Long Time, No Blog

Hi all,

Sorry it has been a few weeks since I last blogged, between Belmont and a few other things it has been crazy. I am slowly getting life organized for my first real 5k in the Fall and just made an arrangement with a friend that just bought a barn to work there this summer in order to get money off my board when the mares come south. I just bought my plane ticket on Wednesday night to fly back to Washington on October 8 to bring the girl back here. I'm not quite sure how long I will be there before we head this way but I can't wait to have both of them in the same place as me.

Back in 2009, the last time we were all together.

I'm also headed to Florida for a friend's wedding in two weeks so I'm getting caught up on all my work stuff now. We had a meeting the week I'm gone but I've been given permission to skip it (the benefit of asking for the time off back in February) so I'm finishing the reports I've been asked to put together early this week. I also have a few writing things to put together and it's Royal Ascot week (aka the best race meet ever) so it looks to be a busy time.

I just passed my six month anniversary with work and my one year anniversary in Lexington so I'm kind of in shock over how time has flown by. My hand is (somewhat) getting better every day and I'm free of bulky braces other than the one I wear a few hours a day to straighten out my fingers. 

My next update will probably come after Royal Ascot if I don't die of excitement first. 

For you that don't know what Royal Ascot is, it is a five day meet in England that has some of the best horses in the world entered in its races. The race below was won by arguably one of the greatest horses horses to ever run and this year the race will have 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom in it (the last time a Kentucky Derby winner ran at Royal Ascot was 1936). It will also have two of my favorite horses in training over in Europe with Camelot and George Vancouver making runs over the week (sadly, my favorite horse in training is skipping the meet this year) and some strong international talent from all over the world. As much as I love U.S. racing, my heart lies across the pond when it comes to horse racing and this meet is on my bucket list. While I don't regret many things about turning down the Fulbright, not being able to spend a year at British tracks is one of them. That's one of those things that I plan on doing in the future, even if it means changing quite a bit about my life, but that's a few years down the road.

For now, here's an extremely entertaining race to watch (turf horses usually don't destroy fields like this, especially when the fields include a horse like Excelebration)

Until next time,
Mel

Planning Ahead

October 8th... the first day of my extended vacation. Last week, my boss and I were working out the schedule for planned vacations. He has one planned for July and wanted to know if I was going to take any time off this summer. While I wasn't planning on taking time off in the coming months, I got to looking at the calendar and decided that a few weeks before the Breeders' Cup (and the week after the final round of preps) was the ideal time to take an extended break. 

Of course, that got my wheels turning. I've been looking for the perfect time to bring at least one of my horses here and this is it. I was planning on the trip this summer but due to my hand injury, I still can't do any real work with horses but by October, I should be well on the way to recovery and five or so months out on my last surgery (knock on wood). While I've been pushed by some to wait until next Spring to do the road trip, after experiencing this year's Triple Crown trail rush, that won't work in my work schedule nor do I want to deal with the unstable weather at that point. And frankly, if I don't get Vegas here soon, I will go nuts. I'm already having horse withdrawals, it can only get worse. 

But October is quite a few days (and weeks and months) away so while I wait, I exercise. I posted last week about my "mental block" and getting over that lump. I've been to the gym quite a bit over the last week and have even started exercising twice a day some days (tomorrow morning I plan to start my first super early morning and night workouts). I figure that even though I can't get my horse in shape until she gets here, I can get myself in shape, which will help all of us. Plus, I'm still planning on running a 5k this year so it's double incentive.

I've learned in the past few months that all this planning can be for naught if something happens so for now I have my fingers crossed that now that I've hit the seven week (today) mark on my last surgery, I am good to go.

As always...

Until next time,
Mel

Churchill Photoblog

It took me a while but here's the photoblog some of you have been waiting for since I went to Churchill last week.

I still haven't been able to set up the new camera properly with the new hand but I am slowly getting it done. Warning, there are a ton of pictures in this blog. I didn't expect the camera to do so well battery-wise when I was at the track.

The Batman theme song goes through my head every time I see a pic of this horse.

Photo bomb much?

I can't decide if I think classic dressage or classic Thoroughbred.

Because I have a bias towards paints, I had to take this picture.

I just love how powerful this horse looks in this picture.

NOSE!

The crowd staring at Mine That Bird.

Bird trying to get in the office.

Winston, the cutest mini ever.

I got to take a picture with Mine That Bird

The spires from the new seating area by the paddock.

I picked this horse to win race 6, I was wrong.

Derby jock Jon Court

This dude seemed like he had a lot of personality.

Breeders' Cup Classic winner Brian Hernandez Jr.

Lookn Mighty Fast, a Point Given son that won his race.

Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever's little boy Forever Perfect.

Breaking from the pony.

The most famous jock around, Rosie Napravnik.

A storm rolled in about an hour and a half before first post. The track was obviously muddy.

This horse looked like a beast.

Orb has already joined the list at Churchill.

Miguel Mena sees how close he came to winning the race.

Apparently the outrider puts Baby... and his pony... in the corner.

If racing fails, she can be a hair model.

The PG son headed back to the winner's circle.

The beast looks happy to be headed back to the barn.

Even though he looked like a bug, this dude looked extremely happy to be there.

Above/below: An early Derby favorite last year, Mr. Prankster.

Three time Kentucky Derby winning jock Calvin Borel.