Racing has been exciting in August for Rosecrest Farm….we had two wins in two days!!!

You would have thought that would send me running to the keyboard to write, but we’ve had soooo many guests at the B&B and Lil’s has been thankfully busy, so I haven’t had time to sit down and put some thoughts together.

Sweet Halory winning her allowance race

So, on August 2, Pistol Packin Rose won at Del Mar and on August 3, Sweet Halory won at Indiana Downs.

Rafael Bejarano rode Pistol Packin Rose.  He broke great with her and got her to settle on the backstretch.  Then, coming out of the second turn she took a short lead in midstretch, than had Lady Ninja fight back, but she could not match Pistol Packin Rose and our Rose inched clear at the wire!!!!

As you can imagine, Chuck and I were on our feet as we watched her fight for the win and GET IT!!  And, yes, we celebrated as we kept watching the replay.  Click here to enjoy the race!!!CLICK HERE <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ury2QQAGSIY?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

The next morning I fed breakfast to a full B&B and Chuck got the moms and babies in, fed, and back out in time for us to drive to Indiana to watch Sweet Halory run.  She won and we were there to see it!!!

Her jockey, Katie Clawson, rode a great race.  She was content to lay back and let the speed horses fly with the fast times of 21.5 and 44.15 for the quarter and half-mile.  At the quarter pole (with a quarter of a mile to go), Sweet Halory caught the pacesetter, drove past and we were there to celebrate it!!!

But let me back up and tell you we also got to see some single minded determination on Sweet Halory’s part.  When they brought her in the paddock before the race, she let me give her a kiss on her nose and listened when I told her how much we love her, and how “I know you are going to win because you are special.”

Once they saddled her, she was focused.  I’ve never seen one of our horses focus so much.  She didn’t move her head or even her feet.  She remained like that for several minutes….she had her game face on…and it worked!

After those two wins, we received many congratulations from friends and our many new fans from our B&B Family.  We have many levels of racing fans who stay with us at the B&B.  Some who stay with us are already avid racing fans and others who come here know almost nothing about racing.  Many of the latter leave knowing enough that they want to follow our horses at the track, and definitely follow the babies they’ve met at the farm.

Just last week, Cindy commented to me that after being on the farm for only a few days, she could appreciate our win photos.  She said when they saw the photos upon arrival they thought, “Okay, nice photos.”  But several days later when they were leaving, they looked at the photos and said, “NOW the photos really mean something!”

As I said, some of our guests come here because they are avid racing fans and want to come to the Horse Capital of the world and experience firsthand our beautiful rolling green pastures, dotted with horses of all ages.

Bob Bailey was one of those avid racing fans who stayed with us last year.  Since then, before every race in which Rosecrest had a horse entered, I would get a quick note from Bob wishing us good luck.  Once I even got a Good Luck wish from him on a filly that was entered whom I had lost track of!  I was really indebted to him for that!!!

A B&B guest at Rosecrest Farm.

I could always count on hearing from Bob before and after every race.  So, when we had two wins in a row and I didn’t get that note from him, I thought Bob must be traveling to some exotic place.   Soon, however, Pam Magette, Bob’s good friend who came with him to Rosecrest, wrote me to say that Bob had passed away on August 10.  She wanted me to know that just days before, they relived their visit by looking at their pictures and reminiscing about the farm and the horses.  She closed by saying, “Thank you for being a special part of one of the happiest times in Bob’s life.”  I cried.

I will miss my notes from Bob and appreciate Pam letting me know what happened.  This does remind me that we who live here in Horse Country forget how really magical it is, and how fortunate we are.

A guest’s photograph of evening at Rosecrest Farm.