#24270 Nurse Coon from my futurestar stable has been retired. After 3 years of hard racing on the track, she has finally gotten to the point where she is no longer competitive at the top level, someplace she's been accustomed to competing at for so long. At 8yo, her legs simply can't do it anymore. I won't humiliate her by sending her back to the allowance ranks, or by letting her get beaten double digits in stakes races even though she is trying her heart out.

She started out her career as a grass mare, which makes sense based on her pedigree. She moved quickly through the allowance ranks, and proved almost immediately to be a stakes quality horse. The highlight of her turf career was winning back-to-back graded stakes races at CA late in her 6yo year (one G1 and one G2), beating some of the best turf mares in the sim.

As a 7yo, she suddenly decided for whatever reason that she didn't like the grass anymore, and despite her breeding, she blossomed on the main track. She won two G1 stakes races on the dirt, including an eye-catching last-to-first triumph in the Go For The Gold Stakes in NY, good enough for a career best 113 spf. Her campaign finished up with an appearance in the BB Distaff, where she finished a respectable 5th.

After that, she never really had the same fire, although she proudly represented VT in this year's Equinics. Having won only 2 races this year though, and unable to break the 100 spf mark anymore, she has basically told me that she is ready to retire and hopefully produce a champion. She will finish her career with 16 wins from 40 races, and earnings of over $1.7 million.

Arriving next week will be Nurse Coon's only foal, a promising little 2yo and son of the immortal Seattle Slew named Alderwood Manor. If he can accomplish only a fraction of what his dam did, then he will have been a success.

Thanks for listening.