On Crimson Pine

The first time we saw Crimson Pine was on October 16, 2022, when one of our partners Keith Luke and I trudged into one of the pastures at Norton Farm in Falmouth, Maine.

In the preceding weeks, our trainer Mike Graffam and I had been having conversations about what our partnership's 2023 offering may be. 

Our initial offering in 2022 was to purchase a 4-year-old gelding who'd be racing in overnight races on the Maine circuit. And for our 2023 offering, we were looking to expand our ambitions (and risk) by adding a yearling or a 2-year-old to our stable.

One of the yearlings on the Graffam's farm came wrapped in a riddle: He had been foaled in Windsor, Maine, but he wasn't a Maine bred eligible for the Maine Sire Stakes. His sire was the New York-based stallion So Surreal, but his breeding fees hadn't yet been paid. And he'd been at Norton Farm since he was a weanling, but the boarding fees that had accrued since he was first dropped off also hadn't been paid.

But Mike thought this yearling he and his Team Graffam crew called Benny had a good physical build to him, the colt had a strong personality, and Mike thought he had potential as a race horse. 

We liked that Mike thought highly of the colt, and we liked that Mike and his team had been Benny's caretakers for a good chunk of Benny's young life. 

So after weeks of checking in with Benny's quasi-breeder, his quasi-owner, and the U.S. Trotting Association, we officially struck a deal with Mike to become Benny's co-owners: We'd pay Mike $7,500 for a 50% stake in Benny (this cost was based on Mike's estimate that Benny would likely draw around $15,000 in a yearling sale), we'd split payment of the outstanding stud fee with Mike, and we'd make Mike whole for the outstanding boarding fees Norton Farm was still owed. 

By Thanksgiving, we had twenty partners who each paid $900 for a 2.5% stake in the yearling colt who'd be eligible for the New York Sire Stakes. And by Christmas, we used a thorough naming contest among partners that culminated with a ranked-choice vote to christen that yearling colt as Crimson Pine. (We're a Maine-based partnership, so of course we used ranked-choice voting) 

For the first time in our partnership's history, we had the opportunity to be involved in campaigning a race horse before he began his racing career.

When Crimson Pine started jogging on Norton Farm's training track in January 2023, he was precocious enough for us to start aiming for a summer debut at Plainridge Park in Massachusetts, where the purse checks for 2-year-old and maiden races were twice or even three times larger than what we'd be racing for in Maine.

That spring, he was training well enough for us to not only consider a summer debut at Plainridge Park, but also a summer debut in the 2-year-old division New York Sire Stakes series--ideally, in July at Saratoga.

Before Saratoga or even Plainridge, though, we needed to get Crimson Pine qualified. And the best option for qualifying Crimson Pine was a series of "Learn and Earn" races hosted by First Tracks Cumberland in Cumberland, Maine.

Usually qualifiers are races that occur with very little fanfare before a regular racing card, and the connections of a qualifier are usually more focused on their pacer's or trotter's final time than they are in their order of finish. If your pacer or trotter finishes faster than a certain time in this race that lacks a purse check, then they are eligible to compete in parimutuel races that include purse checks.

Knowing how excited the connections of a 2-year-old pacer or trotter are to see their horses on the track, though, Maine organizes "Learn and Earn" races that double as both qualifiers and races with a nominal $200 purse and a Winner's Circle photo. 

Crimson Pine made his on-track debut on June 6, 2023, when he finished second in a field that otherwise consisted of 2-year-olds eligible for the Maine Sire Stakes. His debut was not only memorable because it was the first time we were able to see him on the track, but it was also the first and only time we had both of our partnership's pacers race at the same track on the same day.

A week later, Crimson Pine won his first race in a "Learn and Earn" race, and we experienced our first and only trip to the Winner's Circle with Benny as of today. 

In early July 2023, Crimson Pine caught a cold bad enough to disrupt his training schedule ahead of the first leg of the New York Stakes series in Saratoga, so we again refocused on racing at Plainridge Park later that summer. 

And his first couple races against fellow 2-year-olds at Plainridge in August 2023 indicated a frustrating pattern we've been experiencing with Crimson Pine in his young pacing career: He'll do pretty well in a race or two, but then progress will either be stalled because of a minor cold, another disruption, or the inconsistent conditions of his races.

As a 2-year-old, he raced pretty well against fellow 2-year-olds, but then we had to scratch him for the next week's race due to a cough and a runny nose. Then 2-year-old races weren't being written, and he was forced to race against older and faster pacers a couple times before we decided those deeper fields weren't worth his effort. So we called it a 2-year-old campaign in October, and turned him out at Norton Farm for the winter.

Crimson Pine's 3-year-old season has reflected his 2-year-old campaign: An optimistic start in February, when he first hit the training track at Norton Farm. Promising training and workout patterns that once again had us targeting the New York Sire Stakes series. And then an inconsistent race schedule due to race conditions and other factors that have prevented a consistent racing pattern. On top of that, we've run into the most competitive stretch of racing in Massachusetts due to the relatively high purses in the Commonwealth, which draws tough pacers from Maine to New York. 

The good news is Crimson Pine is still healthy, and he seems to be continuing to mature more physically each week. His dam Briar Creeks Angel had the reputation of being a hot-blooded and hard-knocking mare on the Maine circuit who had nearly 300 starts in her career. So we're hoping Benny matures out of the former trait and develops into the latter type of pacer that flashes on the main track the ability our trainer has seen often enough on the training track to dub him a "homeboy."