It has been a tough year so far for St Lads Popcorn

. She has a bad left front foot from an abscess that blew in her first start of the year. She was in good shape going into her OSS elim last week at Georgian but threw her bar shoe from her bad foot behind the gate and raced without a shoe the whole mile. She is as game as they come and hung in there, finishing fifth and squeaked into the final. She came out of the race sound and her bad foot handled the beating OK.

Three days before the final she was sore with another abscess coming in her good foot. We cut out as much of it as possible and took as much pressure off of her quarter as we could. It was pinching her a little in the final on Saturday night but again she put in a gutsy effort to finish fifth. A gravel is on the verge of coming out of the hairline so we are busy working to poultice it out. Once it pops through she will get immediate relief and come sound. The pressure is on because she has the Canadian Breeders elims on Friday.

Stonebridge Terror is racing good. He got locked in the three hole in the OSS final at Georgian and finished fourth. He was full of pace at the wire so should be in good shape for the Canadian Breeders on Saturday night.

Carnivore made a speed break in his last start but had no ill effects from it. I have been trying to get him in a three-year old open at Mohawk but it hasn’t filled. There isn’t a 3 yr old open written for this week so I don’t know what I am going to do with him. His next stake is in the Kentucky Sires Stakes at Lexington in four weeks.

I baby raced 2 nice Rocknroll Hanover fillies today. Ticket To Rock behaved perfectly and won her race in 1:59.1. Her Music Rocks had a knee boot down and got shuffled back a long way. She was pacing strong at the wire. Her line doesn’t look very good but I like her as much as Ticket To Rock.