Starting Over

We sincerely apologize for our recent lack of communication through this blog.  The truth is, there really hasn't been a whole lot of positive news to report over the past few months.  A few bad breaks (literal and figurative), poor planning, and worse execution have left us feeling a bit snake-bitten. Still, we are by no means complaining.  Thoroughbred ownership, even on a scale as small as our stable, has given us so much over the past 3+ years.  And just like in every other facet of life, being a horse owner comes with many highs and lows.  The trick is not ever letting the highs get you too high, nor the lows too low.

With that said, we recently acknowledged that our stable had pretty much hit rock bottom and was badly in need of a change.  And though we appreciate the work of every individual, horse or human, that ever worked for us, it was time to start over.

Over the next few weeks, we will do our best to bring you more current updates on the happenings of our horses, both past and current. In addition, we anticipate much more to report in terms of on-track activities and (hopefully) new stock.  Thoroughbred racing is a beautiful sport, filled with great people and incredible equine athletes.  We have no intentions of leaving the game and we hope that the changes we are making will help us get out from the doldrums.  From all of us at Terranova Racing Stable, we appreciate your continued support and we look forward to sharing our future with you. 

UPDATE - Meese Rocks Stakes

We are sorry to inform you that the Meese Rocks Stakes, which was scheduled for Monday, July 25^th, did not fill and therefore will not be on the program.  Despite the best efforts of PJ Campo and the NYRA secretarial staff, there were simply not enough horses available to run.  Needless to say, it is a tremendous disappointment to our stable.  For the first time in months, we had a reason to be excited to go to the track, only to come up a nose short.  However, though we will not be in attendance on Monday, we will continue to support the leaders in the older NY-bred fillies and mare division, such as Ava K, Lots of Stones, Minerologist, and Catchapenny K, just to name a few.  We are hopeful that there will be future occasions to spend the day at the track amongst family, friends, and fellow race fans.  Sadly, it will not be on Monday. 

We’ll be providing an update on the rest of the stable in the coming week and will keep you all up to speed on any future entries.  Enjoy the beginning of a Saratoga meet that appears to be chock full of talent and excitement.  We’ll see you all soon.

Meese Rocks Stakes

We were informed last week that the classy folks at the New York Racing Association have named a stakes race at Saratoga in Meese Rocks’ honor.  Scheduled as the 7^th race on Monday, July 25^th, the Meese Rocks Stakes will be run over 6.5 furlongs and will feature fillies and mares, aged 3 and up, bred in New York state.  It is an appropriate choice of races to name after our late mare, as this is likely a race we would have been targeting for our girl.  We are incredibly thankful to PJ Campo and the rest of the NYRA secretarial staff for giving us a chance to gain a small amount of closure on what is still very much an open wound.  As a local stable, we train, stable, and race in New York and continue to keep a close eye on the New York racing and breeding circuit.  It will be an honor to see the best in Meese Rocks’ New York division compete for a black-type win in her honor.

To the family and friends that have supported us along the way, we invite any and all of you to come up to Saratoga to help us enjoy the day.  The picturesque upstate New York track is the site of some of our fondest memories as a stable, with a close 2^nd place finish in last year’s Fleet Indian Stakes and an open lengths victory in the 2010 Union Ave Stakes in the Saratoga slop.  And though things are still not quite back to normal around the barn, nothing would mean more to us that to have those we care about help us continue the process of moving forward.  It should be a special (if not bittersweet) day and we hope to see you all there. 

                                                     

Odds and Ends

We wanted to take a moment to send out a special thank you in recognition of a very special tribute to Meese Rocks.  Barbara Livingston, a legendary and deservedly well-decorated horse racing photographer, has posted a beautiful piece on her blog at DRF.com, complete with pictures that are novel even to us.  Her incredible pictures and kind words capture our girl precisely how we remember here – beautiful and regal, with a gritty determination to destroy her competition.  In a show of class and a deep understanding for our industry, she also highlights the unique bond that jockey Jorge Chavez had with Meese Rocks.  “George-y” was with us from the beginning and has been along for some of our greatest moments as a stable.  He loved our mare just as we did and it’s touching to see that Barbara has captured this connection in such great detail.

Amazingly, her blog post went out completely unsolicited!  You could imagine how surprised we were to see our girl’s name right up there on the front page of DRF.com.  It continues to astound us that so many people have come out in recognition and support of both Meese Rocks and our little family stable.  And though the pain of her loss is still fresh in our hearts and minds, such acts of kindness help us begin the process of moving forward.  Once again, Barbara, thank you.  To see the blog post in full, please visit the site below.  It is truly unbelievable:

http://www.drf.com/blogs/meese-rocks-51405-6111

As a final note, we will be heading to the barn tomorrow to check out a few of our young guns, including a promising 2 year old colt that is just getting into a more intense training regimen.  Please stay tuned – we will be taking picture of the newbies and properly introducing them to all of our followers within the next few weeks.

Picking Up The Pieces

It has been a difficult week for our stable.  The pain we felt last Wednesday from the loss of Meese Rocks is still fresh in our minds, even as we now try to collect ourselves and move forward.  Emotionally and financially, our stable faces an uphill battle in the months to come.  We will now rely on a few of our babies (2- and 3-years olds) to carry us through the next phase of this rollercoaster journey.  In the coming weeks, we will highlight each of these horses individually so that you may all get more familiar with the rest of our equine family.  For now though, we are still sitting with a feeling of loss.  And yet, in this very difficult time, we have discovered one of the most gratifying aspects of thoroughbred ownership.

To our disbelief, in the days following the big girl’s passing, we received an outpouring of support from all corners of the thoroughbred industry.  From Brooklyn to Kentucky, Georgia to California, words of condolences and encouragement flooded our inbox and were publicly posted throughout the internet.  Perfect strangers went to great lengths to detail how much admired Meese Rocks’ grit and determination, and how they were sharing in our sorrow. 

Needless to say, we have been delighted and shocked by the kind words and well wishes.  Owing to simple probability, we never believed that we would be so lucky as to have a horse of Meese Rocks’ caliber.  Even more surprising (and touching) was that our girl meant so much to so many people outside of our immediate circle.  We are amazed and unbelievably thankful to those who supported her efforts from afar, and who were kind enough to reach out to us to share their stories and support.  While we truly appreciate all of you for your well wishes, we wanted to highlight a select few that went above and beyond in their tribute to Meese Rocks:

• Derby Trail (www.derbytrail.com) – A few days after last week’s post, we noticed a large amount of traffic coming to the blog from this site.  Unfamiliar, we investigated, and found a community of the most knowledgeable and dedicated horse aficionado’s anywhere.  One of their seasoned members felt compelled to give Meese Rocks here own thread, which you can find at http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2 (thread titled “Farewell, Meese Rocks”).  It is incredible to read people just like us speak so highly of our mare.  To the member who goes by “My Miss Storm Cat,” whoever you are, thank you.
• New York Thoroughbred Breeders (www.nytbreeders.org) – The classy folks with NYT Breeders posted on their site a moving tribute to Meese Rocks.  Going well beyond their normal coverage of New York-Bred Thoroughbreds, their article really captures how meaningful our girl was to the New York Thoroughbred community.  It is an incredible tribute and gives us tremendous comfort to know that our horse meant so much to people outside our stable.  A special thank you is in order to Jeff Cannizzo and Sarah Mace.  Your kind words and efforts in getting the story up mean more to us than you could ever know.

Finally, we want to acknowledge the efforts of the physicians and staff at New Jersey Equine Clinic (www.njequine.com).  Throughout the tenure of Meese Rocks’ stay, they treated her with all the TLC deserving of a beloved family member.  Just as she refused to give in to her ailments, they refused to give up on her, working tirelessly in their efforts to nurse her back to health.  A special thank you is in order to Dr. Scott Palmer and Dr. Jennifer Smith.  Their near-daily updates were a constant reassurance that our girl was in very good hands.  We thank you for your efforts.

As mentioned, we will soon begin introducing the rest of our stable.  While we are sorry that it comes under such saddening circumstances, we are happy to have any new followers along for the ride.  We hope that you will join us in honoring the memory of Meese Rocks by supporting us as we rebuild our stable and get back on the right track.  We know we are in for a tough trip, but we will be empowered by having the additional support riding along with us.  Thanks again!

Programming Note

So, we finally got up and running – sorry for the lag.  From here forward, the majority of the content will be focused on regular entry and result updates.  We will also throw in any relevant or interesting links, articles, tidbits, pictures, etc.  This is absolutely the best time of year to follow thoroughbred racing, so we hope to post a minimum of once a week in order to keep all of our followers informed and interested. 

Want to see something here or have a question answered?  Just ask!  This blog is for the benefit of our family, friends, and the entire racing community.  The train is now rolling – great to have you all on board!

Hanging over the bar at Siro's

About Our Blog

Over the past 2+ years, we have shared countless thrills as a result of the thoroughbred ownership venture started by Henry Terranova, along with two of his sons, Jamie and Joe.  And, what began as with a low-level claiming race on a dreary winter afternoon at Aqueduct has taken us to heights of success and excitement that we never could have imagined.

Along the way, you have followed us, supported us, cheered us, and been a big part of what has made this venture so rewarding.  As many of you have expressed an active interest in staying more involved, we felt that it was time to centralize the information pertaining to our stable.  So, we present to you, the official blog of the Terranova Racing Stable.  Here, we will post information on future entries, results, and all other things relevant to the stable.  We will additionally do our best to keep up on any new additions or departures, while attending to any questions you might have. 

Please bear with us while we get the site up and running. The site will soon be loaded with information.  In the meantime, please sign up to receive updates.  That way, you will receive an email notification any time new content is added to the site.  Additionally, if you feel it worthwhile, please link to our blog via facebook, twitter, etc.  Have a question? Just ask!  We'll do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.This is our stable, but it belongs to everyone that has shown supported our endeavor.  We are looking forward to sharing with you and we hope you enjoy.

Secretariat, with Ron Turcotte up, romps in the 1973 Belmont Stakes to secure the Triple Crown