Charlie Whittingham

I'll try this one again as I seem yet to master the art of spacing photos on the blog.

Since I'm "borrowing" photos out of Jay Hovdey's book "Whittingham", I've been reading up on the copyright laws. Seems it can be criminal to steal for profit in certain circumstances and only a civil penalty in others. I have yet to see any penalty on borrowing photos just for entertainment, but, I'm still reading up. For the time being then, I'm hoping Jay Hovdey will appreciate that I'm promoting his great book.

Hovdey calls Whittingham a Thoroughbred racing legend, and, indeed he was. I might add that C. Whittingham seemed also a live wire with a large amount of intelligence and also unusual intuitiveness as to what it takes to win on the racetrack. And, of course, the horses he trained to greatness seem almost endless: Cougar, Pretense, Ack Ack, Ferdinand, Sunday Silence and on and on.

But, my interest in Whittingham is in the training. I've been disappointed in reading Baffert and Woody Stephens book since they omit largely the training. What about Hovdey's book?

It was a pleasant surprise! While Hovdey, unlike e.g. Ross Staaden in "Winning Trainers", fails to include specific times, distances, frequency or the like, Hovdey describes Whittingham's training in enough detail that we can figure out pretty much how those horses were developed. Let's say "it's a revelation"!

Best to communicate this with some excerpts from the book:
"Whittingham's true organizational genius lies in his ability to provide each horse with a specially tailored conditioning program within the strict framework of the daily routine. Although there are certain fairly standard features in each program--the two mile gallops, the depressurizing strolls through the paddock--no two horses will ever be on identical schedules."

"It boggles my mind why other trainers don't follow Charlie's lead, said Chris McCarron." (Mine too, Chris.)

"A deep track can be tough on soft tissue--ligaments and tendons, Charlie said. Real hard tracks your going to get fractures, sure. The worst is a track that changes from day to day". (nice to hear Charlie stating standard stuff.)

"If a horse has not raced in a while--say a month to six weeks or more--there will be a stern work of one mile seven or eight days prior to the race, then a quick little spin to open the pipes right on top of the race. However, if the horse has been in steady training and racing. . .he will use a 5f work 4 or 5 days out. A clocking of 1:00 is usually what Charlie requires".

That's enough for one post. More tomorrow. And, yes, Whittingham in the book does send horses to be pinfired.

Today's training:
5/8/07 Tues. Day 1 Burch: 7 min trot-lope in the pasture under 30 lbs astride.
5/9/07 Wed. Day 2 Burch: Rest. 7 min tack work.
5/10/07 Thurs. Day 3 Burch: This was "fast twitch" day. Decided to do it riderless in the paddock with the older horses. Started off with the Art limping slightly at the trot--low grade limp, I call it, you can barely tell. What's going on??? Looks like a developing abscess limp. Hardly a surprise with all this mud, and no other explanation. I've seen enough of these to identify them. So, I decided to go on and get the fast work before treating the abcess, fully expecting the work would make him more lame. I got most of it in before he started limping medium grade and I called it. Got in several moderately fast short spurts. Very appropriate for "state of training". Art was not limping at all this morning, so, I'm staying tuned on what is going on with the limp.