Race Day for Aria

Aria has completed her first race. I was a basket case as usual. I get very tense, worried and excited about one of mine racing. But I get very quiet so not to disturb the horse or heck the trainer. I'm better once I'm at the track and can see the horse. I'm okay once they come back and I know they're okay. So much more exciting then showing or should I say, I find it so much more stressful and fun at the sametime then showing.

Before the race on race day. The horses have a vet exam a short time before the race. A track vet looks at the horse, feels their legs, and watches them walk and trot. He also checks the lip tattoo. Aria thought it was very odd to have to trot with someone, since she has not shown halter. Others that I have race think this is an odd halter class.

The horse is then cleaned up and put in the racing bridle. There are first, second and last calls for the race over the loudspeakers. They are walked down to the holding barn. At the holding barn, their lip tattoo is checked and blood is pulled. The horses in Texas are lead onto a couple of pieces of plywood on the ground to look for toe grips. Toe grips on shoes are not allowed in the races in Texas now. There are straight stalls to let the horses stand in or they can be lead around. A wash rack is in there as well if they need sprayed down before the race. Aria was very good. She found all this very exciting and her eyes were about to pop out of her head, but she was good.

The horses are then led to the saddling paddock. They got to their appropriate stall and are saddled. The jockey's valet comes out with the tack. The horse is saddled up with the tiny saddle and an over girth is put on. The over girth is very tight and it takes 2 people to put it on them. The horse is typically walked around a bit to make sure everything is in place. Aria was very good. She did not care for the overgirth, but she had worn it before and was very excited by everything going on, but she was obedient. The horses are then led out in order to where the trainer, owner and jockey are waiting outside the saddling paddock. The jockey is tossed up there often with the horse just barely hesitating, but not stopping. Sometimes horses blow up in this area with all the excitement so it can be an exciting area to stand. And then off they go to the track to be met by the pony horses and to be taken to the gates.

Aria did great for her first race. It was 6.5 furlong maiden special weight filly race. 6.5 furlongs is long for her first out, but that was all that was offered. She has never been under lights and the race was at night. She had only come out of the gates once with another horse and had not worked with a lot of horses. So she had a large learning curve in the first race. I just wanted her to come back safe and sound.

Aria was in the 9th hole. She came out 3rd in the gates, got hit with sand and said, maybe we need to think about this and held back. Then she ran with the 2nd pack of horses and got over the sand thing. She went between two horses who were running and made sure the horse next to her did not pass her at the finish line so she got a 5th out of 10 horses. She beat experienced race bred horses. I believe she was the youngest horse in the race and the only one who hadn't raced. She came back fine and bounced all the way back to the barn. She thinks she won the race. The front runners were ahead and I don't think she knew she was suppose to go to the front, but that's okay. She'll figure it out. Everyone was happy with her race and how she behaved. Racing pays to the 5th place so she made a bit of money for her first out.

Gates, timed works and lip tattoos

In order to be able to race, a horse needs a gate card and 2 timed works. The gate card consists of the horse allowing the gate crew to handle it. The horse needs to go into the gates, stand quietly and break out straight from the gates with another horse next door breaking out as well. So they need lots of schooling to make them comfortable with the gates. The noises and the movement around them. There is a guy who is above their head to the side of them. There is a lot for the future race horse to learn.

Aria has been going in and out of the gates since she started under saddle. So she's not concerned about going through them. She got her gate card at her first try and she got a timed work as well coming out of the gates.

Timed works. The track requires that the future race horse have 2 official timed works before racing. The crew at the gap, where the horses enter the track take the name of the horse, the trainer and how far it will work. All this is written down along with the time the horse works. It is recorded by the track. The track reports it to equibase.com where you can find timed works or workouts of horses on the official tracks on a daily basis. These stats can be emailed to you if you set up a virtual stable.

Race horses also have to have a lip tattoo to id them for the races. This is usually done as the horse gets close to getting timed works. In the Arabian, we have to send our papers back to the Registry in order to convert them over to racing papers. The markings and hair swirls have to be drawn in for the new papers. Colors must match so some of the lighter, not so blacks could be changed to bay. After the tattoo, the papers are turned into the track to be kept. They keep a file of the trainer's horses papers. These move from track to track as the horse races. A sheet of paper is attached to the back of the Arabian papers to have any races won recorded on it.

In company

Aria has been going to the track and working in company. Take a look at her photos in company.






Aria has been going to the track and working in company.

I was hoping she would have run in December, but it didn't work out that way. Hurricane Ike slowed things down and she got a cold in December which really put her behind for timed works. Horses need 2 offical timed works before they can run. They also need a gate card before they can run.