Every year, owner Robert Myerhoff and trainer Richard Small, bring a string of horses to New Orleans for the Fairgroungs meet.
The horses of focus are sired by a very classy sire, by the name of Broad Brush.
The New Orleans Fairgrounds is the third oldest track in the United States. It now has the distinction of having the longest stretch in the country. Two other tracks, Arlington Park and Sportsman Park, had longer stretches, but they are closed now.
For some reason, probably because of the long stretch, all levels of the Broad Brush breed, love and flourish at the Fairgrounds. Halory Hunter, for one loved the racing down here, this year it was Brushed Halory. The sire Broad Brush, has become one of my fovorites. Which is also the reason I knew I would like to have a horse sired by Broad Brush in my stable.
Brook's Broads; a filly 3yo, was one of the more fortunate horses in my first week, 243., in that I was able to find a suitable race for her to break her maiden. But, I'm not the type of person that can set the jockey instruction/energy level at 1/1 ,and say go get the purse, bring it home.
I believe in finding the likes and dis-likes of a particular horse, and this cannot be found without asking your horse to perform in certain ways. It's much better to find out your horses strong points in their first few races, this way you won't have questions that you can't answer when racing for higher purses, in the future. You want to eliminate any doubts of your horses ability or preferences, and have little doubt how he/she will react under certain circumstances.
Going into Brooks' third race, I was looking for a win. In her two previous races I had asked Brooks to come off the pace (jockey setting 2), then in the second race, to sit off the pace (.50). In both races she performed admirably.
Broad Brush horses do well on grass, so I was a actually expecting the change in surface as a positive move, something Brooks would like. Also, she is bred to love the add distance.
As you can see, Brooks did not want anything to do with the turf, at all. To her credit, she fought against what she didn't like and managed to salvage a therd place finish. Good horses will always try to give their best, even under situations they don't like.
Shadeed; Brooks broodmare sire, although he has sired five Grade 1 champions (according to Trelana's Stud Page , I'm sure none of these prospered on the turf. I was hoping the Nijinski II blood (which ofcourse has strong turf tendancies), would overide Shadeed's and make a positive turf breed
It has been said, that about 75% of the gene pool of a horse, is from the parent of the same color as the foal.
