Friday, August 2, 2013

Boulder County Fair Opens; Mixed Thoroughbred News

Today the annual Boulder County Fair will open for 10 days of entertainment, competition and carnival rides at 9595 Nelson Road in Longmont.  The Fair grounds are very spacious, and will need to be for the expected crowds at the 144th Fair, with the theme of  "144 Years of Fun on the Farm."  Today the petting zoo will open at 1 p.m., and other exhibits open at noon - cooking, sewing, quilting, flowers and veggies will be evaluated and graded.  The Future Farmers of America and the 4-H Clubs will have horse shows, and animal judging - goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, calves - all the usual fun and interesting County Fair classes and judging.  I had hoped to be able to tell you about the midway, but the website is currently down - it can be found at:  http://www.bouldercountyfair.org   I hope to get over there this weekend and see things for myself.
  No news of any fresh wildlife sightings so far today - Rosie was her usual good natured self this morning; and either Blackberry or Chocolate was having fun overturning the water bowl both in the hutch and the outer pen area this morning.  Lovey and Nedi have been stuck to me like glue since I returned home Wednesday night - other than wanting lots of love (as usual) they seem to be fine.
  Thoroughbred horse racing news is a combination of good and bad.  ....  St. Nicholas Abbey, the European champion who broke a pastern last week while training, underwent surgery and seemed to be doing well; then he colicked, and had a second surgery.  He is now doing "better than expected" and it's hoped he'll be able to enter stud duty next year.  ....  John C. Malone and his wife Laura have purchased Bridlewood Farm, where I worked for Arthur C. Appleton in the 1980s.  Bridlewood is a fully operational thoroughbred breeding and training facility near Ocala, Florida.  ....  Yesterday, near the back stretch of Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, a small training barn burnt to the ground, killing 19 horses, according to the Shreveport Times.  It was reported that one horse was saved, and that a nearby barn, which stabled horses trained by Cecil Borel caught fire also, but was immediately put out.  According to the Times, the destroyed barn belonged to Alan Fox.  Patrons at Louisiana Downs could see the smoke from the fire from the grandstand, but there was no possibility of the fire spreading to the actual race course.

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