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.