Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Artistic Vision was purchased from the Armstrong Brothers consignment at the Kentucky Standardbred sale.

"We looked at all the horses at the sales and she was our number one pick," Julie Nash said.
"We got her for $40,000. We were just amazed. She was placed in the right place in the sale to be a high priced horse. She wasn't very big, not very flashy. But there didn't seem to be any flaws on her at all. She seemed perfectly conformed. He really liked her. We were unbelievably lucky to afford a horse without too many flaws."

At ages two and three, Artistic Vision won a total of just six of 21 starts and banked $31,555.
She won the $64,600 Fairy Godmother in 1.51.3 at Balmoral Park despite breaking in the first turn. and a week earlier won in 1.52.1 after making a break at the same point in the race.
She also won four of five races at The Big M, including the $128,500 Overbid Final.

At the age of two, Artistic Vision's development was slowed when she was diagnosed with OCD in her right hock. Artistic Vision did not participate in her first pari-mutuel race until late August of that year.

In Artistic Vision’s second start, the Hayes Memorial at the DuQuoin State Fair, she started from the seven hole and won in 1.55.1 - parked the entire mile.

"That was an amazing race," Nash said. "She dogged the favourite the whole way around the track. She just wore her out. She never gave up. That showed something about her. We were ecstatic."

Artistic Vision raced just three more times that year and finished no better than seventh.

"She developed arthritis in the hock," Shultz said. "It was starting to bother her and she was short stepping it. We were just kidding ourselves. She couldn't overcome the pain so we shut her down. She won her first start in 2001, but the problems returned. She'd start tying up, and
as soon as the weather got over 75 degrees, she'd tie up every other day. It was a vicious cycle. At this point, I was ready to bang my head against the wall."

After getting five weeks off, Artistic Vision returned to the races in October 2001 and won five races in a row. Artistic Vision then won 11 of her first 12 starts in 2002 and went winless the rest of the year.

The Nash’s got started in racing in 1990, and their first two purchases - Slick Fit and Total Effort - earned a total of nearly $250,000. Nash was a three-time basketball All-American at the University of Kentucky and has the second-best scoring average (22.7 points per game) in the school's history. Nash is one of just 10 people to play pro basketball and major league baseball.

Artistic Vision wnet on to earned the majority of her money at ages four ($223,690) and five ($284,050). She earned nearly $100,000 in the ensuing two years following that half-a-million dollar earning time frame, and retired in the third month of her 7-year-old season.

From only three foals of racing age, Artistic Vision first produced Clear Vision in 2006, a son of Western Hanover who has earned $663,5757 from nine wins with a sophomore record of 1:49.3 F. In 2007 she birthed this year’s standout Rock N Roll Heaven (by Rocknroll Hanover) p,3, 1:47.3M, a winner of 18 races and $2,642,703.

Artistic Vision's Career Racing Statistics
Year     Starts/Wins/2nds/3rds     Earnings       Records
2005         9       1       2      0           $36,200         7, 1:53.0M M 02/18/2005
2004       21      3       4      6           $59,313        6, 1:53.3S Moh 05/14/2004
2003        22      13      4      0           $284,050      5, 1:50.2M BmlP 08/21/2003
2002       19       11       2      1           $223,690     4, 1:50.2M M 04/12/2002
2001       16       5        1      0           $22,555       3, 1:54.3H May 10/17/2001
2000        5       1         0      0           $9,000       2, 1:55.1M DuQ 09/01/2000
Total      92      34     13    7            $634,808      4, 1:50.2M