Preakness Ponderings

Just a horse, right? Such a fine line there is perhaps between the magnificent performances of Street Sense and the inherent vulnerability and fragility of this species. Street Sense probably has little understanding of his unlikely position as potential winner of the 2007 Triple Crown. Like any horse, he just runs, and maybe more than most due to his excellent training, he's able to do so without undue stress even while his connections may fret at this schedule which forces a tough race two weeks from the last.

Carl Nafzger seemingly has done almost everything right. From the start of January perfectly spaced breezes gradually strengthening the horse without any real pressure, racing when the horse was fit, and conducting the time between races with an instinctive sense of what it takes to win and also preserve the animal.

I have only a few disagreements with Nafzger's handling of Street Sense. That trot 15 hours after the Derby was highly questionable. and, I wonder about the fairly hard gallop today one day before the Preakness. I'd have preferred this gallop take place Thursday, but, you can sort of see Nafzger's thought process here. Tuesday SS breezed 6f in 1:12 3/5 where the TT Times video stopped and probably was heading to 7f in 1:26 or 1:27. Nafzger, like any competent trainer is thinking "cannon bone", and after the Derby, then this Tuesday work probably a little farther than he wanted, Nafzger would have been going "oh,oh" better take a couple of days off and let the bones recover. Likely, correct and right on, but, now he's in the awkward position of having to gallop day before the race. A lesser trainer would have avoided the track altogether--think Larry Jones---and, for myself, I'd have to think carefully about the absolutely correct galloping schedule here.

Fran Jurga's blog revealed that Street Sense is wearing St. Croix racing plates--normal grips on the rear and low toes on the fronts. You can see my opinion about using different "styles" of shoes front and rear, and my opinion of the brand "Thoro'bred" racing plate low toes at

http://ratherrapid.blogspot.com/2007/04/toe-grabs-conclusions.html

Two observations:
1. The St. Croix low toe, unlike the Thoro'bred, seems the same style shoe as the regular toe with simply a lower toe. The Thoro'bred low toe is a much thinner lesser shoe than the Thoro'bred regular toe. Thus, it looks like--from the St. Croix website--that the St. Croix low toe gives sufficient protection instead of being a "non-shoe" like the Thoro'bred low toe.
2. The above referenced post notes my dislike for different styles on the front and rear. Watch Street Sense carefully--you'll see that slight imbalance in his stride that comes from different rates of turnover for front and rear caused by the different style of shoe. You can especially see this in the TT Times video of the last Churchill Breeze.

Finally, a word about Hard Spun and his trainer Larry Jones. Jones is a totally opposite personality from myself, but, I really identify with a trainer riding his own horses althewhile volunteering that Mr. Nob is so much better a rider than Jones. L. Jones is a likable sort of "good old boy". However, there are deficiencies here in basic competency compared to the competition that Hard Spun, to his detriment, will have to overcome.

This will be a really great race! Let's hope they all make it around safely and in good health!

Today's Training:
5/16/07 Wed. Day 2 Burch: repeated by mistake: 12 min of 2f slow gallop, rest and 2f more. 8 min walk under tack.
5/17/07 Thurs. Day 3 Burch: planned on 4 x 1f 3/4 speed riderless bursts with older horse. Here's how it went: before each 1f fast there was about 1f slow warmup into the heat. After 3 x 1f I realized that instead of doing 3/4 speed both horses basically were going near all out. So we had 3 x 1f at near full speed. Art between the heats instead of resting insisted on fighting with his buddy. Only way I could stop it was getting 'em going the other way for the next heat. After 3f of fast "and" the warm up preceding, it hit me suddenly that, given state of training, maybe i should stop. Since there was doubt in my mind, the RR rules required me to call it: "when in doubt always make the conservative decision". This was a nice work with the little fellow showing good speed without being at all hard on himself. It was done in the dirt paddock to achieve some concussion. Avoided tack work, we'd done enough!