RR Stats Analysis--KH Comment

KH, thanks for adding the Ivers thread to last post. Reaction? Brilliant writing, brilliant fellow who makes as always good points among the nonsense. Early in the blog I rejected "horseperson" as misleading and hypothetical. That Ivers believes "stuff" never happens to these sorts indicates maybe % of actual hands on experience. Chuckled when I read, recalling, among many, Redattore of the Mandella tape and his trainer trimming the frog so close the horse misses the Dubai Cup. Nob, the shoer, still smirks over that one. Later I'll address the interesting topic of trainers, coaches, managers, their methods and how they decide how to train. I've some interesting stuff there from Standardbred trainer Fred Kersley.

But, the subject of "stuff happens", now that KH brought it up, and, agreed that i've yet to see a better rendition than the Ivers post--actually my prior post originally was lost in cyberspace and when i redrafted in a hurry i forgot the "stuff happens" part. I had used as an example my late three year old Windy Lea one week from race #1 and mostly through the Ivers program coming off the trailer with a silverdollar size patch of skin missing from a fetlock putting her out for the meet and the year.

Of those first seven RR horses, five out of seven were lost to non-track related stuff a lot of which per Ivers might have been avoided with more experience. But, lest the reader think this was some amateur operation, more perspective. Four of those horses trained intensively for multiple years both at Prairie Meadows and at a beautiful 7f woodchip track in Cuba, Mo., with leading Fairmont Jock, ex-Secretariat jock, Paul Feliciano putting them through Ivers. Feliciano worked for us exclusively for 1.5 years when he was taking a break from race riding. Hitting me that day in '93, superior care and riding in the end produced nothing, though RR retains some awesome mental images of several of those talented horses galloping under Feliciano in late Ivers. We, me, Paul, his girlfriend, my gf, we thought we were going places, but, it all came to naught.

That's enough for this post. Back to what we learned from all this stuff relating to injury, next.

Training:

2/12/07 riderless paddock work in mud and rain. decent speed for conditons.
2/13/07 rest. frigid weather.
2/14/07 rest. even colder today.