Great Horse Racing Week

The week started off with great anticipation as our horse, Caldera, that we own shares of was scheduled to race Thursday. He as been on the sidelines recovering from an injury last year at the Louisiana Downs race as few weeks prior to the Kentucky Derby 2025. He was highly considered to do well in the Downs race and expected to accumulate the last few points needed to be eligible for the Kentucky Derby race. We were so excited, but upon his exit from the gate, he noticeably stumbled and although he initially made a charge, the jockey pulled him up and cruised at the rear of the pack knowing something was wrong. After surgery and recovery in Dallas at the prestige training center for recovering horses, he was finally moved to Florida to train under his new trainer Saphie Joseph Jr. His first trainer was the legend D. Wayne Lukas who passed shortly after the injury to Caldera. True to form and anticipation of good things for this horse, he ran a smart race along the rail coming out of the second turn pulling away to win by six and half lengths. We are excited to find out what race will be next as he came out of the race with a solid thumbs up on his health.

The week ended on one of the best Kentucky Derby races ever. Golden Temple rallied from last place position to overtake the favorite Renegade by half a head at the finish line. More than a twenty-length gap he had to surpass coming out of the final turn to make that distance up in less than an eight of a mile. Not a fastest time as if any horse will ever beat Secretariat’s records at any of the triple crown venues, but his one had a first in the first female trainer ever to win at the Kentucky Derby. It was a magnificent day. A story that came out afterwards was about a man living in a hospice center wanted as his last wish to attend his eightieth consecutive derby. Churchill Downs made sure that it happened and he even got a brochure signed by the jockey and trainer and he was seated right on the finish line. A cool fact that came out of the story is that he made a prediction of the first three horses for the finish and was right. His grandson made a fifty cent Trifecta bet and one sixty thousand dollars. A great week of racing culminated in great success for our horse and the race we love the most.

We will forever love horse racing. Many are against it as the industry has had its share of bad publicity centering around the care of horses and a few years back the deaths being experienced by tracks around the country. The business did a remarkable job of cleaning up its own image and making sure that the death of a racehorse is again a very rare occurrence. A sport enjoyed by people of all income levels and although betting is a real thing for many in the sport, not a negative for us but we understand the morality sect of this country and really around the world, the organization really tries to be responsible in its approach to gambling offering help to those with an addiction or problem. A festive like atmosphere many times especially when the race is more notable and drawing celebrities and people desiring to share the same experience as those with unlimited budgets. We have never meet anyone that didn’t share our excitement when at a track and we even got to go to the 150^th running of the Kentucky Derby. We still plan to go to the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness so that we can experience all three venues of the Triple Crown. We also look forward to the years ahead of Caldera running and then we hope he has a great stud contract and career, siring wonderful horses for the future of racing.