With just a month until the 2013 Derby, hopefully you're getting excited. If you're not, well, shame on you. What kind of person are you to read the blog of two Equine Management majors and not care about the derby?!
Anywho, if you are excited, let's take a look at the top 20 eligible under the Derby's new point system (I'd explain that for you but honesty I've yet to look up how that works) I should also mention that I am not a real handicapper. I do this for fun, and of course I will voice my opinions. That's what blogs are for!
Fresh off his win in the Florida Derby (Gr I), he's on a 4 race winning streak (He's, 3 for 3 in his 2013 season). He's beaten fellow Derby candidates Itsmyluckyday, Merit Man, and Shanghai Bobby. He also won the Fountain of Youth Stakes (Gr. II) He's pedigree says he's got the distance!
#2 Revolutionary
War Pass x Runup the Colors (A.P. Indy)
Trained by Todd Pletcher
While Orb was sweeping the Florida Derby, Revolutionary was sweeping the Louisiana Derby (Gr II). He's got a 3 race winning streak going, including the Withers Stakes (Gr III). Dam provides the stamina, sire provides the speed. Can run wide, will battle for the win. Can run from the middle of the pack.
#3 Lines of Battle
War Front x Black Speck (Arch)
Trained by Aidan O'Brien
In the shadow of the Dubai World Cup, he swept a $2 million victory in the UAE Derby (Gr II). May not be able to get the distance. #4 Will Take Charge
Unbridle's Song x Take Charge Lady (Dehere)
Trained by D. Wayne Lukas
The son of a Kentucky Oaks runner up stretches out to take the Rebel Stakes (Gr II) after finishing off the board at the same distance in the Southwest Stakes (Gr III). He has a previous win at a mile in the ungraded Smarty Jones Stakes. He's a half brother to Derby contender Take Charge Indy (injured in Derby), his sire finished 5th in his own Kentucky Derby. Keep an eye on him, he might just get the distance!
#5 Itsmyluckyday
Lawyer Ron x Viva La Slew (Doneraile Court)
Trained by Eddie Plesa Jr.
An early favorite. He ran second to Orb in the Florida Derby (Gr I), first in the Holy Bull Stakes (Gr III) and first in a handful of other non-graded stakes races. By a stallion who ran 12th in the Kentucky Derby behind Barbaro. However, his dam was not bred for stamina, neither was his maternal grandsire. May fall short in the Derby distance.
#6 Vyjack
Into Mischief x Life Happened (Stravinsky)
Trained by Rudy Rodriguez
Currently undefeated, this gelding's 4 for 4! He's got three stakes races under his belt (two graded). His most recent is the Gotham (Gr III). But can he stretch out? He's all speed, not much stamina.
#7 Govenor Charlie
Midnight Lute x Silverbulletway (Storm Cat)
Trained by Bob Baffert
This boy is just getting started, he did not run as a 2yr old. He currently has a two race winning streak with his one stakes the Sunland Derby (Gr. III). The 1 1/8 mile win helps him out considering his sire is a sprinter. Can he stretch it out a little bit further?
#8 Black Onyx
Rock Hard Ten x Kalahari Cat (Cape Town)
Trained by Kelly Breen
Another one with a two race winning streak. He made his steaks debut in the Spiral Stakes (Gr III) defeating fellow top 20 horse Uncaptured. He's by Rock Hard Ten who ran 2nd in the Preakness and 5th in the Belmont but won the Santa Anita Handicap (Gr I) at a mile and a quarter. His maternal grandsire Cap Town ran 5th in the Kentucky Derby. He should be okay on stamina.
#9 Verrazano
More Than Ready x Enchanted Rock (Giant's Causeway)
Trained by Todd Pletcher
By a sire that ran 4th in the Derby, if he can stretch out a little further than his sire, Verrazano might just take it. His dam's side might carry him where stamina is concerned. He's undefeated with three starts. He recently conquered the field in the Tampa Bay Derby (Gr. II). He's a half sibling to 2012 Derby starter El Padrino.
#10 Hear The Ghost
Ghostzapper x Rehear (Coronado's Quest)
Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer
Gelding coming out on top of the San Felipe Stakes (Gr II) defeating Flashback and Goldencents (also top 20 scorers). Pedigree is swift with staying power! Lightly raced with only three starts to date. Off the Derby trail with minor injury!
#11 Mylute
Midnight Lute x Stage Shop (Valid Expectations)
Trained by Tom Amoss
Here's one for the gray horse fans! Has yet to win a graded stakes race but was second in the Louisiana Derby (Gr. II) to Revolutionary, 7th in the Risen Star Stakes (Gr II) and 3rd in the Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes. Sired by a sprinter out of a sprinter, but seems to like going the distance. Keep an eye on this one
#12 Oxbow
Awesome Again x Tizamazing (Cee's Tizzy)
Trained by D. Wayne Lukas
He placed in the Rebel Stakes (Gr. II) behind Will Take Charge, ran 4th in the Risen Star Stakes (Gr II), but he did win the LeComte Stakes (Gr III). His pedigree says the distance is in his blood. Good family. One of my favorites!
#13 Uncaptured
Lion Heart x Captivating (Arch)
Trained by Mark Casse
This boy captured the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (Gr. III) but ran second to Black Onyx in the Spiral Stakes (Gr. III). His sire, Lion Heart, placed 2nd in the 2004 Derby. Half brother to a top sprinter. Speed x Stamina, is it the right mix?
#14 Flashback
Tapit x Rhumb Line (Mr. Greeley)
Trained by Bob Baffert
OMG Look at that color! If he runs you know you're betting on him. Those grays really make you drool. He ran second to Hear the Ghost in the San Felipe (Gr. II) but won the Robert B. Lewis (Gr. II) going the same distance. Full brother to Zazu, a high-class filly! His sire finished 9th in the Derby, but won the Wood Memorial. I mean, if you're going to bet because he's gray, don't feel too bad, he's got a good classic pedigree. Do it! I like the horse.
#15 Goldencents
Into Mischief x Golden Works (Banker's Gold)
Trained by Doug O'Neill
He's coming off a fourth place finish in the San Felipe (Gr. II) behind Hear the Ghost and Flashback. But he scored two first placed stakes finishes in the Sham Stakes (Gr III) and the Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes (Gr. III). He also placed in the Foxwood Champagne Stakes (Gr.I). The question is, can he run the distance?
#16 Java's War
War Pass x Java (Rainbow Quest)
Trianed by Kenny McPeek
In his latest start he ran second to Verrazano in the Tampa Bay Derby (Gr. II). His other prep includes the Dixiana Breeder's Futurity (Gr I) in which he placed. Has a bit of turf pedigree on his dam's side, but with it comes stamina. Shares the same sire as Revolutionary, War Pass.
#17 Merit Man
With Distinction x Precise Strike (Precise End)
Trained by Bob Hess Jr.
He was third in the Florida Derby (Gr. I) behind Orb, he was 4th in the Hutcheson Stakes (Gr II) but won the ungraded Spectacular Bid Stakes. Sprinter x Sprinter. I doubt he'll last the distance.
He finished 3rd in the Rebel Stakes (Gr II) behind Will Take Charge and Oxbow. He finished second behind Flashback in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (Gr. II) and second behind Goldencents in the Sham Stakes (Gr III). He finished 3rd in the CashCall Futurity (Gr.I) ahead of Oxbow. He's by the same sire as Rachel Alexandra and Oaks winner Plum Pretty! Plus he barely missed winning his own Belmont Stakes. The mile and a quarter shouldn't be too much of a problem for this boy.
#19 Falling Sky
Lion Heart x Sea Dragoness (Sea Hero)
Trained by John Terranova II
Another colt by Lion Heart! He ran 3rd in the Tampa Bay Derby (Gr. II) behind Verrazano and Java's War, but won the Sam F. Davis Stakes (Gr. III). Lion Heart placed in his own Derby, but he was a front runner. Could he be too packed with speed to hold much stamina? #20 Departing
War Front x Leave (Pulpit)
Trained by Al Stall Jr.
He ran 3rd in the Louisiana Derby (Gr II) behind Revolutionary and Mylute for his only loss. His only other stakes race in the ungraded Texas Heritage Stakes. His sire seems to be more of a sprinter, his dam raced once and finished 8th. His maternal grandsire ran 4th in the 1997 Derby, won the Blue Grass Stakes (Gr. II), ran second in the Florida Derby (Gr. I) and won the Fountain of Youth Stakes (Gr II). Perhaps if he's more like his grandsire than his sire, he'll do just fine.
Be sure to check back closer to Derby when I pick my top 5 runners!
For the first time in club history, the U of L Polo team will be advancing past prelims! U of L Polo won the SE Intercollegiate Prelim
and is moving onto regionals in Charlottesville VA, U of L Polo plays
against UVA at 2:00pm on Friday.
The Road to Regionals: UPenn vs U of L: 18 - 9, win for U of L, Lauren Poole scored 12, Danielle Bosscher 4, Meghan Ziobro 2.
MSU vs U of L: 10 - 9, win for U of L, Danielle Bosscher
with 6 goals, Lauren with 4 goals, nail biting finish, won by a penalty 2
hit taken by Danielle.
The first year of Spanish is cutting edge, and some students just don't make the cut.
But there was this one project...the terrifying BarrileteGigante! We had to work in groups to produce a 4 x 4 kite that we felt represented the Guatemalan culture. Thank goodness I'm an art major! And we got 100% on it. But what you can't see here, is all the sweat and blood we put into this project... literally.
In one of the steps, you have to cut the end of the dowel sticks to tie the frame together. And that didn't work out so well for my group.
By the way people, box cutters are dangerous.
Mysteriously we don't have Spanish projects this year.
So Rhiannon and I have been snoopin' around our site stats and noticed that a bunch of you fine folks are not from around these parts (hey I'm from Kentucky I get to talk like that) and it's very exciting!!! Blogger has been telling us we've gotten some hits from China, Germany, France, Latvia, Malaysia... Wow! We're not totally certain how some of you guys have found us, but it gives us an exponential amount of happiness that you have!!
So our request to you guys from around the world is to let us hear from you! We want to know how you found us, what you think ("These Kentucky girls are totally mad....") anything!
Germany in the haus!
You can give me music recommendations! I love German rap...
It seems to me there are a lot of places in the business school that are set up to create mini-competitions among the students. On the first floor there are four amazing booths for sitting and doing work, and there are even giant windows next to the booths so that the sad folks outside can look at how dry and warm and productive you are being. Or you can utilize them for staring awkwardly at people as they pass by it's really up to you how you chose to use that power. There is a lot of silent competition going on to pin one of these suckers and if you're on your own you can bet money that there's a high probability you're going to end up sharing your spot with Sally I'm-silently-judging-everything-you-do McGee. What was supposed to be a comfy break before class turns into awkward blind date night.
"If I stare at the table long enough maybe they'll forget the three seconds of eye contact.." source credit
Usually this isn't too big of a deal, I carry a laptop, a smart phone, headphones and plenty of school work that I can pretty well get off looking like I am just so enamored in what I'm doing that I haven't taken the time to even notice their presence.
This is not the case when I have food with me.
Sometimes you just want to sit and woof down your Jimmy Johns with the inexplicable architectural integrity of a house of cards in the last 10 minutes before class starts. Blame that I was "raised in a barn" or that I spend a good portion of time with wild animals but apparently when it comes to eating in front of people I have about as much grace and tact as the foxes I take care of on the weekend. Have you ever seen that movie Fantastic Mr.Fox? Did you see how they eat?! Yeah that's pretty accurate.
I must admit I'm pretty easy to agitate by strangers and when you get food and limited seating involved and forced social interaction I kind of turn into Gollum from LOTR and...well.. I think that basically fixes the problem because people don't stick around for too much longer.
Does anyone else seem to have this issue? Does anyone else get annoyed by strangers invading their personal space? Does anyone else mentally turn into a grotesque, oh-god-what-is-it-honey-grab-the-gun movie/novel monster in the mornings in the business school? It's not strange at all right!
Well, okay, we didn't take over the world (yet) but! Mr. Ozzy Manz did lend a helping hoof in helping one of our own get a one-year full scholarship internship with Darley Stud! How cool is that? We're very proud of Victoria and her success!
We're also proud to be a part of a group that draws international students. We get to meet some really cool people (not that equestrians aren't already cool) like Victoria (From China). Yeah, okay, I'm proud of the horse too. He behaved, he deserves it!
Rose once told me that everyone she met on campus through me was Asian. So what? I have a lot of Asian friends.
Last night I had the opportunity to attend an event hosted by the Crane House Young Professionals, a group more like a family than an organization. In celebration of reaching 7 months, the young organization hoisted a nice little social/ networking party downtown. Free drinks and Moroccan food were provided, and dinner was follow by live belly dancing. Pretty cool, huh?
The Crane House Young Professionals aim to bring together the Asian community, helping individuals adjust to American culture as well as the Louisville area culture. HOWEVER! You don't have to be Asian to join! Good thing too, I was a little worried about being turned away at the door for not being Asian.
The best part? They're all super nice and enthusiastic about their work within this group. I met the president, the Marketing/ Public relations person, the social chair and one board member (among others). They're hoping to set up a formal mentoring program in the future to further their efforts in advancing the Asian community. I say formal because the members are already helping each other out, but they're rapidly growing and are looking for a more efficient way to connect individuals.
Just in! A fellow Equine student has brought it to my attention that the bathrooms are now trying new ways to increase their market share regarding your personal business. Like you didn't already give them enough of your crap!
Seriously though we're growing our own future college students, taking the production in house. So give 'em up ladies...chicks, whatever. Give us your future people seeds!
Sometimes, if you're lucky, something happens to redirect you back
to the dreams you thought might really be impossible. Something you gave
up for whatever reason trots back into your life and demands attention.
I wanted horses! I wanted to breed/ raise/ train horses! I'd wanted
that since I was 10!
I came to college as a Fine Arts
major. It's what I did in high school-- it's was what I was good at. But
it wasn't my passion (although you'd better believe I was drawing and
painting horses!). It really hit me my junior year, after I attended a
Riding & Racing Club meeting that I was not in my proper place and
that I had a duty to set the universe right.
I was
spending five to eight hours every other day standing in front of a
painting, wondering why, I spent my time this way. But hey! I was making
As in 500 level art classes! So I kept the major.
You can see why, right?
Took me two months, three advisors and one
petition to become a dual major. Finally, I was an Equine Business
Management AND a Fine Arts major! Fantastic! Until all the numbers hit
you. MATH, ACCOUNTING, and FINANCE, oh my!!!
Typically if you are the type of person who majors in something like Equine Business you probably have had that passion your entire life, much like Rhiannon and myself. My entire life I've been totally obsessed with animals, horses in particular, even though I didn't even start taking lessons until I was 11 or 12. I used to watch that goofy Riding Club show on TV that was literally based around these girls who took lessons together and somehow it still never occurred to me "oh hey I could totally do that."
But I always loved horses and my mother did too and so I was always known as the "horse crazy girl" and it was pretty much all I ever wanted to talk about to anyone. The first bank account I ever opened was to save money for my first horse. It was all pretty ironic though because my over-zealousness actually was my downfall in that for a large portion of my life no equine even wanted to get near me. Every time I caught sight of a horse every piece of my humanity just kind of divulged into a conniption fit of wiggling and fussing and climbing as far into a stall or over a fence as I could in hopes of petting, well, anything.
As I got older I had about 800,000 (give or take) things I wanted to do with my life. I was going to be a farmer. I was going to be a zoologist. I was going to be a Marine biologist, and then a large animal vet, and then a Agriculture major and then a Shark Biologist. No lies, when I graduated high school I desperately had my heart set on being a shark biologist for the Newport Aquarium and had all my summer volunteer paper work filled out.
When it came time to go to college I started working at the wildlife refuge and realized that this was where I really, REALLY wanted to work. I had no scholarships and wasn't ready to go away from home and so I decided to start out small and work my life out at community college before transferring to UofL for the 2012 august semester. As I got to having my own life independent from school and started doing big grown up things I thought more about my future and the job I was pursuing and decided a degree in Biology was exactly what I needed. I loved reading biology texts for fun and was really enamored in dreams of a big science degree hanging up on my wall.
"So tell me miss Robinson what do you do?"
"I'm a scientist."
Oh yes I was going to be a scientist. Except I started remembering how much I hate math. How I was a year behind in school from failing two math classes and how I still would add on my fingers. But I was good at talking... Like... REALLY good. I could talk velvet all day and educate people and perform and I could pursue a BA In biology and still have that fancy scientific title.
This semester marks the second semester of my third year of college and I still didn't have the three required courses to even apply as a bio major. My Equine minor was sitting pretty on the shelf smiling back at me, happy and sunny and the bio major was like an old lesson nag... Rough, stubborn and slow to progress. I started taking the first chemistry class of the series of six or so necessary for a biology major and suddenly I was overwhelmed. What if I can't do this? Why is something I enjoy such a struggle? What if I get a degree I barely scraped by to end up with? And ever slowly Chemistry was evolving into my second foreign language class.
And finally that was it. I had an epiphany! What the hell was I doing?! This is stupid!! Struggle through your years of college for a degree you want to just to say you have it?! Preposterous! Why would you chose this crap over a degree in horses you big dweeb! I realized I can still minor in Bio and have fun reading my books and enjoying science classes and the study of life without all the hassle of chemistry and the stress of feeling like a failure.
Horses are what I love. They are what I think about almost non stop. What I live, breathe and preach. They are my life's passions, goals and dreams and I couldn't be happier to be a member of this amazing equine family. My decision to change majors came with an overwhelming sea of support and I can say the relief and happiness it has brought me is immense.
Well that's it for my long winded post!! I know first hand what it's like to feel lost or behind or even stranded in college, with no idea where you are heading. I hope if you stuck this story through to the end it provided some enlightenment for you to help you along the way :)
Howdy! So somehow it looks like you have stumbled upon our blog and read along this far to grace us with your wonderful presence!
You poor sap.
ANYHOW welcome! This is Rhiannon and Rose here to tell you about all the glorious misdeeds and shenanigans we get into every day as the world's most unprofessional members of one of the country's top business schools. That's right while the rest of the school is swagging about in their expensive business wear (I'm assuming it's expensive... It's not like I've ever BOUGHT business wear before.. I had to dress business semi-formal once for a speech contest and had to borrow every article of clothing I wore from my mother) Rhiannon and I are making strange, loud noises and carry food into classes despite a strict "No food in the business school" policy. Not that we particularly care.
"Yeah I'm sure the fundamentals of entrepreneurship are important but I'm STARVING!"
Fun fact? I apparently can't even spell business Every time I type it it's apparently wrong (like just now). Oh well, I don't need to know how to spell it; it'll be on my big, fancy, expensive degree for the rest of my life right?! See that's how we Equine majors roll. Lucky for Me, Rhiannon and the rest of us horse people, our school is pretty dang smart and has seemed to sort of build a whole culture for us and our weirdness so that we can all just be kind of weird, stinky and dressed funny together, you know, like a hobo community in a park, WHICH based on the price of our hobby we probably aren't too far away from... So if one day you take Rex for a little jog in the park and see a bunch of disheveled college girls wandering around with ponies in tow you'll know how it all went down. Take that to the presses.
"Shhh don't worry Sassy I can go DAYS without eating! Then we can afford that saddle pad with a picture of Ryan Goslings face sewn in pure cashmere!"
Hopefully business degrees will help insure that this never happens but hey! Grass is free in the park, which means no feed bills! We hope that whether you are a horse person, a business person, or just a person in general (just be boring. whatever.) you will manage to identify with our weirdness and find some solace and that you're not the only person who behaves this way in public company.
