Benchmarks: Frankel and Drysdale

What sort of track work will produce "fracture resistance"?

Absent studies our old blood hound has come up with some helpful information.

The track variables are:
1. frequency
2. distance
3. speed

In one corner we have the Hall of Fame Trainer on the left who has patterned his training after Whittingham, and I'm really trying to think of a Bobby Frankel horse that has been injured in mid-campaign. I'm sure there are some, but from Ginger Punch, Ghostzapper, Bertrando, Megdalio El Doro and on and on, I'm unable to think of any.

I became aware of Frankel as a handicapper. Here was the one trainer at that time in the early '80s whose horses were showing consistent works. What does Frankel do? I'm without a clue what he does on slow gallop days, but the Daily Racing Form told us in those days Frankel breezed racing horses like clockwork every 7 days 4f in :48. Once in a blue moon you'd see one going farther, faster or slower. From this corner, I'm without any stats, but would bet my life Frankel has a significantly better injury rate than Lukas.

The smiling gentleman in the other corner would be the erudite Hall of Fame trainer, Neil Drysdale of Fuaisichi Pegasus fame, Read his Hall of Fame page an you'll also see Princess Rooney, and A.P. Indy. Drysdale is known for extreme patience, long slow works in the 1:44-1:46 range, and never a fast work, and also doing lots of two minute gallops and, by my understanding, a fair amount of 2 mile galloping on slow days; more volume than most conventional trainers, but less speed.

Drysdale's training is quite a contrast to Frankel. And, hats off to him to an extent. But consider it most noteworthy that if you look at what Drysdale has done, with a couple of exceptions, none of his horses are ever around very long. Even A.P. Indy who made it to the Breeder's Cup had constant problems along the way. No coincidence in this for RR. You simply are unable to train like Drysdale and keep a horse healthy. Can't be done. This point will be clear following this series of posts.

Our training:
Mark February 2 as hopefully the first small baby step on the way to the track for my youngsters. The weather seems to have turned. We were mid 40s today, and though we have coming one rain event after another, we'll be able to continue in this beginning stage over wet ground. So, drum roll, and recommence the training log:
2/2/08 Art: nice fairly fast romp in the Astride Paddock with the other two, then 10 minutes walk under tack.
Rod: Same as Art in the Astride Paddock. Rod was bellied under tack. He's 15' 2.5" and just barely big enough to take on Mr. Nob.