Nicolas Clement, our trainer in France, has entered Sacred Music in a race at a track in Strasbourg. The race is on Tuesday, at a distance of 2,350 meters (nearly a mile and a half), for a total purse of 17,000 Euros. He says that she has trained well since her recent racing debut, and that the long distance of her race on Tuesday should be no problem for her. Although I think that we have every reason to expect her to give a good account of herself. I don't know the form of horses in France. When we get the entries tomorrow, Nicolas can help us assess the opposition.
Meanwhile, we are pointing two of our horses in New York to races at Belmont Park. We have entered Mustang Island for a race on Thursday on the grass, similar to the race that Hot Money won last Saturday. This sprint race on the grass will be the second start of Mustang Island's career, just as last Saturday's race was for his fellow three-year-old stablemate, Hot Money. Two days ago, W.C. Jones worked well over the Saratoga training track, as his trainer, Christophe Clement, prepares him for his scheduled comeback race on May 24. We have been resting and rehabilitating four-year-old W.C. Jones since his last race, which took place about a year ago. He will need one more work before his race. Although it is a tall order to ask a horse to win at a distance of a mile and a quarter (the exacting distance of the Kentucky Derby) after a long layoff, Christophe is celebrated for his ability to have a horse ready to give a peak effort under such circumstances.
Hope springs eternal in the horse business, particularly when one has young horses that have not yet established the limits of their potential. The racing of Thoroughbred horses is a sport with origins in England more than three centuries ago. The sport is full of hoary and colorful aphorisms. A favorite of mine is, "No man with an unraced two-year-old ever committed suicide." We have an unraced two-year-old colt, Backslider, in training in Kentucky.
