The thrill, excitement and joy of winning a horse race is what fuels the passion of Ten Strike Racing and its members. However, before that result can be achieved, the preparation and work put in by Ten Strike’s team begins many months, sometimes years beforehand.
Ten Strike’s agent Liz Crow has been traveling the country this spring hunting the sales grounds of the nation’s largest thoroughbred auction houses for the ideal two year olds to match Ten Strike’s racing program. With almost 4,000 two year old horses offered from February to June the crop must be narrowed down somehow. Crow has coupled her years of experience and success with a new cutting edge technology.
Founded by Dr. Dave Lambert, a pioneer and legend in the Equine Industry, Equine Analysis Systems is using several new technologies to help quantify and analyze different aspects of the horse that indicate success. Ten Strike utilized Equine Analysis Heart Scans for the first time at the two year old sales this year and believe it allowed them to find a future star. Crow and her team had compiled a list horses they believed exhibited the characteristics of a good racehorse, but it was the Equine Analysis heart scans that added the reassurance. In fact, it was a beautiful Candy Ride colt that not only got the attention of Crow as he breezed by. From a list of three horses Dr. Deborah Boehler scanned this colt’s heart and found it to be in the top 3% percentile of all horses, giving it a score of 136 out of a possible 140. The report read: “This is an excellent result. As you can see, this colt gets a high Classic Heart Index or CHI number (the top number is 140) so this heart can clearly support winning the Classic races as a three-year-old (Kentucky Derby, Breeders Cup Classic, ect).”
About the heart scans, Crow explains “When at a two year old sale, there are a wide range of characteristics that I look for in a horse, such as conformation, pedigree, breeze time, economy of motion, and overall athleticism. With so many factors coming into play, the heart scans from Equine Analysis offer a quantifiable measurement of something that I cannot see, yet is so vital to the success of the horse. The team at Equine Analysis are experts in their field and not only measure the heart, but then analyze the data and compare it to the general population. This just equips me with another tool to make an informed decision for Ten Strike.”
Ten Strike purchased the Candy Ride colt for $50,000 and he will be put in training with Brad Cox. He is a part of the AR3 Venture which consists of six two-year-olds.
Allowance, One Mile, $57,500, 3 year olds & up, Time: 1:34.57
Allied Air Raid took down a group of Allowance horses at Churchill Downs on Friday, June 3rd. Second start off the layoff he broke and relaxed under Florent Geroux sitting in third position down the backstretch of the one turn mile. He loomed up three wide at the top of the stretch and took control with a 1/16th remaining. He put Teniente Coronel away in the final strides and won gearing down by one length.
Click here to view the race replay
This was Allied Air Raid’s second start since getting a winter freshening. Last year he ran 3rd in the Prairie Mile Stakes, 2nd in the (G3) Iowa Derby, 2nd in the Prelude, and 3rd in the (G2) Super Derby. He has been off the board only once in 10 career starts and just hit the $250,000 earnings mark.
He will point for a Graded Stake next.
Race 5 at Indiana Downs on May 18, 2016
Allowance, 5 Furlongs, $34,000, 3 year old’s & up, Time: 59.01
Rain has plagued the Central Indiana area for the past three weeks, moving several races off the turf course at Indiana Grand. However, the sun was out bright and the first turf race of the 2016 racing season was contested Wednesday, May 18, giving Divine Thunder and Jockey Malcolm Franklin the nod for the win.
A field of eight assembled on the turf course for the $34,000 Allowance event running five furlongs. Divine Thunder broke in mid pack and quickly retreated to the back as race favorite Flying Eagle and Leandro Goncalves quickly moved into the lead from the inside. There was constant pressure applied to the top spot of the tightly packed field with Rojo Mojo and Cory Orm sitting in second early on followed by Read the Cards and Ron Hisby three-wide in third.
The field became even more tightly packed around the turn and in the stretch, Dynamite Stick and Marcelino Pedroza took over the top spot. Divine Thunder was in full gear and began to chase down Dynamite Stick. The two matched each other stride for stride in the final steps of the race. Dynamite Stick was not giving up any ground. However, Divine Thunder got the head bob at the end to win by a nose in a time of :59.01. Andy Po Po and Richard Bracho rallied from the back to finish third.
Owned by Ten Strike Racing, Divine Thunder was making his first start since early April and his first start over Indiana Grand’s turf course. The six-year-old son of Divine Park added his third win of the season in five outings for trainer Randy Matthews. It marked the first start aboard Divine Thunder for Franklin, who earned the 2013 Leading Jockey title at Indiana Grand.
“I was a little surprised he (Divine Thunder) ran so well today,” said Franklin. “He’s a big horse and coming off route races at Oaklawn Park, I thought he would be farther back. But Randy (Matthews) said he’s been training good. He came up on Marcelino’s horse (Dynamite Stick) and I thought he was going to draw away from him, but Marcelino’s horse dug in. I had a little momentum and this horse wasn’t giving up. He really dug in late.”
Divine Thunder now has eight career wins in 26 career starts. He boosted his career earnings to more than $135,000 with his latest win at Indiana Grand, his first over the turf.
“I galloped him (Divine Thunder) two times but this is the first time I’ve ridden him in a race,” said Franklin. “He’s pretty tough to gallop, but I like him.”
Divine Thunder showed true grit and determination to provide Ten Strike racing with an exciting finish and another win.
Ten Strike Racing