Conventional Training--The Bad III

Ok, where was I. RR sort of lost his way on that last post. Here is Charismatic (Summer Squall-Bali Babe-Drone) winning the 1999 Derby. Amazing how the Derby winners always seem to have some relatively obscure pedigree and never those of commerically successful sires.

There is Bold Ruler top and bottom in Charismatic's pedigree--a favorite RR combo--, and we'll note yet another KY Derby connection for our Art by sorting through the pedigree of Summer Squall. Let's see? Hmmm. Summer Squall is by Storm Bird and out of a Secretariat mare named Weekend Surprise. Where else do we have that combo? Here it is: Storm Cat, who sired Vision and Verse, the sire of little Art. There is another Vision and Verse-Charismatic connection, which we'll see in a later post.

I have decided to veer away from getting overly technical about training at this point in the blog. I started to discuss the minimal nature of the Lukas program and the concept of detraining, and getting into the exercise physiological aspects of it all, but, now I realize that this discussion requires a lengthy section all its own.

And so, in concluding "Conventional Training--The Bad" I'll limit the discussion to several general logical observations about which there may be some dispute.

First, while Lukas's exercise program may have worked for him, I believe it will never work for us against Lukas, or against any of the top two or three conventional trainers at any track. There are reasons that at most tracks the top two or three trainers, maybe top four at some, win 75% of the purse money. These sorts have the advantage, the best riders, they play the numbers game, they have access to the racing secretary, they always seem to have some horse going good--the experience factor, and in any race we enter we're likely to meet such a horse probably being ridden by the top jockey at the track. To train exactly like these sorts and beat them seems impossible. That it is impossible and never works I'll leave to a more techinical discussion.

To conclude, whatever good we see in the Lukas program, or conventional training in general, the problem with it is that it is non-competitive for us who are the little people at the race track trying to break through--that is the "bad" about conventional training.

Today's Training: in the future I'll break it down to the Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 repeating cycle of the Burch program:
1/17/07: Day 3: Three miles intermitten pasture gallop with several 1-2F fast bursts. No tack work due to weather.
1/18/07: Day 1: Rest
1/19/07: Day 2: 30 lbs Astride placed on horse. (I weighed the Astride today with two weight packs. It did weigh exactly 30 lbs). We did 15 minute--no stop--work in the paddock consisting of what might be called "lope". The horses troted and cantered over the bumpy, slick, ice glazed ground with a little walk here and there for 15 minutes, with Art carrying the Astride. Passed on tack work today due to time and weather conditions--nobody to hold the horse on slick ground.