Spacing Work For Performance/Injury Prevention

Great time of year in horse racing with the Kentucky Derby Preps, and now the potential superstar in Big Brown. For this blog's purposes Kentucky Derby preps provide an excellent lab to examine the training of these maturing youngsters toward the ultimate KY Derby effort to come on May 3. Wish we knew everything about the training, gallops, frequency, distance, manner, e.g. does the pictured War Pass go out every day, does he come home in fast fractions, two minute gallops, was training affected by injury, etc.? A lot of this info is unknown, but, we can still go on what we do know and suppose, and examine these preps both in terms of performance and injury prevention.

To this end I've looked at what I consider the horses with sufficient talent to compete in the Derby. I will omit this weekend's Florida Derby Field as I've written already enough of them, and one can extrapolate the conclusions to that field based on their FD performances.

And so, without adieu, here are the major horses and what they've done since late February, and I'll list them in the Order that I believe they'll compete, best one's on top:

Colonel John:
3/1 1:36 (race)
3/13 :49.2
3/19 :59.6
3/25 1:11
can we say this horse is being trained 6 days apart in :12s with the trainer wanting 6-7f with the gallop outs? This horse's training on paper shows a good deal of logic and common sense.

Pyro:
3/8 1:38 (race)
3/17 :53.2
3/24 102.4
Notice compared to others, only nine days between race and first breeze. We know Asmussen breezes 'em every 7 days and does lots of two mile galloping. The question: can Asmussen continue to get away with powder puff breezes against the likes of Eion Harty with Colonel John? Doubtful, imo. (oops. this morning: 1:14.2 today gallop out 1.27.2 seven days after last. Possibly Asmussen watched Saturday's FD???)

Georgie Boy:
3/15 1:36 (race)
3/29 1:12
Kathy Walsh as with any woman trainer, will have to prove to me she knows what she's doing. Two weeks detraining after the race then exactly one work in 20 days between the races tends to show me she's without a clue, though 6f in 1:12 7 days out probably is a decent work. Expect Georgie based on this to struggle more in the race. He'll be less strong than the last.

El Gato Malo:
3/1 1:36 (race)
3/29 :59
Based on the above you know what I think of this one. Typical idiocy. This is your trainer in the DW Lukas mold. Expect the big fade from Malo.

War Pass:
3/15 1:42 (race)
3/27 :47.40
I'd previously predicted and then attributed WP's poor Tampa Bay to questionable training. This continues. The horse was woefully unprepared to race on 3/15 and has exactly one 4f work into his next race. I feel for horses handled in this manner. Qualify by supposing WP has received appropriate non-breeze work, but, from what I've seen of Zito, that is doubtful. The horse will enter the Wood galloping on talent alone with zero help from his trainer.

Cool Coal Man:
2/24 1:36 (race)
3/14 1:02
3/24 :48.20
Let's see, why (besides injury) would you wait three weeks after the race for the next work. Are you trying to move the horse up, or backward? CCM another victim, I fear.

I'll omit Big Truck and Dennis of Cork, and of course, Big Brown Smooth Air, and Fierce Wind, Tomcito, have to be considered out of Saturday's race, and also Adriano who was impressive. Keep an eye on this remaining bunch as we go. The other horse with talent, Majestic Warrior has Bill Mott in the Nick Zito, Lukas, Craig Dollase mode where these sorts are unable to compete with the newer training.

Will try to pull this together next post.

Training:
The two year old Rod has had 4 days of riderless galloping with a nice faster work in the Astride paddock yesterday on the softer grass. More driving work last night with the surcingle. This horse really has got the driving down, and had I a 125lbs rider available we'd go on. Rod at this stage remains so immature that I'll wait a couple of months before throwing Nob up. We'll start work under light Astride this week. Art remains off, though he was with his chest wound galloping around on his own this morning, a good sign.

Postscript

Ahhhh~! Ya gotta love it. Talk cooking today. Crow's been stewing in the pot all morning, and we're promised to feast on broiled crow later on. Then there's the cooking perpetrated yesterday by Big Brown on the remainder of the Florida Derby field.

I'm trying to recall witnessing a more dominating performance. BB's prior races perhaps? Maybe Who Doctor Who as a two year old at Ak Sar Ben leaving 'em in their tracks at the 4f. Did we see a man among boys yesterday to the degree you'd have to think the Triple Crown dearth may shortly end?

How to explain this breathtaking performance? Quite obviously BB has a natural cruising speed considerably faster than most horses. Supposing it comes from a combo of size, balance in his conformation, and superior breathing. The training? Here's what shows:

3/5 1:35.3
3/19: 1:00.2
3/25 :59.1

The horse shows two works and a race in the 24 days before the race primarily slightly in sub-12s with the recent works probably carrying 130-135 lbs that jocks carry in the mornings, and, over a distance of ground if there were gallop outs. When this blog starts talking about getting performance, suspect this is the sort of stuff that we'll point to.

With 20-20 hindsight you could have predicted the race, and, a lot of people did. I backed off per prior posts primarily because I'd thought another horse would challenge this colt at which time the insufficient overall work would show. I failed to reckon this colt's ability, and we can all avoid any self-flogging from this oversight for when have we ever seen anything like this? BB literally cooked the rest of this field dragging them along in fractions none of them were trained for. As you replay the race watch the main competitors dropping off like flies. First Fierce Wind who put in a nice run precisely for the 4f he has been religiously trained for but much faster than he'd been trained, and, according to the comment by Halsey, last post, bled. Predictable, I'd say with this pace and what FW has done of late (was it humid yesterday?).

Then Elysium fields. A pace and talent problem there maybe. I'd guess EF tied up with lactic acid about the 3f. Same deal with Face the Cat due to a dearth of recent racing and soft Pletcher training was without any chance with this pace.

In truth, only the closers had any real shot to having anything left again BB EXCEPT Smooth Air, which, if you'll notice from my post of 3/27 in terms of volume had the best preparation of this field. Smooth Air had the foundation to keep plugging, and but for BB we'd be talking about SA running away from this field, though without BB to fry them all first, it might have been a different race.

Interesting comment attached to my last post. Fierce Wind bled, which of course explains the fade. Hopefully Zito will find a way around that, and we'll see another impressive FW performance down the road.

My last thought would be that I hope BB survives this based on the shallow training. You could say they've rushed this colt, and we have to hope Dutrow know what he's doing

Training:
Art is off with puncture wound in chest.
Rod:
Thurs. 3/27: easy riderless
Fri. 6 x 3f fairly slow + ground work with surcingle
Sat. 6 x 3f with a few spurts. ground still very hard. ground work with horse now being driven with the long lines. handling it well. Bill O'Gorman training.

Florida Derby Day

Last post in clandestine fashion I picked Fierce Wind. The sire Dixie Union, above, won a measly $1,200,00 and 7 out of 12.

DU obviously is a looker and out of a Capote mare. And so with Fierce Wind out of an AP Indy mare, the RR favored Bold Ruler-Bold Ruler Cross.

Breeding tends to sway me only as an intangible, but, hey, it's more than just breeding. Look at that Dixie Union, and then replay the Sam Davis and see a very nice looking animal in Fierce Wind. Why has this one received so little play. War Pass perhaps?

And as to Tomcito, good question couple of posts ago by KH, and the 1.5 miles, I can only express my opinon that the advantage--which I believe to be considerable--has been lost by what on the page looks as questionable training since the long races in Peru + I'll fall off my chair if a horse last breezed on 3/17 wins this race. Too much detraining here from what shows, both since November and of late. Of course, maybe they're pulling a Tom Smith and breezing under the radar. Since I believe the horse is outclassed, probably he'll win by 10, lol!


Training: Finally we get decent ground at the farm but our Art is grounded with a slight chest puncture and a chest swelling the size of a softball. Darn it*###~Just as he was ready for serious work. Luckily the puncture part is fairly minor, and it'll depend on the size of the hematoma as to how many off days. I'm estimating about 5 before we commence walking under tack.
Rod:
Thurs 3/27: Riderless easy after 2 days off to heal a loose check ligament.
Fri. 3/28: Riderless 3 x 6f still fairly slow + some ground work with surcingle, bit, and lunge line.

More Florida Derby; Farm Disaster And More

B.T. in green on the blinkers can only stand for Barclay Tagg, and yes, this is Elysium Fields ( flash noseband sans flapping tongue) who has been getting maybe a little too much play the racing press. Review of the Fountain Of Youth shows a green, soft runner as you'd expect of a recent maiden graduate who put in a pretty nice run that I'd hardly call anything special, in retrospect.

What disturbed me most re EF's FOY, there are more naturally talented horses on the Derby Trail.

BUT what more might a trainer want? An average horse struggling in maiden races suddenly finishes close up in a major stakes. Can such a horse, regardless of talent, be moved up by appropriate training?

I'd like to think so, and Tagg in his own inimical manner, appears to have tried. Yet, when you look at the Florida Derby PPs, what Tagg has done with EF of late (the last 45 days--see last post)--let's call it slightly hepped up "conventional" training. EF has a for the year 2-3 more breezes than the average in the field; has maybe 10 more fast furlongs for the year; and since 2/15 exceeds his peers in the field with regard to his work, but only slightly.

Fact is the whole field has been training like gangbusters (in the conventional sense) since 2/15.

Thus, except for Tomcito who last breezed 3/17, BB Frank, and Zito's Da Tara (what's up with that), all being horses who have last breezed too far out from the race to be really tight, the rest of the field in terms of performance should be ready to run.

But, maybe we can ferret out, by a close look how far we'll expect them to run. Majestic Warrior's breezes have been short and soft. With all due regard to when Mott was competing solely with the likes of DW Lukas, this sort of training will fail to cut it in the present day. I respect the horse's talent, but expect he'll run about 7f maybe.

Big Brown has lately done maybe the best and most appropriate work, but can a horse beat this field on 27 furlongs for the year. I'll be amazed if it happens.

And, as always, I consider 7 days out as the last breeze to be a bare minimum. Breezing a horse 7 days before a race simply is less than ideal. The horse can run, but never at it's best. Too much detraining effect between last breeze and race.

And so, I'm suspicious of those "last out 7 days ago" horses, Hey Byrn, Nistle's Crunch. + neither horse has impressed with it's training for the year. They'll also go about 7f before the fade imo.

That leaves Fierce Wind, Smooth Air, Face The Cat, and Elysium Fields. I'm figuring you'll see the winner from this group. Smooth Air has done the most consistent work and on the surface the best conventional training job, and so we're left with the question whether the grandson of that great stallion Storm Boot has sufficient talent to run with these. I'm suspecting in the negative, but figure this horse will give it a game try.

Mark this down. Fierce Wind will come up short. It'll be other than another War Pass. I think he'll run on his steady diet of Nick Zito 4f breezes in :12s. The horse will sadly have to, as do all the Zito horses, outrun their training. And (RR considering as he types), this horse may have enough talent to do so in this particular race. Why? Insufficient talent to challenge him in late stretch (I noted above the talent will have faded).

The horse I fear is the Pletcher horse. But, wait, he last raced in January. Naah. Won't happen.

This leaves the aforementioned Elysium Fields. I have this horrible feeling that Fierce Wind will run by him and maybe Smooth Air and Pletcher's horse. I'm declining to pick a winner due to my disdain for Zito. We'll see.

As to injury prevention, the whole field is at risk, but I'd particularly worry about Big Brown andTomcito among the contenders.

We have a field here trained fairly similarly. That's the kind of situation where talent may out, and then we never hear from that talent again.

I'm coming to the conclusion: best horse with decent training on the trail: Colonel John

Training: Oh my. On my birthday I'm sitting there peacefully in my office planning the evening workouts when the dreaded call from the neighbor comes in. Horse jumped the fence, bleeding, vet needed. It was Art, the 3 yr. old, who has of late been chased repeatedly by Groovin'Wind, who has proven a very questionable herd boss. I have 3 horses all studs, and 3 seems a very unhappy number. I've never had trouble in 20 years having colts together till now. A sex change operation may be in store. Art is off a few days till the gash in his chest heals. Rod after being off a couple of days worked a few furlongs riderless easy.

The Florida Derby

With the Florida Derby on tap we'll get a look at a few of the contenders and some touted horses, and also another opportunity to look again at training. I'll give my opinions next post, but here are the training stats available. For fun I threw Assault and an Ivers trained horse into this field. You'll see that each of these trainers is very "conventional" in comparison:

Number of breezes and races since 1/1/08:

28 Assault in 1946. one breeze (no races) every 3.17 days, but first one was on 1/21.(Max Hirsch).

22 Tom Ivers Horse, a breeze or race every 4 days.

12 Elysium Fields or every 7.4 days (Tagg).

10 Majestic Warrior or every 8.9 days (Mott).

10 Smooth Air (Bennie Stutts Jr.).

10 Da Terra (Nicholas Zito).

10 Nistle's Crunch (McPeek).

9 Fierce Wind every 10 days (Zito).

9 Hey Byrn (Edward Plesa Jr.).

9 Face the Cat (Pletcher).

8 Tomcito every 11 days since 1/1/8 (Dante Zaneli).

8 Cool Gator (Daniel Vella).

6 BB Frank every 14 days since 1/1/08 (AmyTarrant).

5 Big Brown every 17.8 days since 1/1/08 (Dutrow--this horse has had some hoof problems caused undoubtedly by substandard shoeing.).

Total number of furlongs breezed and raced since 1/1/08:

118f Assault in 1946 (Assault had yet to race by 3/30/46)

264f Ivers Horse (Ivers breezes 2 x 6f every four days)

70f Smooth Air

66f Elysium Fields

54f Fierce Wind

54f Get Byrn

53f Nistle's Crunch

49f Da Tara

48f Majestic Warrior

47f Face The Cat

42f Tomcito

40f Cool Gator

34f BB Frank

27f Big Brown


There's a difference in long term conditioning since 1/1/08 and immediate race prep for the last 45 days, see below:


Number of breezes, races and furlongs since 2/15:

Assault from 2/15/46 to 3/30/46 has 19 breezes totaling 92 furlongs

Ivers Horse 11 breezes, 132 furlongs

Smooth Air 5 breezes and races totalling 37f. Last 4 days out.

Elysium Fields 6 breezes and races totalling 34 furlongs. Last 4 days out.

Tomcito 5 totalling 32f. Last 12 days out.

Big Brown 5 totalling 27f. Last 4 days out.

Hey Byrn 4 totalling 27f. Last 7 days out.

Nistle's Crunch 5 totalling 27 f. Last 7 days out.

Cool Gator 5 totalling 27f. Last 5 days out.

Fierce Wind 5 totalling 25f. Last 5 days out.

Da Tara 5 totalling 24f. Last 9 days out.

Majestic Warrior 6 totalling 24f. Last 4 days out.

Face The Cat 4 totalling 20f. Last 5 days out.

BB Frank 2 totalling 12f. Last 11 days out.

Each of these conventional trainers have ratched up their training of late in preparation for the Florida Derby. Do none of these trainers recognize or agree with the sort of long term training received by Assault or the Iver's horse?

Which of the above factors will be important in the race? For Big Brown who has done a lot of work recently, but very little for the year, will that colt have enough "bottom" (I dislike these conventional terms) to respond when the question is asked? All of them have breezed frequently by these conventional standards last 45 days, but Tomcito last worked 12 days out, and a lot of them worked 7 or more day out. How close to the race do they need to breeze to be fully competitive? If you'd ask Tomcito's trainer would the answer be "not very"?

There's less that separates this group in terms of training than the field of the Tampa Bay Derby. I'll try to put it together next post.

Training:
Normal off day 3/26. We'll commence again tonight on 3/27.

What's Up With This?

A few days vacation from blogging, but the RR ears perk up today as I'm considering this weekend's Florida Derby and the breezing and training up to this big race. My thoughts on Fl. Derby when the PPs post.

Meanwhile, what's up of late with all the horses racing with their tongues hanging out? I'd thought it was due to too tight tongue ties, but, here's Jalil in Dubai with just a flash nose band and a blue tongue hanging out. Nice looking horse, btw!

Unknown to me if a tongue flapping all the way around the race track affects race results, but, can this be anything but another subtle, although probably benign, form of horse abuse perpetrated by our training community. Do they care if the horse enjoys the race, or has to endure his tongue flapping in the breeze as it runs? Seems to me, if my horse had the problem that I'd take a look at the equipment and fix it. What need is there to pull the straps on the flash noseband so tight there's insufficient room for the tongue in the horse's own mouth?

Training:
Mon: 3/24/08: Riderless speed work for both horses. Looked good. March is strengthening month. We'll begin race prep in April.
Tues: 3/25/08: the well thought out tack plans for both go awry. Just as I commence the riderless gallop with Art he's out there limping. Lost a shoe. The ground conditions are hard bumpy interspersed with deep mud. By the time the shoe's back on too late for tack work, but, we get in the planned riderless work. Planned a warm up + 2 miles without stop slow. Called it at a mile and a half. The ground is wind blown hard as a rock. I was fearing hoof bruising or worse. Rod had the day off as I'd noticed some check ligament looseness in the area of the splint bone left front the day before, undoubtedly caused by pulling his feet out of deep mud. He'll get two days off with this minor injury.
Wed. 3/26/08: Both horses off.

Farm Workouts 3/24/08

Sat. 3/22/08: Off
Sun. 3/23/08: 10 min fairly easy riderless, raw day, baked bumpy ground. Skipped tack work.
Mon. 3/24/08 :
Art: 4 x 3f riderless at moderate speeds + 3f riderless at 90% speed + 2f riderless 90% speed. Ground getting better. Skipped tack work in 30 mph wind.
Rod: 4x 3f riderless, moderate speed and Rod was removed to permit Art his speed work.

B. Tagg Conclusions; Robert LaPenta

We'd presume the Funnycide Derby was the finest horse racing moment for Barclay Tagg, and Tagg has three nice Derby prospects this year. And so, we watch this Tom Smith like character (trainer of Sea Biscuit) prepare his horses as one of three TC trainers this year that appears to "get it" with respect to training, and these would be Tagg, Asmussen and Kathy Walsh. We always need to consider Plecher, of course. There are some trainers here unknown to me. So far I'm unimpressed by that group.

Will Tagg win the Derby, or at least be competitive? Or, more relevant for the blog subject of the moment, will Tagg get all three of his horses to the Derby and will they survive the Derby to race again? I'm always wary of athletic trainers/coaches/managers who display personal traits of obliviousness, inability to take the logical path, or recognize obvious cause and effect. I've related, in Tagg's case his use of a muzzle that restricts breathing, but also the Sally Jenkins "Funnycide" book relates several acts with respect to Tagg that leave one scratching one's head. Thus, the way I evaluate Tagg, we have an abnormally intelligent, inquisitive trainer with somee character flaws that may bode ill for his charges.

On the other hand, do we have the "new" Barclay Tagg this year? Tagg's training has of late exceeded by leaps what I've noticed him doing in the past, and so, we watch with interest. Ultimately, a lukewarm guess, Tagg will do something stupid that will screw it all up. Visualize a Tagg runner nosed out at the wire at Churchill Downs, lol. Hopefully they'll come back healthy!

ROBERT LAPENTA: This fellow has caught a lot of unjustifiable flack the last few days. How quickly they turn on you, eh, Robert? Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Identity
Solutions, horse racing with Rick Pitino starting in 1998, and of late investing large amounts in selling and development of young racing stock. Do we need more men like this in our sport?

But then, it seems, in a moment of honesty LaPenta with respect to War Pass uttered the word "fever" spurring the usual gross overreaction from every mother in America. Hopefully, Robert, a graduate of Iona College, takes this all in stride. (Postscript: I just read Dan Liebman's Blood Horse Commentary about the situation. Needless to say, my own comments fail to look at this from the bettor stand point. Liebman's point that illness for such an overwhelming favorite should be disclosed is something I overlooked at the time of the post. In the chaos of preparation, doubt disclosure occured to either LaPenta or Zito. Should a big time trainer be more aware and tuned>per Liebman, probably. Personally, I decline to make a bfd about it because they said the horse was not sick and apparently missed zero training.)

The more curious thing though, remains how the LaPentas of the world, through all these years can continue to watch the likes of Nick Zito beach their horses. In this case, we have Zito with 3 TC prospects giving all of them together exactly three fast works since 2/25. It's March 20 today folks. Unless he has a black hole for a brain, will LaPenta figure out what is going on here?

Training:
Nice riderless fast romp in the Astride Paddock last night as it was still too muddy in the rest of the farm. Nob was suffering severely from his weather related arthritis, and so we passed on tack work in deep mud, for what little that would have accomplished. 3 works out of the last six days since Friday. They were all fast, and so, I'd say we're on the launching pad with our training as the weather has suddenly taken a turn for the good.

Barclay Tagg: II

The horse at left seems to me "for real". Forget that Big Truck to date has received so little publicity, and that he "was" maybe the least Derby Prospect in the Barclay Tagg stable, and that, though he's a nice looking horse, we'd hardly call him a Curlin, Tiznow, Easy Goer or the like in terms of build and conformation.

Big Truck looks to be what I call one of those that's "trainable", the type I favor, for any race we might consider. And, by my definitions, this means that the horse has enough conformationally, presuming he can breathe, that the horse's performance will closely reflect what Tagg does with the horse in training.

Based on Tagg's past history I'd be pessimistic. Sure Barclay Tagg has had of late some good performances, even surprising performances. However, we need gage and evaluate these in that Tagg primarily competes on the East coast where to note that "truth is truth" there fails to exist at the moment any trainer that moves up animals by training alone. In Ny and Florida they all seem to be conventional trainers (by this blog's definition) and thus, when Tagg wins against these sorts, I'm decidedly underwhelmed.

But now again, B. Tagg is on the national stage competing against the very best. And, quite curiously, Tagg's training this year barely resembles what he did a year ago with No Biz Like Show Biz. Tagg trained Biz much as he trained Funnycide--hit and miss with the breezing, inexplicable delays between works, primarily conventional training though at times on the TC trail Tagg would wratched up and he'd get a better performance. I thought last year that No Biz was another equine vicitm of his trainer's limited mindset.

But this is this year. And, here are the workouts of Tagg's runner Elysium Fields:

2/24 Race

3/6 4f in :49

3/12 5f in :59

3/18 6f in 1:12

The works are all bullet works. They're all in :12s and with a reasonable 10 day break after the race they're spaced six days apart. Asmussen is breezing every 7 days, Tagg, lol, is breezing every 6 days this year. Big Truck and Tale of Ekati show similar spacing, distance and times in their works.

Does the above sort of workout pattern remind anyone of Carl Nafzger and Street Sense? Nafzger breezed SS at least once a week with long gallop outs starting in January. Tagg, this year and unlike Tagg in years past, is breezing one day more frequently that SS did with each of his runners. And hence again the question, has Barclay Tagg found religion?

If Tagg continues this pattern--and I'll be unsurprised given his history if Tagg backs off from this sort of training at some point--my theories that this sort of spacing will provide both performance and injury prevention will have a real live test. Tagg's runners (so far) serve as lab rats. If they continue, will they, based on this sort of training: 1. All make it to the Derby, and 2. to be right in there at the finish?

I'd think they would with caveats as I'm recalling my last post that this is a trainer who uses those ridiculous muzzles(see last post). My conclusions and predictions on this year's B. Tagg, next post.

Our training:
Decided to skip last night when I saw the raw weather conditions and the mess with the mud. We're in post-Winter around here instead of spring. My horses have worked only 2 days out of the last 5, but those two days were both fast works, and so thus far we've lost little (and gained nothing) with this weather. The key will be today if the ground dries enough to let us start up again. Another day of nothing and we go backwards.

Has Barclay Tagg Found Religion?

2 inches of rain in KC yesterday, and bravo to the Irish who finished their parade in a world record 1.5 hrs. compared to the usual 4. Every float that started finished, and they each and every one started according to reports, with one undaunted Irish person noting, in driving rain, that we've run the parade in ice and snow, this is just rain. That's just enough inspiration for this middling horse trainer to go out there this afternoon and scruff through ankle deep mud.

But first, today's matters at hand as I'll continue to look at how frequency of fast works and spacing of days between fast works affects the injury equation. This should be enjoyable because it's so easy to tie the topic to this year's Derby training, and launch this with a look at the smiling gentleman below and what he's doing this year with his talented stable.

When Tagg burst into prominence in 2003, I identified immediately. Yes, Barclay, I know how much it hurts to smile, + small stable, rides horses, works behind the radar, but that he married a jock means he's probably smarter than me, or, maybe not. Does alimony lurk in Tagg's future? Lol.

What do I think of Tagg's training? I've tried to ferret it out but one little event said it all for me about Barclay Tagg as horse trainer. I've long railed against those horse muzzles made of dark plastic you see advertised in the horse catalogues. They keep the horse from grazing pre-race, and they have air holes that presumably permit the horse to breathe. Look at them closely though and you'll see the plastic resting right up against the nostril trapping carbon dioxide and basically causing the horse to rebreathe it's own exhale. Only an insensitive idiot would this contraption on a defenseless animal.

And, then, early 2007 a Tagg Blood Horse video on No Biz Like Show Biz. Biz pre-race looking unhappy with one of these very muzzles over the nose. Do we need to know anything else about Barclay Tagg as this degree of mindlessness and insensitivity will color whatever conclusions I come up with.

Before the muzzle video I'd tried to digest the 2003 Funnycide happening and the training that produced it by reading this book below:
written by Sally Jenkins. It's a nice book, decently written, entertaining and tells all the Funny Cide Story except the training.

Best I could do from the book was to read between the lines and ferret out what Tagg did with FC. My conclusion from limited information is that Barclay Tagg at that time was a typical conventional trainer who breezed his horses on occasion when the spirit moved, and that also, like the typical conventional he wratched up his trainining with the good horse. By the time the Belmont rolled around it appears to me that Tagg had completely backed off with his training of FC, decided the horse had done enough, and did very little training between Preakness and Belmont(see C. Nafzger and Unbridled). This brillilance in ceasing to do what got you there in the first place produced a fading 3rd place finish to Empire Maker in the Belmont that cost FC the TC.

The Tagg from the FC book seemed one of those so stuck in the tradition of easy east coast training, Woody Stephen's style. However, Tagg, though hardly a Rhodes Scholar, also seems reasonably intelligent and consistently displays in his comments a very inquisitive mind. This also comes across in the book. For this reason I have been betting with myself that Tagg unlike a lot of his peers might be one that responds to the competition around him and begins to exceed conventional style training in his own stable.

Will this happen, that Tagg like Asmussen exceeds conventional training, next post.

Training: Horses were off in the rain yesterday after planned fast works day before due to the coming weather.

St. Paddy's Day 2008!

Our local St. Pat's day venerables run their annual parade in pouring rain today with RR somewhere deep within himself unable to pump up even one small ounce of sympathy for our little green buddies. Zero sign of the parade so far that always goes right by my window in downtown KCMO, though I read in the KC Star that they've resolved to run the parade come heck or high water. LOL is all I can say as I'm having an awful time feeling the slightest bit sorry and darn guilty about it. Instead I'm just sitting here chuckling to myself. Let the rest of the human race get a little taste of this stuff. Makes me feel so much better!

But, back to serious business. We've had a couple of days to mull over the Tampa Bay Derby, and that short Zito statement yesterday that WP passed all the tests, allegedly. Zito seems like an honest straight forward sort, but, do you really publicise that your horse bled? But then we might imagine that WP hardly ran enough to bleed, so we're left with figure how or why Zito would be baffled by the performance.

Really, would you be all that stunned to see your horse finish up the track if you'd done two fast works in 27 days with your horse with the last one 9 days out from the race. How this horse is handled from here on out should be interesting!

Then there's the question can Zito and really also the likes of Barclay Tagg compete with the sort of training being done by S. Asmussen. Whatever you think of Asmussen, and I'm other than a fan of his sort of mindset--read his explanations for his suspensions--Asmussen has stepped up training for his top horses even above where it was two years ago in 2006 when I did a little personal study of Triple Crown candidates PPs (Asmussen had a minor horse in the 2006 Derby), and to my surprise identified Asmussen as one or two of that bunch of trainers that was giving his horse legit training.

Tagg this year seems to be holding a full deck of horses and doing a heck of a job. This year's Nafzger perhaps, thus far maybe Barclay has learned something from his past errors. Again, Tagg training from here on in bears watching.

Then there's our old friend D.W. Lukas. From that horse Lukas raced in Arkansas yesterday, and same deal with his Derby candidate last year, can we see how the old Lukas training--and you'd put Baffert, Zito, McGlaughlin and quite a few others in there--fares against the stepped up training that's going on now with a lot of others?

This years TC training will provide a great lab for the blog for the present subject, which I'll get back to tomorrow, frequency of breezing and racing injuries.

Training:
3/14/08 Friday: both horses did short spurts of speed in course of a fairly rigorous riderless workout.
3/15/08: Sat: Off
3/16/08: Sun:
Rod: Repeated just a few riderless spurts about 80% speed. This youngster is quick!
Art: This was the first workout of the year that I'd call a race prep w/o instead of mere strengthening that we've been doing in recovering from the weather. Art was driven 4 x 2f riderless fast in the mud. The footing was soft instead of deep. I'm afraid Art pulled a War Pass on me in that he seemed completely unenthused and lazy. First time that's happened, so I take note and we'll see. Like Zito I'm without explanation, though I declined any investigation for the flat performance. Nevertheless the horse was driven to go 2f at a time fairly quickly in the soft going and it was a nice conditioning workout. First one of the year.

Tampa Bay Post Mortems

As much as Robert La Penta gives to the game you'd wish him the best, but then in terms of trainers you pick your poison. That was hardly a walkover type race. Big Truck seems the real deal, the new No Biz, and the rest of that field for all my complaining about handling, there were a few in there that could run a little.

We'll get the injury report later. I'd guess it's 50-50 the horse(War Pass) is hurt. You just look at it and squint. Let's see--no works since October, starts on 1/10/08 with a 3f, a few 4fs and 1 6f and then goes a mile in 1:36.1. Is that just asking to hurt your horse? We've all seen the talent, and may we only hope the connections wake up.

Some speculate this is a weak Derby field. Are they watching? That Georgie Boy can fly, never mind that he's now come down the stretch two straight races on the wrong lead. Again, another trainer problem. Kathy Walsh, for all my bellyaching about female trainers, I've watched the works of this horse, and hats off! But then again, I saw the interview with her on Blood Horse, and judging the matted, coifed character, she's smart enough but i'd guess there's lack of attention to detail that will allow the horse to go on. Would you instruct your jock that if the horse is on the wrong lead again, hey, it's over, and save him for the Derby. Injury odds here would be better than 50-50, but, thankfully, polytrack, and maybe that'll save him. I hope so. Great story with Georgie Boy. Can we say Teuflesberg. I'll be the first to tip the hat if you win the Derby, K. Walsh.

Then we have Gato Malo, Colonel John, Pyro, Dennis of Cork. These seem like talented colts to me. The crow stays in the pot another day. I agree with those that War Pass may well come back. Be interesting how Zito trains hereafter, if the horse survived the race.

(Sunday note: somebody mentioned "bleeding" which I forgot when drafting this one up. Yes, the WP performance would be highly consistent with bleeding. Looks as if our racing reporters are all off today. Maybe's we'll get the scoop on WP Monday.)

Training:
3/15/08 bad weather and a normal off day for my boys.

Tampa Bay Derby Day

Will War Pass today run weakly to his training or flash his amazing natural talent and leave this field?

Despite occasional inexplicable performances I believe in general that horses perform extremely consistently with the way they're trained. Stamina, holding speed over distance, ability to fight off lactic acid build up, running the fractions of the race instead of the training, etc. etc. all flow from what the horse has done prior to the race. This is another way of saying that race performance has only marginally to do with genetics, conformation, all those peripheral things, and almost everything to do with the training. There's talent of course, and natural speed, and so we'll see today whether the training will out or whether we get a performance that will be exception to the rule.

So, without adieu, today's field.

How many furlongs has each horse breezed or raced this year, in order, most to least:

BIG TRUCK: 53 1/16 furlongs
CIGAR MAN: 41 1/16 furlongs
ATONED: 38 furlongs
DYNAMIC WAYNE: 34 1/4 furlongs
WAR PASS: 33 furlongs
GENTLEMAN JAMES: 30 1/16 furlongs
MAKE ME ZACK: 22 furlongs

Is it believable that the KY Derby favorite has run all of 33F for the year?

ATONED shows typical Pletcher training as this horse has breezed 5f every week starting January 21. That's 8 breezes in 52 days, once a week up to the race with all of them in about 1:01--those Plecher riders have consistent clocks. Per my posts by my belief enough for fracture resistance, and on the bare edge of soft tissue soundness. Prediction: 1st race of the year. Competes then fades for lack of training at racing speeds. How can we expect the horse to maintain it's stamina in faster fractions then it ever trains?

BIG TRUCK. Barclay Tagg, one of my favorites, seems inspired this year. Perhaps learned something with so little work for No Biz Like Show Biz. Big Truck has consistent weekly works or races dating back to 1/15, with a :59 3/5 on 3/9. This is more volume and speed than typical conventionals. Based on training as shown in the form, this horse should run a big race. The spacing since 1/1: 5 days, 10 days, 7 days, 6 days,7 days,7 days, 5 days, 10 days,6 days, 6 days and 6 days to today/s race.

The rest of this field show various versions of "pitiful" in their training, though you'd have to qualify that perhaps each horse has done work that fails to show on the form. E.g. Barry Rose and Make Me Zach--could the horse possibly do this little work and still make it all the way around?

CIGAR MAN, he'll be well groomed with his woman trainer. The spacing of the breezes and races starting 1/4--11 days, 11 days, 7 days, 13 days, 12 days. Hardly what we'd call Pletcher training, this is so typically conventional, again imo barely on the edge of certain injury. Comparatively with the field at least the woman has done slightly above minimum. The horse has a chance to compete.

GENTLEMAN JAMES, another female trainer, has 5 works and races this year with two of these since March 1, lol--3f on 3/1 and 5f in 1:05 on 3/9 This horse has an idiot for a trainer and sadly his destination is up the track with high probability of certain injury. Spacing since 1/1 is 19 days, 18 days, 10 days, 12 days, 7 days then 6 days to today's race.

MAKE ME ZACH shows zero works or races since 2/24 That's 20 days without working since winning a 6f race in 1:10 2/5 on 2/24 by 6 lengths. The horse has 2 races and 3 three f works for the year. This trainer should be shot. I'd be happy to pull the trigger. Spacing since 1/1 17 days, 5 days, 11 days, 22 days, then 20 days to today's race--1 work 1 race in last 42 days.

DYNAMIC WAYNE has six works and races for the year so already we can say, woefully insufficient. The horse shows a mix of 4f and 5f breezes with two 1 1/16 mile races. Spacing since 1/1 is 13 days, 7 days, 5 days, 16 days, 6 days, 22 days and 6 days to today's race. Might there has been an injury in the 22 day gap, but still typical conventional. Horse at risk.

RR prediction: Big Truck will severely test War Pass, and I've already chopped up the crow, it's in the broiler and ready for consumption.

Training:
3/14/08:
Art: 3 x3f riderless snappy. 3 x 2f riderless with 1/2f at near max speed.
Rod: 3x 3f riderless snappy
3/15: Off for both. Snow this morning.

TP Derby And Spacing Of Breezes

Another nice shot of "the man" in full flight. Will someone tell me what's with that shadow roll? Weirdly, riding the horse, I'd prefer it see its own footfall, but, then, that's just me.

I'll have to add, over the course of this blog you'll pick up somewhere that I'm other than a Zito fan in terms of training, and I'd bet most of my fortune that he'll screw this horse up on the way to the Derby, but, we shall see.

Now, to the business at hand, which is gazing over the Tampa Bay Derby PPs to see which of the horses, if any, have rational spacing as to the times between their breezes and races. Again, I'm looking at injury prevention instead of performance.

First thing that jumps out at you--War Pass last breezed 9 days ago, but, it was other than the Zito typical 4f. On 3/6 WP shows 1:01 and change. That was 10 days after the 2/24 walk over race at Gulf Stream.

Thus, since 2/24 we have two works, one of which is the race itself, or 2 fast works in 20 days. But, it goes further than that. Prior to 2/24 the horse last breezed 2/16, and thus since 2/17/08 a period of almost 30 days WP has exactly two fast works. How tight, how fit, and how girded against injury, soft tissue and hard, can this horse possibly be even with the 1:36 and change mile at Gulfstream? Do we have here, really, just another conventional training dimwit keeping his horse on the bare edge of disaster? Seems so to me, but, we shall see.

We'll presume, of course, that WP in addition to his two fast works in the last 28 days also has been galloping, and perhaps coming home in those slow day gallops in some fast fractions. I would, for the sake of the horse, hope so, though I've never seen Zito engage in the "come home" sort of training. I think the performance we'll see tomorrow will tell a lot. If the horse is strong, then there has been a lot of strong galloping in addition to the two works. If the horse appears weak and strugglilng, as I expect, then we'll know based on the training we see, the reasons.

I'ts Friday night, 3/14. I'll look at the rest of the field in the morning. And, please note that WP's spacing of fast work has been inconsistent raging anywhere from once a week for the 3 weeks before the 2/24 race to 2 weeks to lately 9 days.

Training: Just as soon as I declare the farm dry we have 4 days of rain in the forecast. But, we got in nice work tonight. Rod just a riderless, snappy 3 x 3f. Art did the same, but after Rod was removed Art did 3 x 2f with about 1/2f of each 1f being near max speed. Art looks good. When did my little fellow become so fast and powerful?

Conventional Training: Tampa Bay Derby PPs

This fellow is supposed to run away with this weekend's Tampa Bay Derby. However, caveat, the horse last breezed 3/6 and the race is 9 days later, 3/15.

Does this time between fast works for War Pass concern anyone? Should it concern Nick Zito? Can a horse do zero speed work for nine straight days and then be expected to perform all out for 1 1/16th mile?

Such are the questions now to be dealt with as I begin to look at "frequency" of racing and breezing in conventional training. Tampa Bay Derby serves as nice beginning as every horse in there is conventionally trained (by my definitions), and so from the PPs we can look at what the trainers do (or fail to do), and then see how it all works out on race day. I'll give the broad hint that it's difficult for me to hide my contempt for these sorts, but, I'll try.

Here are the number of times each horse breezed and raced since 1/1, and some other comparisons :

War Pass: 7 (Zito)
Cigar Man: 7 (Kathleen O'Connell--a little short on works, but, he'll be well groomed.)
Gentleman James: 5 (Myra Mora--this chick needs to surrender her license)
Make Me Zach: 5 (Barry Rose--same deal)
Big Truck: 10 (Barclay Tagg--Based on numbers, and thus conditioning, a threat)
Attoned: 8 (Plecher)
Dynamic Wayne: 6 (Dale Bennett)
Assault: in 1948 between 1/1 and 3/15: 22 (but, lol, first one was 1/21) (Max Hirsch)
Preakness Winner Bold: in 1951: 17 (no works between 2/19 and 3/19 due to bruised feet) (Preston Burch)
Tom Ivers Trained Horse: 19

Just from the above:
1. Do Gentleman James and Make Me Zach have a ghost's chance in hell? What might be the odds these two youngsters will break down?
2. They all train similar except B. Tagg. Does Barclay know something?

Note further:

5 works (or races) in 11 weeks is 5 works in 77 days or 1 work every 15 days.
10 works in 11 weeks is 1 work every 7.7 days.
7 works in 11 weeks is 1 work every 11 days

By my definition, each horse has undergone typical conventional training in terms of frequency. The most rabid breezer, Barclay Tagg, "sends" his horse about once a week, the least rabid once every two weeks. These trainers do approximately 1/3 the speed work done by Burch, Hirsch or Ivers. What are they thinking?

But, frequency in terms of days is just the beginning of the analysis. I'll look at furlongs traveled, speed, and time between race and last breeze, next post.

Training:
3/13/08: Thursday: horses went riderless in the running paddock, now almost dry after 108 straight days of wet--has to be a record--5 x 3f. I let 'em set their own pace over the choppy, formerly muddy, ground. Let's call the gallop snappy, high energy. Art then did 1 mile trot under tack.

Summing Things Up, To Date

Being short on time gives me a good excuse to summarize where the blog is in terms of injuries and conventional training. You can sift backward to know what I mean by "conventional training" in the D.W. Lukas mold, and also see that most of the conventionals do ok in terms of distance, speed and fracture resistance. But, my opinion, soft tissue injuries will occur particularly where shorter breezes predominate.

And so, to conclude, an admission, though grudging, that the conventionals in terms of distance and speed get enough fracture resistance, though barely.

I'll take another look though following my next topic which concerns the "frequency" of the breezing and racing and predict there'll be some sad conclusions.

Our training:
3/12/08 Tuesday:
Art: Off
Rod: 5 x 3f at moderate speeds riderless followed by some bellying under tack. Great weather!

Distance and Soft Tissue

Anybody catch this? 101 years old training for a marathon. That's him at left looking every bit of 65, maybe. We've seen a shriveled up shell here and there engaging in this or that astounding athletic feat at advanced age. I just watched the CNN video of this dude. He's for real, ducking and jiving and running strong enough in his training that you might picture him on a horse. A role model, to be sure.

I wanted to say a word about breezing and racing distances and soft tissue injuries, and here we're talking tendons and suspensories primarily, but also ligaments, muscle pulls, and cartilage problems that develop such as in the horse's shoulder.

While I might consider 5-7f breezes sufficient to develop bone fracture resistance--and remember this is strictly in terms of the distance of the breeze--and I've posted that 4f might actually do it when we include the 1f gallop out, my opinion, it's a completely different story with the soft tissue.

Let me declare it outright as an immutable rule. 4f, 5f and probably 6f is insufficient breezing distance to race injury free at a mile and 1/8 or thereabouts in terms of soft tissue injury. If you engage in that sort of training non-sense, and most of them do, you are 100% guaranteed to pull something, probably sooner than later.

To put it into perspective, Todd Pletcher's powder puff 5f breezes in 1:02 in the 3 weeks pre-race might be like a human miler confining their training to a 440 at 85% race speed once a week for the three weeks pre race, than going on to run the 1600 meters at max speed. Can we imagine this happening without such a runner pulling every muscle in his or her body starting with hamstrings, and going right around the corpse?

Why do horse trainers engage in this sort of non-sense of breezing insufficiently for racing distance in terms of soft tissue injury? To avoid writing a book I'll list what I consider the main reasons in no particular order:

1. Obliviousness and lack of motivation re exercise physiology. This btw would include 75% of those that coach human sports. Love to run into these types coaching the opposing team.
2. Fear of hurting the athlete in training. This too is a human mantra as fans, writers, rich owners talk about the dreaded injury to the athlete in training or pre-season. It's stupid, and completely illogical in the long run, but that's what questionable trainers, managers and coaches are about.
3. Money and pressure to the get the horse into the race. A lot at stake if the horse fails to make the big race, eh? Takes a bit of a backbone(see 101 yr. marathoner above) to train appropriately on the edge through that sort of pressure.

Training: First real nice day. Farm is starting to dry out. Two year old off on 3/11/08. Three year old did some medium speed riderless work 5 x 3f and 5 minutes trot under tack aborted when Nob reported himself too sore to continue. Nob has been suffering weather related arthritic problems.

Distance And Remodelling Conclusions

My current subject in chief attempts to identify how conventional training injures horses which, much as I expected, leads in all sorts of directions. I'm currently dealing with how conventional trainers breeze their horses, and in particular focusing on:

speed
distance
frequency

It's interesting thinking about this stuff, reconsidering your own long held views, and ferreting out the latest that's available at the Google free of charge. When I finish and get back to my own training, the reader will see that some of this has changedcertain of my opinions with respect to the safety of Preston Burch training.

But for now I want to wrap up to date (and will get to "how long the remodelling process takes" thereafter).

Initially I concluded that you'd have to breeze at a :12.5/f or faster to obtain sufficient fracture resistance at racing speeds and distance, and then I noted that during the breeze the true remodelling effect starts to take place about 60-80 strides into the breeze after about 2-2.5f, as prior to this point the bone is in a process of adjustment to what's happening and the remodelling processes are merely engaging and will (by my estimate) be engaged at about 2-2.5f. That's were I was.

Now the question, once we hit the 2.5f mark and the remodelling processes are fully engaged, how much farther must we carry things to obtain remodelling that will give us race specific fracture resistance?

One answer to this would be to watch what trainers do and compare injury rates for various distances. We know e.g. that Nick Zito for nearly forever has generally breezed his horses 4f every 8 or 9 days (things might be changing with Nick. He's competing against a different group of trainers these days). Additionally, Bobby Frankel, also has used the 4f breeze once a week with great regularity, though Frankel utilizes all distances much more frequently than Zito.

May we assume that professional trainers with large barns over a period of years begin to understand what they are able and unable to get away with in terms of injury prevention. While things training wise in terms of exercise prescriptions are quite different than 60 years ago and the time of Preston Burch, I'm supposing that these conventional trainers and their slightly more aggressive offspring, such as Frankel over a period of time with endless numbers of horses start to recognize, hey, if we breeze e.g. 3f we get injuries but if we breeze 4f we get less, and so on.

What conclusions can we draw from the foregoing observations? Though conventional trainers injure horses at a frightening rate, the percentage of fractures among the injuries are, relatively speaking low. E.g. Neither Zito nor Frankel, to my knowledge, have any reputation for breaking down a lot of horses via fractures during races. Thus, I believe we can make conclusions by looking at the "distances" such trainers use in their breeze work.

In thinking about this carefully and presuming that the necessary processes to get later sufficient remodelling kick in at about 2.5f, I am assuming that the breeze to have any true effect in these terms needs to be carried at least to 4 furlongs. Now, please note, when the horse hits 4f there's also a gallop out, and I'd think that engaged remodelling processes would continue right on through all of the gallop out process, and let's assume this is at least an additional furlong. Thus, in actuality our 4f breeze is 5f in terms of remodelling that goes on.

Thus for our sprinters whose work might be limited to 3f breezes, my opinion would be that these sorts are living on the very edge in terms of fracture resistance. They are breezing far enough, but, just barely. I'd make a similar observation on a distance horse that regularly breezes 4f. Zito's 4f breezes imo are marginally enough to keep his horses off the ambulance. As Kiaran McGlaughlin ( *brilliantly*) observes, why do more when less will do?

And so, may we conclude that conventional training has for the most part ferreted out correct speeds and distances for it's breezes? The Todd Plecher 5f works in 1-1:02 with gallop out certain would qualify in terms of bare minimum fracture resistance, as would Asmussen's slower work with Curlin where we see the horse doing :50s, or shooting for 1:03 in Dubai just yesterday and going slightly slower. These speeds and times "will do" in terms of injury prevention, although again, I'm considering them barely sufficient.

If we want to be more sure of getting the fracture resistance that we need, what is the RR opinion as to how far we need to carry the :12.5/f? My thinking: sprints 4f, distance 6f. I think Nafzger finally got it right with Street Sense last year. For distance believe you can throw in 4f and 5f works, but primarily my thinking and also my experience with my horses tells me that 6f is the sweet spot for maintaining bone soundness in distance races.

Please note there are other factors to consider (performance e.g.) in deciding how far to breeze, but on the present subject I'm much more comfortable with my cannon bones, when I'm throwing in those 6f works. How many of them we need is what is coming up next.

Training: Another raw day on 3/10/08, Monday. The winter is trying its best to hang on. I misjudged putting a shoe on my 2 yr. old--took longer than I thought, and so lost too much daylight and skipped tack work as a result, but we got another riderless 6 x 3f in the running paddock. Went slower last night. I thought the horses had less energy. My initial plan was 7x3f, but i cut it off after 6. The youngster, I'd though, had had enough. He'd gone now three days in a row.

Bone Remodelling: One More Thing

Before I get into the crucial question of time and how long remodelling takes, I found an interesting article that finally provides a theory of support for much of what has been posted. I'll paraphrase the most interesting sentences of the article, and my comments:

ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF BONE, A REVIEW

"F and Y demonstrated that (dry) bone is piezoelectric, i.e. mechanical stress results in electric polarization, the indirect effect; and applied electric field cause strain, the converse effect. The piezoelectric properties of bone are of interest in view of their hyposthesized role in bone remodelling."

Hmmm. stress, which in our case would be concussion causes electrical activity in bone???

But, note, they're talking about dry bone, which means dead bone. There noting that dry bone has same electrical response to stress as certain minerals such a quartz, salt, zirconate and other non-living materials with ceramic properties.

"Wet collagen, however, does not exhibit a piezoelectric response. "

They fail to explain this and the relevance. They seem to contradict the statement when noting that rat limbs conduct weak electric signals, and that "Cartilage exhibits electrical response to applied force."

They note an electrical property called dielectric (as opposed to piezoelectric).

The article goes on:
"Bone Electricity: wet and dry:

Potentials observed in bent bone differ from predictions based on the results of experiments performed in compression. The piezoelectric polarization may consequently depend on the strain gradient as well as on the strain...the physical mechanism for such effects is hypothesized to lie in the fibrous architecture of bone."

They go on to note that apparently there is definitely "dielectric" behavior in citing the"fluid flow effects, possibly streaming potentials in wet bone".

And, here's a really big one: for you old codgers. wondering why your bones ache in low pressure and high humidity? "Dielectric permittivity of bone has been found to increase dramatically with increasing humidity and decreasing frequency." Again the "wetter" the bone, which also means the more alive the bone, the lesser the frequency conducted.

The study goes on to suggest that at 100% humidity the "pores" in bone are fully filled with fluid, whereas at 98% humidity they are not fully filled for the reason that they (the researchers)get almost no bone conduction at 100% humidity and 100 times more conduction when the humidity is at 98%.

By extrapolation, if the humidity is normal, the bone has significant conductivity and we may conclude, though the article says it's a controversial hypothesis, that the very act of exercise, or strain or compression, or bending causes electricity build up in bone which may contribute to remodel.

May we presume from this that the more the stress the more the electric build up and conductivity both in terms of speed and distance traveled for our horse.

This theory provides an added consideration to those remodelling effects in the prior posts. It notes the microscopic cavities in bone matrix filling up with fluid under some circumstances and that electricity goes through there in response to exercise presumably causing those remodelling effects in the prior posts. And so, just one more thing to consider that exercising our horse will or won't do depending on how far and fast we go.

Next post onto the question, post exercise how long do we wait before we start up again.

Training: Sunday was a raw day, much colder than they said with wind. Got to the farm intending to apply the lost shoe to Art, and woe, he's now lost both fronts, and so shoeing took some of the planned daylight. But we got a nice riderless workout in the mud of the normal running paddock, about 6 x 3f for both horses at decent speeds, very good energy. Skipped the tack work, as hopefully today, Monday, spring is sprung and things will start in earnest.

Appropriate Remodelling

Per my immediate prior posts, my thinking: you start to get serious remodeling effects after the horse is down the track 60-80 strides at :12.5/f, and at that point the effect increases dramatically and continues on a steep increase to about 6.5-7f at which time the "increase in effect" commences to level off rapidly. Needless to say, the total effect depends on the condition of the horse to begin with, but, all other things being equal I'm guessing that's about the way it goes.

Last post I listed the processes that are occurring, and now, our horse having finished it's work, what happens?

The first thing we generally notice post work or post race is cannon bone heat. Depending on the prior bone fitness of the animal post race cannon bone heat varies from severe to mild. For extremely conditioned horses cannon bone heat will almost completely dissipate within a couple of hours for the reason that at least some of the heat you're feeling is merely overall system heat instead of heat emanating directly from the bones. System heat, or the horse's enormous body heating up from the effort goes away quickly as the horse cools down. It's the bone heat that's left over after the cool down that concerns us.

A fit horse will still exhibit some mild cannon bone heat 12 hours post race which the unfit animal might continue to exhibit heat for several days. My own personal gage has been if I'm getting cannon bone heat (open hand directly on the cannon bone with heat radiating into the hand) 24 hours post race, even mild heat, this is a concern. Heat 48 hours post race indicates to me a problem, and that there was some severe bone degradation during the race for which we now need to compensate in our exercise protocol.

Of course the heat partly results from the remodelling effects listed last post and is actually the beginning of the remodelling process. Cannon bone heat that continues for any length of time is actually a low grade inflammatory process that will speed the healing. Those that understand basic chemistry know that with increased temperature we get faster activity at the cellular level.

What happens precisely in the post race/post work remodelling process? Here are my thoughts:
1. Bone vascularization increases, builds, and grows in response to exercise similar to what occurs in muscles but probably at a snails pace comparatively. I suspect that one of the things we want to happen is the branching out of new capillaries within the bone tissue, which presumably would be part of increasing density and growth.
2. Increased enervation. Same deal.
3. Repair and growth of the bone surface at the cellular level. Again, just a wild guess on my part, but, I am supposing that the horse in early training has primarily living collagen on the bone surfaces which grow in thickness and density in response to exercise, but that at some point in the bone growth you get deposited of necessity increasing amounts of non-living mineralized tissue which at a certain point, because it is non-living will quit growing. This process (if I'm guessing correctly) would prevent the bone from increasing in size and thickness beyond a certain point where there is insufficient live collagen on the bone surface for continued increases in diameter.
4. Interior bone: filling in of the matrix/lattice work as well as increasing the size of the lattice. How does this happen. I know from my reading that the osteoblasts and osteoclast cells do the resorption of damaged tissue and rebuilding on the bone surface. Unknown whether you have those cells working on the interior of the bone. But, I have read some articles involving the "shaking" process that occurs during exercise, and you'd suppose that in the shaking some minerals are repositioned after being shaken out of their moorings. The original vacant spot will be filled up by new calcium/mineral deposit, leaving an overall net increase in deposits both living and non-living.
5. Bone glue response: does the sticky living collagen bone glue described (and photos) in my warm up posts in July increase in thickness and quantity. I'd suppose so as part of the cell reproduction process. More deposited minerals need more glue.
6. Damage repair: You can Google damage repair in bones, but what's being referred to is those parts of bones were microscopic fissures occur, both surface and interior that have to be filled in. If there's a fissure, fairly soon after exercise fluid will fill it up to commence the repair process. You may imagine the scenario of an unfit animal being raced, a lot of fissures being caused, and the beginnings of a stress fracture resulting as the horse is taken back to the track too soon.

The above processes if handled correctly, presumably result in stronger bone with the crucial, desperate question for our horses, how long's it take, next post.

Training: One more blast from the north yesterday. With every one we think it'll be the last, then comes the next one. 6 degrees this morning with 1/2 inch of snow. But, my horses had their normal off day yesterday, and we'll train this afternoon in better weather.

Reaction, Disturbance, Distance And Bones

My term, bone disturbance describes what I imagine happens in the bones as the horse gallops down the track. As noted last post, I believe this to be a cascading series of events.

Consider:

1. Dilation of blood vessels in response to appropriate warm up and exercise as the nitric oxide mechanisms kick in.
2. Increased nerve activity signaling what occurs.
3. Increasing movement at all levels, atomic, cellular, structural, causing:
4. Heat build up (feel the cannons after a race).
5. Tightening and gradual lengthening of various bonding material including sacrificial bonds.
6. Crunching of microscopic non-living mineralized lattice here and there.
7. Micro-fissures developing on the bone surface and, with enough force, bone interior.
8. Loosening of microscopic living and non-living specs of calcium and other mineralized matter within the spaces of the bone matrix.
9. Anything else RR has overlooked at the moment.

I am supposing that the most significant effect involves the sacrificial bonds illustrated below

As noted in my posts on warm up they are just recently discovering with aid of electron microscope images that there is a "glue" in the bone involving living tissue that acts as the "sacrificial" bond illustrated which is stronger than mere contact because the bonding gradually lets itself out in response to force.

I am supposing that possibly in response to enervation within the bone tissue that initially these bonds tighten and the force as you go causes the bonds to lengthen and then with enough force finally break.

Given these various effects, all of which I believe will cause the later remodeling after the work is completed, the question becomes where are we in the various processes at any point on the track. Our question remains, at what point is there enough activity to cause the later remodeling that we want, next post.

Training: I'm shortly off to the farm. Great weather before the next polar bear stuff blows in tonight.