We Were at Belmont Park!

On Saturday, Mark and I took a ride down to the Belmont in NY to watch the races. We had been to tracks before but never been for a big stakes race like "The Belmont". Can I just say what a blast we had! I got wonderful pictures, met some wonderful people and had a great time just the 2 of us. I really didn't think I was going to like being there all day since we got there at 10 and the main race wasn't until 6:30 but time went by fast and we had great seats right on the rail. We were near the finish line and had a great view of everything. The people were mainly friendly,but there were plenty of rude people too, a lot were drunk and so funny to watch and the people that were so over dressed for the cheap seats...they must have thought they were at the Kentucky Derby but sitting in the cheap seats! That was interesting to see. It was a great time and it was wonderful to have some "adult time" just me and Mark. We came home tired and really sunburned but it was well worth it!

I am so proud of some of the pictures I got. I owe it all to my wonderful husband who got me the Canon Rebel XSI for Christmas. These pictures would not be possible without it. I have started a new Flickr page that has more photos on it if you would like to see more. I did this because I was so surprised when a man came over my shoulder when I was looking at some of the pictures I had taken (200+!!) and he saw some he liked and asked if I sell them and wanted to know if he can purchase a few. Can you say EXCITED!! So I hope I can figure this out and any and all advice on selling pictures would be greatly appreciated!! Please!!

This is "mine that bird" getting ready for the gate
This is Summer Bird taking the lead

Just a photo of one of the turf races

Bob is running in his second race today at Calder in Miami. He will be running at 2:14 this afternoon in race #4. I wish him and Tom luck and hopefully he will show us what a great runner he is this time. Keep your fingers crossed!

Good luck Bob Bull and Tom!!!

Bob Bull's Race

Sorry for the delay in this post! My son has a double ear infection AGAIN and a upper respiratory infection. They think the ear infection didn't clear from almost 4 weeks ago. He is doing better now! But lets move on to Bob Bull.

Bob did race this weekend at Calder Race Course. Unfortunately I don't have any good news. He came in last place:( We contacted Tom after the race and asked what he thought happened. Tom told us that he worked out in the morning and looked great! He just didn't run. As Tom put it he didn't look like he wanted to be there. It is very hard to judge with animals what is going on. Tom is going to run him again hopefully in 2 weeks. Tom told us his heart has to be there. He needs to want to be out there on that track and run. If he chooses not to have his heart in it then Tom will make a decision and take him off the track and find him a good home. That is one of the things I love about Tom, he will never just throw a horse away. He will find a home for his horses that will be good for them, where they can be loved and cared for like they should. We hope that it was just a bad day for him and that maybe he will show us he wants to be there. After the life that Bob has gone through, I wouldn't want to see him get unhappy again. He seems as though he is a good horse with a good heart. If he wants to be a stable pony then I know he will make someone very happy and he will be able to live out his life in happiness.

Thank you for all your support for Bob. By no means is this over. I will NOT give up on him until he shows us that he doesn't want to be on the track anymore. Bob will run again and will hopefully show everyone what he has. I just wish I had better news to tell but I do have to say that this has been such a fun ride for Mark and I. I can't tell you how excited he was to see Bob out on that track. When he loaded into the gate my hubby was super excited! I'm not going to lie and say he wasn't disappointed that he didn't do better but he just happy that Bob was not hurt and that he got to say that that horse out there was part his. It was so nice to see Mark glowing with excitement on Saturday. This has been a long time dream for him and it was great to see it come true!

Here is the race from this Saturday. He is #6 and if you watched the video I put up last week you will see the difference. He looked like a different horse to me but that is just my opinion.

Bob Bull is Going to Run this Saturday!

Bob Bull is supposed to run at Calder Race Track, in Miami, this coming Saturday the 16th at 1:46p.m. EST. This is ONLY if Tom can get his papers in time! He has had some trouble with the Jockey Club with getting his papers sent to him. IF he gets his papers in time Bob is going to run! This has been the day my husband has been waiting for. Right now Bob is entered into a $10,000 claimer with a $10,000 purse. So if all goes well, Bob will be looking at the finish line once again!

Bob has been doing great!! He just did a practice run out of the gate last week. He broke with 3 other horses and came in 2nd out of 50! How awesome is that! I think Bob Bull is happy to be home and has a slight understanding of what could have been (If you are new to reading about Bob Bull then please read this and you will understand his story).
He has also been knocking time off of each of his breezes, not a lot, but they still haven't had to push him to take time off. Imagine what will happen when they do push him....he is going to fly!!
I hope you all will join us for this great day and celebrate Bobs first run in about 2 yrs! I will let you all know if there are any changes. Keep your fingers crossed that the papers will come in in time and Bob will run on Saturday!

I have included this race for you all to see Bob Bull at his best. This is the race in which he won on November 25, 2007. If you watch closely you will see that the jockey barely pushes him to run. What I mean by "pushes" is, that he doesn't really use the whip on him. I think he used it 2 or 3 times. When it comes to horse racing, that is great! He is also very beautiful and runs his heart out. I hope you enjoy this glimpse at Bob in action and hope you all will send good vibes to our friends Tom of McSchell Racing, Lisa, his wife, our jockey, and of coarse Bob Bull! Good vibes, mojo, wishes or whatever you want to call it, is greatly appreciated!

Bob Bull

I finally received pictures of Bob Bull! Tom and his wife Lisa were so kind to purchase a disposable camera and fill it with pictures of Bob. I can't believe that the pictures aren't that bad! I am so used to looking at digital pictures that I thought the film would be horrible, but they aren't bad at all. Anyways we get to enjoy seeing Bob get ready for April. I can't thank Tom and Lisa enough!

This is Bob all decked out to run out on the track. Toms wife Lisa is the one riding him. She works out the horses every morning and is a huge part of McSchell Racing. Lisa was a jockey herself a few years back (I will fill you in more on her later) but now runs their horses.

He is currently running 2 miles to get him warmed up for his 5-5 1/2 furlongs (almost a half mile) 1st run in April

Here is Tom giving Bob a bath. Looks like Bob could care less about it. I can't tell if he is really enjoying it or hating it..LOL. I would think after a nice long run in Miami, I would enjoy a wash down.

Here is Bob out on the track with Lisa in their morning run. I know the picture isn't that close but it is still a nice picture of what you see around the track area and it gives you an idea of how wide the track is. If you look a little further above the white barrier you will see green...this is the infield where turf races are run.

Here is Bob looking all handsome in his "racing uniform". If you are wondering what is around his eyes, well those are blinkers. Blinkers stop the horse from seeing the sides to the back of him. A horses eyes are set more on the side of their heads so they can see all around them. If I am right, horses can see all around them except for the tip of their nose and tails.

Tom says he needs to wear these blinkers otherwise he is not very cooperative out of his stall. As Tom put it "if you take him out of his stall without them on, your in for a wild ride!"

He is all saddled and ready to go! Look at him waiting patiently, I think. That look may be also..."Let me out of here!"

We are getting so excited to see him run in his first race! Tom says he is doing really well and has good feelings about Bob. So do we!

I really hope all of you will share in our excitement on the day that Bob Bull races. I will have to check to see if you can streamline the race on the web or you will be able to get the race on HRTV if your TV carrier provides that channel. I will have more details when the race gets closer.

Bob Bull Saved From Slaughter

This is the story of Bob Bull, my husbands race horse.

I am telling this story with the facts that I have. We have most of the information but some of the time line has holes that we cannot fill and will not without the facts.

Bob Bull is a 4 yr old Thoroughbred race horse who originally made his debut with Tom Schell of McSchell Racing Inc when he was 2 yrs old. He was born in March of 2005 and hit the track when he was 2. This is the age when Thoroughbreds start racing.

Tom ran him in a claiming race in the 2007-2008 racing season and Bob was claimed by another trainer. Bob raced 4 races in 2008 under this new trainer and then ended up in Pennsylvania. We are not sure how or why he was in Pennsylvania but anyway, he was eventually found in a field starving. He was then brought to a slaughter house to be slaughtered. Yes, it is true, people from all over the world eat horse meat!

Just a little information before we continue on. All race horses have tattoos on their inner lip that identifies them with the Jockey Club, this is where all names of race horses are registered. If your horse has a tattoo, then you can track their pedigree, race records, past owners, sales history etc. It is just like Carfax (in a way). Tattoos are made up of a letter and numbers. They start with a letter (every year is assigned a letter) followed by the year in which the horse was born and then followed by the last 5 digits of their Jockey Club registration number.

A wonderful organization called Racefund dedicates everything to finding home for race horses and helps provide funds to help race horses in retirement. They also go regularly to the slaughter houses looking for horses to save since a lot of race horses end up at the slaughter houses due to injury or retirement, Sad! On a day that Racefund was at the slaughter house, they found Bob Bull in a "Kill Box". The kill box is a box that is just big enough to fit the horse in it. The horse is not able to turn around or move much in this box. In a slaughter house this is the last place that a horse, or any animal will see. The kill box lives up to its name so I am not going to go into further detail. Usually once an animal gets into the Kill Box they will never walk out on their own.

Racefund found Bob, found his tattoo and traced him back to Tom, who was one of his past trainers! Thank God for tattoos!! Tom was then contacted by Racefund and the rest is history.

Bob Bull has spent some time in Ocala FL resting, putting on weight and getting ready for his trip back to Miami FL. He was reunited with Tom a few weeks ago at Calder Race Track in Miami FL. He has starting his training to get ready for his first run in April!

This story just amazed me! You always hear of cats and dogs being thrown away like they were nothing...did you ever think a horse? Bob is one lucky horse and has a very kind and caring owner. My husband could not ask for a better person or horse to be partnered with. We have so many animals that we saved and Bob just fits into our family!

I know people don't like to read super long posts so I have tried to keep it short and I will be filling you in more on Bob Bull and his race history and personality. I will also be filling you in a little more on how Tom got into racing and how he cares about all his animals.

If you you are thinking of donating money to a great organization, please consider Racefund.org! You can find there site on the right hand side of my page to make a donation!

If anyone has any other information on this story or has anything they would like to add please feel free to contact me through my profile email. Thank you

Types of Races/Bob Bull Update

I have recently posted some horse racing terms that you may see in upcoming posts on Bob Bull. Now I would like to shine some light on some different types of races that are run by these magnificent animals.

• Allowance Race: A race which has eligibility conditions to determine the horses that may enter and is not a claimer.


• Claiming Race: A race in which any horse may be purchased at a predetermined price.


• Handicap Race: A race in which weights have been assigned by the racing secretary after evaluating entrant's past races.


• Maiden Race: A race for horses which have never won a race.


• Stakes Race: Highest class of race, reserved for the best horses. Owners have to pay an entry fee or "stake" for these races.


• Derby: Stakes race for three year olds.

In horse racing they will run on one of two surfaces, dirt or turf. If it happens to rain the day of a race you will hear terms like sloppy or soft or yielding and you may see a lot of horses scratched from the race. Some horses can't run in the mud or wet surfaces, they are too slow and of coarse safety becomes an issue. If it is a beautiful dry day you will hear terms like Fast (dirt) or Firm (turf).

Bob Bull update:

Bob has adjusted just fine into his new (old) home and has starting training to run in April. He has put on weight and is around 1000 lbs. Tom says he seems to be very happy he is home and is still pretty "goofy". I will explain more of this in the next few days. I am currently working on Bob Bulls and Toms wonderful story of how Bob ended up back running with Tom.

I will be posting this story in the next few days. Please stay tuned. It is a wonderful story! Unfortunately it will be minus pictures but we are working on that right now. It's a little hard when we are 1500 miles away from each other :) but the pictures are coming!