Recognizing that we have become horseracing industry Titans, and with the promise of watching the Tarra's Giant Oak running in the Marathon, Jean, Brett & Rick were off to Louisville to see

The Breeders Cup!

Thats right Rabbit fans, after securing less than Half-price tickets 6 rows off the finish line, the 3 of us drove down to Louisville's Churchill Downs to take in 2 days of ultimate Thoroughbred racing action on November 4-5th.   

Picture upper right is of the 3 of us with our Boxmates, who themselves had jetted in from Cheltenham in the UK to view this ultimate racing festival.

Even more exciting was watching good friends Rudy & Virginia Tarra run their Illinois Homebred wonder horse Giant Oak in the Breeders Cup Marathon. 

The Oak ran a huge 3rd in the race off the lead by just a little over a length. Picture to the left is of Jockey Shaun Bridgmohan unleashing a right hand crack to the Oakster who was straining with every muscle to run down the leader. 

His valiant effort came up just short - but he is - and remains - our hero.

Longshots kept coming in all over the 2 days, so the wagering was a bit unrewarded, but we had a great time during our stay in Louisville.  In fact Friday evening, we had dinner with Breeders Cup Trainer Chris Block and his assistant Drew along with fellow owner Tom Fedrow.  

The fellowship was great and Trainer Block even bestowed on us special Paddock access tickets to get up close with the Oak before his race.   

Also Trainer Block won the Ack Ack Stakes on the Friday Breeders Cup undercard when Mr. Marti Gras exploded down the lane to win decisively.   (Mr. Marti Gras is a full half sister to our own Austons Sure Cure having the same Dam Miss Marti)

Click here for all the pictures of Giant Oak

Click here for all the other Breeders Cup Photos

This was Brett and my second consecutive time at the event and Jean's 1st.  We all agreed that we should try and make the next one in 2012 at Santa Anita in California.