Salt Syn
We claimed the 4 yr old Kentucky bred filly, Salt Syn, from the 6th race at Arlington on June 11, 2006. The race was a 35k race for Fillies & Mares, 3yr olds and up. She was the 4-5 favorite in a 5 furlong sprint conducted on the turf. She finished a game second just a half length off the lead.
There was a 2 way shake for the filly which happily we won - for once. We got the tip on this horse from trainer Michael Stidham, a nationally ranked trainer who also happens to train for friend Al Lepinsky's 'Three Kings Stable'. Salt Syn has as her sire the great Salt Lake.
We were sad to leave trainer Chris Block who tried very much to get us the right horse - while protecting us from many novice owner suggestions that we peppered him with over the last 2 years. But, we didn't yet have a horse for this year and we were well into the Arlington meet - so when Mike called with this opportunity we agreed we had to dive in. Mike runs his barn with partner Hillary ( I like her because she is British!) and together they have a great operation.
Partners Jean & Jeff, were at Arlington Sunday to watch the race with Peggy & Rick unable to be there in person. On Monday, Rick with wife Kathy went to the stable to see the filly for the first time. While there, top jockey Jesse Campbell came up to us and congratulated us on getting what he called 'A great little filly'.
Alas, not 2 days after we claimed her, Stidham partner Hillary called Rick to inform her that Salt Syn seemed to be lame. A radiograph of her left knee showed a significant chip causing the lameness. She said that our options were to run the horse right back again - maybe at 25k claiming level and see if we could dump her on somebody else - or get her knee scoped and have the chip removed. If we did the latter she would easily be off for 6-8 months. Looking out for the best interests of Salt, we of course opted for the surgery.
As a partnership team we decided that if Chris would have us back, we felt more comfortable with him as trainer. Showing the great class he has, Chris immediately agreed. We vanned Salt down to Rood & Riddle surgery outside Lexington and following the surgery she laid up for the next 5 months at Peggy's Riverwoods Farm. In January, 2007 Chris arranged for Salt to be vanned to Florida and begin her racing recovery. He got her back fit and she was able to race her first race for Red Rabbit Racing on Indepenence Day 2007 - which she won.
