Highland Cat Back Soon

- Highland Cat, having lost his manhood, will be returning to Bill Turner’s barn later this month with a new sense of purpose in his life. At least we hope so. Forget those frisky fillies and get thee to the winner’s circle I say. What the hell else is there for him to do at this point anyway? His days of cruising singles bars are obviously over, so he might as well get with the program.

Meanwhile, our Vicar filly has been named Christening (Vicar – Birthright); so there’s a clever name for you, eh? I love it! But there’s a split in this Castle Village partnership over what to do with her. Our half-partner in the venture is looking to sell their 50% share of the filly, and there are ongoing negotiations with a potential buyer at a price that would just about cover her total cost including expenses thus far. The arrangement being discussed would call for her running in alternating silks between ours’ and those of the new partner – there’s a novel arrangement for you. Personally, I wouldn’t care if her jockey wore Dick Cheney’s pajamas as long as she wins. (Well, how about Joe Biden’s instead?) (OK, after his rambling performance at the Alito hearings yesterday, perhaps we should go for Diane Feinstein’s instead.)

Some of the CVF partners however, in keeping with the original pinhooking business plan, feel that we should also be looking to cash out if we could get a similar price for our share. That would leave us with just Highland Cat, and actually make for a fairly successful venture, albeit not in the way originally envisioned, to sell them quickly at the two-year old sales. Three of the four original purchases would then have been sold at varying degrees of profit, but profit nonetheless; and we’d be able to go some time without a cash call (and perhaps even a distribution) even if Highland Cat doesn’t start to pay his way. The matter has been put to a vote.

While I respect the opinion of those who want to sell, I’ve voted not to do so. As I’ve mentioned before, I absolutely love her breeding, and Vicar endeared himself to me on the basis of his two gritty wins – that you can see on this page - in the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby; even though he would never win again. Bill Turner likes her a lot, and I’d like to be involved in her future, both racing and hopefully breeding too, as I think there are a lot of interesting mating possibilities for her given some of the combinations present in her pedigree. And besides, you gotta love that name! Thus far, the “don’t sells” have a 13-11 lead, and hopefully, the voting will be legitimate and won’t have to be ultimately decided by the Supreme Court.

- A reader recently requested some background on Highland Cat and the pinhooking partnership, which can be found here.

- Feel free to email me with question, comments, links, or suggestions. And thanks for stopping by!