Impeccable made her long awaited debut in the first race at Belterra today. While we were a bit disappointed with the 4th place finish, we feel likeshe’s going to be just fine moving forward.
The track was extremely muddy and it appeared to cause her a bit of difficulty. In fact, it seems to have caused horses problems the entire day. There were only two races on the card that had a payout of less than $10.00 for the winner. In fact, the average win pay was more than $16.00. In addition, times were slow throughout the day. Slow times and big payouts often indicate something unusual is going on and in this case it was likely the track conditions.
She also experienced a great deal of contact with other horses from the first few steps out of the gate right through the end of the race. She was jostled around a fair amount out of the gate, but was still able to get out well and was sitting off the shoulder of the leaders going down the back stretch. She was then bumped extremely hard by the horse to her outside. Watching the head-on view, it was significant contact that caused Geovany to stand up a bit in the irons and give a few choice words to the other jockey. Shortly thereafter, just before going into the far turn, the horse to her outside cut across in front of her and she checked very hard. She lost all forward momentum and dropped back about 3-4 lengths. She recovered well and began to make up some ground coming out of the turn. She was gaining ground in the deep stretch when theeventual winner came up on her inside andbore out very strong and caused Impeccable to move out at least two paths. She continued to fight on and was just nosed out for show.
She experienced a great number of things for the first time today; probably more than normal for a horse making its first start. Despite that, she ran hard the whole way. She learned a number of lessons and likely gained a great deal in terms of fitness from the race as well. Early indications are that she has come out of the race in good order. We’ll know more tomorrow morning.
