Summing It Up--Why Do They Win

Today was a rest day for Art, and, maybe the blog should take a rest. But, we soldier on. I seem to be concentrating on Derby photos for some odd reason. Here is Funnycide in the winner's circle at Churchill with the group from Sacket's Harbor. Bobby Frankel, the Hall of Fame trainer of heavily favored and regally bred Empire Maker owned by Prince Khalid Abdulla, is somewhere in a lavatory throwing up.

I've listed a lot of "stuff" that contributes to success for a horse. A couple more--the pre-race warm up--as a handicapper there is hardly anything surer than betting against a horse that is "walked to the gate". And, I've seen a lot of races won just by an effective warm up when everybody else was too lazy, too tired, or too inexplicably something to bother warming up their animals.

Another is "experience". If you can get 'em to the races and keep them running, they start to learn the game, and become a lot tougher. Then, RR, how do you explain Barbaro? We'll get to that.

Here are factors in winning listed in the order they entered my feeble brain:
1. Price of the horse.
2. Genetics.
3. Conformation.
4. Physiology--max heart rate, muscle ratios, etc.
5. Speed.
6. Trained competitive qualities.
7. Heart and Class
8. Physical conditioning.
9. Talent.
10.Luck.
11. Warm up.
12. Experience.

And, there's probably another dozen that I'm overlooking. Can we say this is all quite a bit to chew on for any trainer? Let's whittle it down just a bit, because in this blog we're talking about training. Which of the above are directly affected by the exercise program?

1. Physiology (Yes trainers--things such as heart rate, muscle composition, energy delivery at the cellular level, muscle strength, etc. etc. etc. are affected by the exercise the horse receives. See university text book: exercise physiology.)
2. Speed--Can you train it--certainly we can optimize it by our program.
3. Competitive qualities--absolutely--the big stables win this way.
4. Heart and Class--these increase geometrically with conditioning.
5. Physical conditioning--can we improve the things such as stamina, endurance, speed over distance and so on. Of course. This is the factor most in our direct control.
6. Warm up--RR is firmly convinced they'll figure it out before I leave the planet.
7. Experience--please pay attention, Michael Matz.

Well, it seems that RR believes that the exercise program directly affects seven out of the 12 factors listed that contribute to winning, and an argument could be made for some of the others. Hopefully, this gives a better idea of the "enhance" part of "preserve and enhance". Next up: "Conventional Training--The Bad."

Nob report: Cold Weather Days
1/13/07: controlled riderless pasture romp(we wanted speed--a breeze day) with about three 2f fast bursts--7-8 min. Tack work.
1/14/07: 20-25 min riderless pasture romp with some bursts--but mostly slow. Tack work.
1/15/07: Rest