Honoring
Ramon Dominguez!
We were lucky enough to get to know Ramon, not only because he rode some of our horses but because we met him and his wife, Sharon at charity functions, around Saratoga and at our home, where we also got to meet their two boys. It’s been nice to get to know the whole family!
We wanted to honor him by naming Ahvee’s Destiny’s first foal, a colt by Girolamo, after him. He and his wonderful wife, Sharon, have allowed us to do so. We hope that this yearling will perform in a manner that bestows honor on him, as it will on us. Thank you for allowing us to call Ahvee’s Destiny’s first foal, Ramon Dominguez!
The process of getting the name approved by the Jockey Club took a while because it required written authorization but now it’s official. This is not an “almost.”
However, there have been many “almosts” in our attempt to get something going in Saratoga… We almost bought two horses at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga NY Bred sale. We teamed up with Lady Sheila Stable to try and purchase a colt by Uncle Mo. We bid higher than we wanted to but could not secure the horse. When we stopped bidding, the next bid took it. Turned out that it was for Zayat Stables, the owners of this years Triple Crown winner. Linda said she hopes this one doesn’t turn into another American Pharoah.
The second horse was a filly by Frost Giant out of My Dinah. We’d been told the Reserve price, so we wouldn’t bid until the price had been met. When the highest bid did not reach the Reserve price, we thought we’d be able to make a deal with the consignor. Too bad for us, but the consignor lowered the Reserve price without informing us and the filly was sold to someone else.
We tried to claim two horses. First we had to go through several machinations to be able to do so but we finally worked out those issues. Nonetheless, when we put in our first claim, there were 8 other claims and we didn’t get the horse. So, we tried again a week later only to find the horse was scratched from the race on race day.
Nonetheless, it’s been interesting and very intensive. Among new interesting experiences was getting to use the Executive Box at the track. It was like a big stadium luxury box with 20 comfortable seats, air conditioning, space to eat, etc. Pl;us, we walked through the Jockey’s Silk’s room with Walt, the keeper of the silks. He even found our silks.
