I mentioned the Equibase Virtual Stable in a recent post and have received several emails asking for more information about the service.  For those of you who don't use it already, here's a great opportunity to learn about a genuinely useful tool that's offered free to users. 

The tool is simple:  you identify horses you'd like to keep track of, and you'll get an email alert to let you know when each horse has worked or has been entered in a race.  And when the race is over, you receive another email directing you to the free Equibase results chart. 

All you have to do is identify the horse; once you've entered a name, the Equibase program has you confirm the correct horse by showing the year of birth and horse type (Mare, Gelding, and so forth) for any name matches.  One neat thing is that you can enter a custom note to correspond with any horse you enter, and it will always appear in the email alerts--so if you have a huge "stable" and don't remember all the names, this is the place to give yourself a great reminder.

I'll walk you through an entry in my own Virtual Stable:

• After creating an account or signing in to Equibase, I click on "Add a New Horse"
• I enter "Miss Macy Sue" as the new horse to track. For this example, I've entered a 5-year-old filly by Trippi out of Yada Yada.  (I own a mare named Salambria who is half sister to Yada Yada, the dam of Miss Macy Sue.)
• I enter whatever note I'd like.  Mine says "2003 Trippi filly out of Yada Yada (who is 1/2 to Salambria and tail to Aspidistra)."  I like to note the year of birth, the sire and sire-of-sire, the dam, and any other important information.

• Equibase has me confirm the correct horse - in this case, there's only one mare with that name, so it's easy.

• After confirming the entry, I can go enter a new name or go back to review my Virtual Stable.

You can always go back to update your note, or to remove a horse once he/she has finished racing. At the beginning of each year, I go in and add the 2-year-old foals out of all my favorite mares.  It's exciting receive emails letting me know "my" horses are running.  It also lets me keep easy tabs on catalog page updates for my own mares.

Cheers to Equibase for making a great tool available to their users for no charge.   (Log in to the Virtual Stable, or register if you're not already a member.)