With Neil Rabbit the only witness, General Charley had

No Excuses!

Saturday, March 13th, we entered our steed in a $17,500 claimer on the turf at a mile and a sixteenth at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans.   This was the all time lowest price we had ever offered Charley in the hope that the lesser competition would get our Charley back in the Winners Circle.

that was the plan.

Returning to ride our hero was James Graham, who we had demoted off the General following his poor ride for us in April of 2009 at Keeneland.  Well, James gave him a great ride this time, tracking the leader just off his right shoulder and keeping Charley to the middle of the race track where the best footing was.  No Excuses....

Neil had Charley ready for the race, as he had him tight as a drum with ankles that looked like a 2 yr olds...    No Excuses...

The turf came up firm and dry - playing right into our hands.  No Excuses....

So we went out and Charley broke great and tracked the leader with slow opening fractions.  He was in position A with just an eighth of a mile left - James had a clear track in front of him - and at precisely the right moment he asked Charley for one last kick to propel us into the Winners Circle.  

And Charley had nothing left to give.

He just flattened out and slipped from 2nd to 6th by the time they hit the wire.... As Neil gave us the recap afterwards, he said "We got No Excuses.   The ride was perfect and when we hit the eighth pole I thought we had it won!"   But we didn't.

click here for the Official race Result

Click here to see the race on YouTube

So it is back to the drawing board as we are now done with the Fair Grounds having taken not a single dollar of purse money over the entire winter there.    Hopefully at Arlington, our beloved hero will regain his old form at the track he loves....