Sassy had a great work today. She went 4F on the dirt track in 48.6s according to Equibase. George was there for the work and reports that the trainer’s instructions were to let her out a little before the wire. According to the rider, she gave Sassy a little rein and Sassy kicked it up a notch and quickly outpaced her company who could not catch up, even with encouragement from the whip. Sassy didn’t need any encouragement as she galloped out another strong eighth of a mile after the wire with a lot more gas in the tank according to the rider.

We’re really pleased with her work and glad to see that Sassy does in fact have the speed that we were hoping for and expecting. The recorded time is not particularly impressive, but the on-site observer felt that the entire work was strong and that she was really moving down the stretch with an excellent finish pulling away from her company.  As an interesting note, Orb, this year’s Kentucky Derby winner, also worked 4F today at Fair Hill.  He worked in 49.2 seconds.  While it doesn’t mean anything, and Orb was just doing a low pressure work at the speed his trainer wanted, it is kind of fun to say that our horse worked faster than he did.  It is also exciting to be at a training facility with such accomplished horses like Orb or Animal Kingdom.

Sassy is building up endurance and doing great! Her rider commented that she did everything she was asked as perfectly as you could want. We’re so happy that her “sassy” side is evidencing itself in the form of hard work on the track instead of misbehaving. Sassy does her job perfectly every day and puts her opinionated energy into running well and terrorizing her Jolly Ball in her stall.

We joke that Mike must give out $5 tips to his riders each time they compliment a horse to the owners because we always have riders telling us how easy Sassy is and how much they like riding her. I was surprised last Saturday when a rider who was driving away stopped to tell us how well Sassy had gone that day. It was even more surprising that the rider wasn’t even the one on Sassy, he was the rider of the horse she worked next to! He said that our horse did much better than his. With both horses finishing together last week I’m not sure how Sassy did so much better, but the rider must have a reason for going out of his way to tell us that… or it is the $5 bonus… Haha.

But seriously, we get a large number of compliments on Sassy’s behavior and while most of it is due to her good nature and her quality riders at Fair Hill, I do want to point out that her early training helped a lot. Scott Purdum of Advantage Horsemanship did a lot of work on her “attitude” and was the first person to ride her. He taught her the raw basics of walk, trot, canter, how to wear a western saddle, and he did some other training to help her learn to be less reactive to new things. Billy Santoro of Prospect Farm took an extremely green Sassy and furthered her education with concepts such as steering, forward, race tracks, cross country, leading and following, going out alone with confidence, and early starting-gate training. Thanks to the trainers and riders who have made our Sassy Little Cat into a no-nonsense racehorse.

Sassy is all business under saddle, but she still has a bit of a well…sassy streak… in her. When they leave her Jolly Ball in the stall in the morning, you can hear her angry squeals from outside the barn as she attacks the Jolly Ball and shows it who is boss. She also likes to bounce the Jolly Ball off her head while she is tied, and then bite as though it offended her. She’s well liked by her groom, Rafael, and she’s a bit of a diva. I think she’s got Rafael wrapped around her hoof. Luckily he knows how to work with divas, and he’s been seen to come out of the stall and say “Sassy doesn’t want her feet done right now, I’ll come back later to do it”. He comes back later and she’s happy to pick up those hooves for him without an argument. Diva.

An important thing that many hands have contributed to is the taming of Sassy’s crazy-thick wild mustang mane, or what I call her “My Little Pony Mane”. George (Dad) didn’t want it shortened when she was a baby and Sassy somehow grew a mane that harkens back to an ancient forefather who lived on an icy tundra. Sassy’s bushy locks would look appropriate on a Thelwell pony but it is not appropriate for a racehorse. Sassy fit in with the western horses at Scott’s farm with her big hair, but not so much with the racehorses. Day one at Billy’s place he said that her crazy harido had to go. I was jumping for joy and Dad just yielded to the inevitable. They did achieve some measure of control over her ‘do, but it still refused to conform as much as it should. Rafael is constantly trying to neaten it up as Mike frequently comments on it. Rafael pulls it and braids it over, but somehow it still looks bushy and wild once out of its braids. Last week I noticed some progress in that the top half is now consistently staying on the right side (in a bushy way), although the bottom half is once again in training braids. Sassy even has diva hair that does whatever it pleases. We’re looking forward to seeing her focus her lovely opinionated personality on winning races!

You can now access this blog at http://www.sassylittlecat.com as well as the original address. The new domain name is easier to remember, so we now have both options.

-Shannon