How TheyTrained For The Derby

This was the first Derby where we had comprehensive written and video reports of the gallops right up to race day. And so, for Derby 2008 I faithfully charted it all for every horse.

By Derby morning I was anxiously waiting to compare results to my pre-race gallop charts that were scattered all over my desk. I decided, regrettably in retrospect, to toss these charts in the wastecan thinking I could remember it all. I've a pretty good memory and was planning the posts for the very next day.

Then came Eigh Belles, and by the time the blog got off that subject, I'm afraid the place of the RR brain where the gallops had been deposited is now gone. All I have lefts is a general picture of what each horse did instead of the exact specifics.

Luckily in terms of remembering it all, in this Derby all of the horses trained in very similar fashion with a variation here and there. Thus, recalling it generally even now is easy, and I'll post these results in the coming days.

If we knew the training, could we duplicate the performance. And, I guess, for most of these would we want to?

Training:
Tues. 5/27 Art trotted 1.1 mile under tack with a few strides of gallop. Both horses did 5 minutes of riderless play in the mud.
Wed. 5/28 Art trotted 1.25 miles under tack and did his maiden voyage of galloping when being asked--the prior galloping had been with the horse breaking into a gallop on his own. This date Nob asked him and he went off flawlessly. Nob is happy with the horse and says we should be seriously race training within two weeks. Both colts then did a snappy riderless 3f x 2 x2 x 2.