After watching General Charley run a disappointing 5th, Red Rabbit Trainer Chris Block proclaims,
"I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO BE DOWN ON THIS HORSE!"
On July 16th we entered Red Rabbit Racing's only asset, General Charley, in a $34,500 Allowance Optional Claiming race at a mile on the turf at Arlington Park. Charley was the only one in the race for sale - with a claiming tag of $62,500. This was the same type of race that Charley won his last time out on Father's Day.
We had drawn a horrid post position - number 9 - out of 10 entrants. The rail on the turf course was out quite a bit making it very difficult for us to get over to the rail. General Charley, under usual jock Eddie Perez, was 4 wide throughout the entire race, making us run a lot further than the speed horses hugging the rail.
We got beat by a horse named Recapture The Glory, trained by Louis Roussel. This horse is a past Illinois Derby Winner and finished 5th in the 2008 Kentucky Derby - the year Big Brown won.
He was quick - but he also had the rail breaking out of the 1 hole. If he had launched from the swampland on our end of the gate - I like our chances.
A bit of bad racing luck for us - but given the good luck we have had recently, we must take the good with the bad.
The good news is that 5th place still paid us a little over $1,000 so the General provided us with another paycheck - though not the one we were looking for.
After the race, Chris called me and broke down the race saying Charley had run his heart out again, but the bad post and being 4 wide just did him in. But he came through the race just fine and will be ready to fight again.
We had a fine gaggle of Rabbits to watch the race. Jean had a number of friends by, as did Rick as well. New Rabbit watchers included old friend Greg Goluska, Phil & Cindy Williams and the Doug Sanford family. Jean's husband Steve had a cousin over for the 1st time and I hope all had a good time.
WE ARE NOT SURE WHEN OUR NEXT RACE WILL BE, BUT WHEN IT IS
CHARLEY WILL BE BACK!