Hot Money actually has a nice story line. Our trainer, Christophe Clement, trained Hot Money's dam, Smoldering, for a European owner. Smoldering showed some potential, but slipped and fell on the way to the track one morning and injured herself badly. Saving her would require an expensive operation followed by a long convalescence, and she would be unlikely to race again. Her owner declined to undergo that expense and ordered that she be put down. Christophe then received permission to pay for her surgery himself and took title to her. When I learned about it, I offered to take on the expense, and when my partner, the late Peter Karches, learned about it, he offered to share the expense with me, and Peter and I became the owners of Smoldering. There are more twists and turns to the story, but Susan and I wound up as the owners of Smoldering and bred her to Not for Love, a stallion in which I owned part interest. We named the resultant foal "Hot Money."
Hot Money got sick as a foal and was on antibiotics for months. He grew to be a small, but well-made, balanced horse, with one pronounced flaw: he walked wide behind for some reason we could not determine. For want of a better solution, I had him gelded this winter. He tracks better now, and certainly ran well today in his second lifetime start, the first since he was gelded. He is quick on his feet and can be a bit naughty, unseating his exercise riders in the morning if they are not alert. We hope to have a lot more fun with him!
