Castle Village Farm’s four-year-old gelding Talking Blues returned to the race track last week from a well-deserved vacation. Trainer Bruce Brown reports that Talking Blues is in excellent shape for a horse coming back from the farm, and that he hopes to have our horse ready to race sometime in the second half of the Saratoga meet.

Talking Blues, a gray New York-bred by Silver Music that we purchased as a yearling at Saratoga, won his maiden on New Year’s day this year.  After one more race, he started showing some signs of tiredness; he’d been at the race track for well over a year with no time off. So we sent him out to Dave and James Rintoul’s farm on eastern Long Island, where he enjoyed some well-deserved R&R. We’re delighted to have him back in training.

At roughly the half-way point in the Belmont meet, here are some very satisfying facts about our horses:

So far at Belmont, Castle Village Farm has a win and two seconds from just 4 starts. That’s a 25% win percentage, and 75% in the money. Our average earnings per start are $7,237.

Those numbers are better than ANY of the moderately-priced partnerships that have run at this Belmont meet, and comparable to some of the expensive partnerships, such as Dogwood and West Point. For example, at this meet, Dogwood is 1-1-0 from 7 starts (14% wins, 29% ITM), with average earnings of $6,838; and West Point is 2-1-2 from 9 starts (22% wins, 55% ITM), with average earnings of $7,747.

Other high-end partnerships like Centennial, Team Valor and Sovereign have better earnings per start than we do, but, remember, their horses cost 10 times or more what ours cost, and their minimum buy-in is $25,000 or more. And their win and in-the-money percentages are generally worse than ours.

Compared to the partnerships in our price range, we’re way better.  Karakorum is 0-1-2 from 24 starts! (0% wins, 12.5% ITM), with pathetic per-start earnings of $1,001. Pont Street is 0-0-1 from 5 starts (0% wins, 20% ITM), average earnings of $2,439. Parting Glass is 0-2-2 from 5 starts (0% wins, 80% ITM), average earnings of $4,310. Funky Munky is 0-1-1 from 3 starts (0% wins, 67% ITM), earnings of $6,400 per start, which is inflated because one of those starts was a last-place finish in a stakes race.

For all partnerships that have started at least one horse at the meet, the figures are 11-13-19 from 111 starts (10% wins, 39% ITM), with average earnings per start of $6,362. So we’re better than average on every measure.

On the heels of its success with its first claiming partnership of the year — $25,000 claim Good Law had a win and a second in two starts for Castle Village Farm before he was claimed away on June 4th — CVF has launched a new claiming group. The Castle Village Farm 2010 Saratoga Claiming Partnership will be looking for a horse at the upcoming Saratoga meet. We’re hoping to claim at the $25,000 or higher level and to have the kind of success that we’ve had with so many other claims, from our very first,Flippy Diane, through No Bad Habits, Fighting Speedy, Diligent gambler, Southern Missile and more.

All the details are available right here, on the New Partnership Opportunities page.

Castle Village Farm’s five-year-old gelding Good Law finished a strong second in the 8th race at Belmont o n Friday, June 4th.  Good Law, ridden by David Cohen, was pinched back at the start, but tracked the early leaders, then split horses on the turn to move up and finish a clear second in good time for the mile. The race gave Good Law a stellar record of one win and one second in two starts in Castle Village Farm colors, with total earnings of $25,000.

The race was a New York-bred N2X allowance/optional claimer, and Good Law, entered for the claiming price of $25,000, was claimed back by trainer Tom Bush, from whom we took him back in April. We wish Tom well with Good Law, and we’ll be looking for Good Law’s successor in our 2010 claiming partnership when racing resumes at Belmont on Wednesday.

Castle Village Farm’s five-year-old gelding Good Law, fresh off a victory in his first race in our colors on May 5th, runs back at Belmont on Friday, June 4.  He’s in the 8th race, a one-mile New York-bred allowance/optional claimer. David Cohen, who was aboard for the last win, rides back.

Good Law should be one of the favorites.