Shoe Delay

Rap Tale caused quite a big commotion when she had to be reshod prior to the Rare Treat yesterday. (That besides giving her owners quite the scare when we saw her heading back to the paddock just a couple of minutes before scheduled post.) The other jockeys had to dismount as well, by rule I'm told so as not to give any horse the advantage of having the weight off, and it took several minutes and quite the persistent and game effort by the horseshoe guy to nail one back onto a highly agitated filly. (Out to dinner afterwards at Don Peppe's with the Head Chef, Bob, his wife Sue, Bruce Brown and his wife Jenny, partner Artie and his wife Deb, and friend of the stable Steve [edited so as not to insult anyone by leaving them out by name!], I was heartily mocked when I referred to the guy as a 'farrier.' Seems that term is reserved now only for ex-Jets linebackers finding their Super Bowl glory elsewhere.)

Shoe restored, Rap Tale finished 5th. Ramon Dominguez and trainer Brown decided that they would take the conservative route and pull back so as to avoid favored Weathered, with the aim of an in-the-money finish. But she found herself too far back of a moderate pace, and pinned in against the rail. This filly is too one-paced, and neither fast nor agile enough to succeed under those circumstances. She tried hard to hang on to 4th, but failed by a nose thus settling for 5th place prize money of $2,121.

Not really sure what's next. The ultimate goal is Virginia-bred stakes at Colonial Downs later this year. In the meantime, finding a spot in New York without exposing her to a tag will be next to impossible. Philly Park has NW4x allowances, so that's a possibility. I'd heartily agree with the notion that she needs some rest....but y'know what, I think I'm happy to leave that decision up to a trainer who has won nearly a quarter of his races since going out on his own just over a year ago.