There were some high points and low points of Sassy’s first race.  Let’s start with the low point to get it out of the way.  She did not have a strong showing in her first start, she finished 10th of 11 fillies.  That was a big disappointment for us as we were all hoping she’d be somewhere in the front half of the group, and of course we always hope that she’d end up 1st!  But with that out of the way, there were a lot of high points to our day.

*We all had a great time!  We sat and chatted and watched races and we had fun just being racehorse owners.  We sat at tables with a big pink bow on them, and we had bits of pink here and there to match Sassy’s hot pink silks.  We stood in the paddock and watched our horse parade around and we saw our jockey get up with his sassy hot pink silks!

*Sassy wasn’t injured and she came back fine so far from the race.

*Sassy was well behaved in the paddock and came out of the gate going straight.

*You can really see those hot pink silks all the way across the track.  She was the only horse you could clearly distinguish from afar.

We went to visit Sassy on the backside before the race.  She was friendly and hoping we had treats (which we didn’t give her on race day).  She was also full of herself- feeling sassy.  She’s normally bedded in straw and at Delaware the stall was generously bedded with wood shavings.  Sassy appeared to like bedding as she did a lot of rooting around in it, which is why she looks like there is dirt in her nose in the stall pictures- she kept putting her nose in the sawdust. She also enjoyed pawing in it, and after some frantic digging in the shavings, she flung herself down, rolled, and the she popped up and double barrel kicked the stall wall.  She then ran to the back of the stall and kicked it with one hoof for good measure.  Not what we wanted to see at all, but we were hoping that she’s show that feistiness for the race.

After our quick photo op, we headed over to the track for something to eat since we were starving. We chatted with the owners group and placed a few wagers. Then the big moment arrived and we hustled over to the paddock.

As a group, the owners stood on one of the little grass islands in the gorgeous Delaware paddock waiting for our girl to come in.  As she walked in the paddock, a loud train went by next to the park and she didn’t care for it at all.  She was pretty hyped up and excited and she looked to be dragging her groom a bit. She looked great!

Sassy was decent for saddling, but somewhat excited.  She kicked the wall a time or two, but they were able to get her saddled without any problems.  Our jockey came out in our hot pink silks and I decided that I really like them.  You can see them from a mile away and the little black cat on the front is cute and “sassy”!

Sassy was fine with her pony and the jockey said that she settled down a little on the track.  They didn’t parade in front of the grandstand much, so we missed most of that.  She warmed up well and then loaded perfectly into the gate.

All of the horses loaded well, and then they were off! Sassy broke just a little slowly and ended up sitting behind the front runners.  The first quarter went in :22s so they were moving along at a quick pace.  Sassy got a ton of track dirt rained down on her, and afterwards the jockey said that she just did not like getting it in her face.  She is normally super willing, but he said he had a hard time just keeping her there because the dirt was bothering her.  When they rounded the turn, the jockey was able to get a clear lane for her on the outside and she didn’t grab the bit as expected to make her move.  He felt that she was so taken aback by the dirt that it really put her off.  He was instructed not to run her off her feet for her first race, and per instruction he didn’t try to beat her all the way down the backstretch which we are glad for since she was pretty far out of it.

After the race, she was scoped and she didn’t have any bleeding, which is good.  She appeared sound after the race, so we’ll hope the trainer can prep her a little more with the dirt so she’s a little more game her next time out.

Pictures from the day