to get her first timed workout in the next few weeks and from there, we just hopes she keeps developing with no setbacks.

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Incredible Upside

One of my goals for Drew Clear was to document the thoroughbred ownership experience. Well, until now I hadn't actually owned any runners for the past few years. This changes with my recent partnership of a 2yo filly with my friend and racing mentor Harry, who originally got me involved in horse ownership. We're bringing another one of my friends into the partnership, a first time owner, but early indications suggest he'll be a longtime owner.

Harry purchased this chestnut filly at the 2009 September Keeneland yearling sale, Hip 2981. She's by million dollar stakes winner and freshman sire Badge of Silver out of the Unaccounted For mare Upside. We named her Incredible Upside for her second dam "Incredible Me" and of course her dam Upside. Upside is the dam to multiple stakes winner Red Lead who is currently still in training. Fortunately for us, Red Lead has won several stakes since the sale last September, and has earned an additional $300k, which will look great on Incredible Upside's pedigree page.

This past Saturday, Harry and I transferred Incredible Upside from Bobby Gonzalez' farm in Brentwood to Pleasanton racetrack where she'll be trained by Kent Molinaro. This is our first opportunity to use Kent as a conditioner, but he comes well recommended by Bobby, who's ridden for him in the past, and says he always has his horses ready to run. Fortunately the shipping went smoothly and she was pleasantly grazing on straw in her stall when we left. At the farm she was in light training, jogging daily with weight, so hopefully she won't need too much time before being fit to race. With no setbacks I would expect her to be ready to race sometime in February.

I plan to get out to the track for some of her workouts and will try to update the blog regularly with her progress.

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Back in Action

It's been over a year since I last posted and I want to apologize to all the loyal reader(s) of Drew Clear (that means you GDR) for taking so long between posts.
Let's see what happened while I was gone: Well for one, Zenyata unretired, won 5 Grade 1's and nearly won the Breeders' Cup Classic a second time in an absolutely thrilling race but ultimately fell a head short of Blame at the wire. Her legacy as arguably the greatest mare in US thoroughbred history has been solidified, and she's done more for horse racing than any other horse since Smarty Jones made a run at the triple Crown at Belmont in 2004. I had the pleasure of witnessing her two Breeders Cup wins, and can say without a doubt, she's the one of the finest horses I've ever seen in person. Last year's win was by far the greatest atmosphere before and after a race that I've experienced.


She's easily win another Eclipse Award, but I truly hope voters give her a much deserved Horse of the Year, despite her narrow BC loss, because relatively speaking she's so far and above the best filly/mare in the US (Goldikova being the best in the world) that when comparing her vs. Blame in that regard, it isn't close. Favorite Trick won Horse of the year in 1997 as a 2yo over contenders Skip Away and Silver Charm. Surely he would not have won a head-to-head race vs. either of those two horses, but he was deemed the best of the year based on how dominant a 2yo colt he was. Hopefully voters this year will take a similar approach.


The aforementioned Goldikova proved she's the best female horse in the world with an unprecidented 3rd straight Breeders Cup Mile. Her "turn of foot" is simply amazing, and I'm proud to have witnessed her prior two Breeders Cup victories at Santa Anita. The fact that her connections have announced that she will race again in 2011 is simply remarkable. I'm sure I'll have my money on her in next year's Mile if she is fortunate enough to make it to the race again.
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