Rain and Devil's Bag

Accuweather radar. How many times have I seen this same map since last August as we continue to get pelted with all the rain that should be going elsewhere. Those storms are heading directly toward us, and they forecast rain for the next three days.

But, this ties in right with what happened to Devil's Bag. Woody Stephens had guided the horse through an undefeated two year old campaign and observed that this was besides Secretariat the most talented horse he'd seen. And, there are a few hints on the Devil's two year old campaign:

"A good two year old is about as dependable a horse as you can wish for, bursting with energy, eager to deliver his best, not trying to save his legs like an older horse will from the aches and pains that can come from pounding down the track. If he's been trained right, he shouldn't be balky or spoiled by hard handling."

You read almost identical stuff in Preston Burch's book, but, the emphasis here is on the phrase "hard handling". The trainers of the first half of the 1900s worked their young horses and got them in shape for racing as in the case of Devil's Bag five or six times over a three months span.

So, at the end of the two year old year Woody has a highly conditioned extraordinarily talented horse sitting in his 40 stall shedrow. How does the Hall of Fame, Eclipse Award Winner handle this horse? More Woody the first race of 1984 the February Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah:

"I was babying he Devil, not working him hard, but he made the fastest mile in the whole winter campaign four days before the race..."

Then, after the loss:

"Maybe I'd trained this colt too soft and robbed him of some of his sharpness...or maybe he was off color because of some medical problem".

Anybody besides me see a big red flag where a trainer "baby's" an animal and in the midst of limited trackwork then breezes "the fastest mile in the whole winter campaign four days before the the race. Woody might as well have been the most oblivious trainer at Eureka Downs. This is exactly how horses get hurt. Horse after horse after horse.

Quite unsurprisingly the Devil lost the first race of his career in the Flamingo. And after this race I feel for Woody and the connections, but only a little. Woody planned the Gotham and Wood Memorial as the next races on the road to the Derby, but then, here comes mother nature to Aqueduct:

"Snow, rain and sleet kept coming down on New York City, and puddles were closing in around the Belmont cottage...the Gotham had to be postponed a week because of mud..."

Woody at this time was training the Devil going eight times around a three hundred thirty yard ring in a training barn. "The rain never let up; I got to rechecking the condition books to see where else I could run the Devil in a Derby prep."

In short both the Devil's Gotham and Wood Memorial preparations were washed out. I'm quite familiar with this routine in KC lately. But, here we see the difference between Woody and and a lowly trainer as myself. Do they let up on the horse after a winter of babying (meaning they were doing virtually no track work) and then most of March and early April training indoors? I'll relate what they did with Devil's Bag and the results next post.

Today's Training:
Yesterday the horse was exercised riderless in the paddock, mostly play, just to get going again. Art appears to have popped up 1/3".