Back To "Doug O'Neil Training"

Pictures worth a thousand words. Doug O'Neil and Lava Man and a waist line hanging over the belt. In judging trainers the blog relishes every tidbit of circumstantial evidence .

O'Neil got much ink in prior posts since he has a lot of info on his website that allows us in part to analyze his operation. I'd like to say it's a pretty sight, but since I'm avoiding editorial comment and simply laying it all out there, the reader may judge for themselves.

To review now that prior distractions of the BC and the US Election have passed, the blog was trying to figure how often we have to breeze/race for injury prevention having previously established that (on dirt tracks) we need to go 4f at 12.5/f to achieve race appropriate bone remodelling.

But, how often do we need to go? The blog has already looked closely at Mandella and Lukas, and now O'Neil. Based on a sizeable portion of the 300+ horse stable I concluded that O'Neil as an average breezez/races his horses about 3 times a month over time. Since O'Neil tends to give two weeks off from fast work after a race the "averages" of these works is other than once every ten days. Instead, O'Neil's horses seem to be all over the place in terms of works spacing with spacing patterns, when you discern a pattern, tending to range from 6 to 8 days between works.

The distance and speed O'Neil's horses travel in their breeze/races meets the blog's minimum standards for injury prevention--4f in at least :50 as a minimum. Hence we can isolate O'Neil's stable in terms of frequency and judge whether doing 3 breeze/races per month is sufficient. The evidence is quite overwhelming that it's otherwise, and I'll continue with this next post.

Training:
Thurs. 11/7: Rod: Off. Art 1 mile walk-trot on spongy grass.
Fri. 11/8: Rod: 1.5 mile trot--walk with a few strides of canter on still very wet ground.
Art: 1.25 miles trot with gallop where we could.
Sat. 11/8 The best laid plans again go awry one for the good, the other bad. Good for Art who takes off on his own in :17s with some spurts to :15s. The planned 2 miles is reduced to .8 + .8. Nob comes off smiling. Nice work we can build on. It's dusk when Rod the 2 yr. old goes out. First time in near dark for him, and he proves too green to handle things. Nob aborts after a near stumble and fall at the trot after 1/2 mile. We then attempt riderless work in the dark and that also goes all to heck when the older horse immediately loses a shoe and starts limping. Unable to locate the 2 year old in the dark to make him go. Abort that also and go again tonight.