Great Friends,

In the last two days we ran three horses - two of them were 2/1 (Band of Thunder and Mr. Chairman) and one was 8/5 (Mikey Bones), so they were all "live" horses, as we like to say.  We'd be lying if we didn't admit that we're hugely disappointed that at least one of them did not win, but as a group, they ran pretty well.

The biggest disappointment was Band of Thunder.  For whatever reason, he just didn't run the race we all thought he would.  He finished fourth, but never really contended.  He was claimed for $40,000, which is not a bad thing.  We cut our losses and move on.

Mr. Chairman might win the award for the "unluckiest horse at Del Mar".  The poor guy keeps getting boxed in and running second.  Perhaps he couldn't have beat the winner on Saturday, but he certainly could have made it very close if he had a clear path.  The good news is that he is clearly a very nice horse, and we are fortunate to have him in our stable.  Once we see how he comes out of the race, we will determine what's next for him.

Today Mikey Bones looked unbelievable in the paddock, and the betting public agreed as she was bet down to 8/5.  She ran the best race of her life and got beat by an eyelash in a very exciting race.  She did not get claimed, so if all goes well, we'll get another race with Mikey Bones this season.

Our in-the-money percentage is unbelievable (80%) and with a little luck, we could easily have had four winners this season.  We definitely still have some nice horses, and we have every intention of running them where they can win.

Rush With Thunder is next.  He is set to run next Monday 8/18 in a $62,500 claiming race.  After that, Sandita is expected to run Saturday 8/23 in a $16,000 claiming race.

Check out the current horse-stats

We'll let you know more as we figure it out.  Talk to you all soon.

The Great Friends Management Team