Reaching Frequency Conclusions I

This very intelligent fellow likes to give 3 weeks off from speed work after a race. He likes to race every two months. He has a very consistent one size fits all cookie cutter training schematic. He comes from a family of horse people. He apprenticed under D.W. Lukas. How many times has Todd Plecher led in graded stakes wins? On the surface, do we need to respect the training methods of Todd Plecher?

Noting that we're about to see another Plecher trainee Quality Road as the the primary challenger to Zenyatta in the BC classic, this training seems worth another look in terms of what Plecher does with frequency of speed work

Plecher likes to race a good horse every two months. After the race he likes to give 3 weeks off from speed work. Exactly what else Plecher does in those 3 weeks post race is unknown to me. When Plecher recommences speed work after the race he consistently with almost every horse breezes 5f once every 7 days in the 1:01 to 1:02 range.

First focus on Plecher's 3 weeks off of speed work post race. On the surface, this makes eminent good sense. Why?

Minor bone damage can occur whenever we take the horse out. Mini stress fractures develop from damage to a single fibril where fluid develops on site, and the next following work will exacerbate and cause separation in the damaged area. Soon actual fracture line begins, and the horse is on the way to possible catastrophe unless we intervene.

Until some magic advanced imaging technique reports to us such damage there is this risk of developing and numerous stress fractures every training day!

The Plecher training method, needless to say, gives such unseen damage time to heal. As such, you'd have to say, this is what we ought to do with every horse, just as Plecher does.

When, however, I closely looked at Plecher's injury rates on this blog, Plecher, this smart, highly articulate trainer, proved to have one of the higher injury rates of any trainer I looked at. The Plecher analysis was shorter and less exhaustive than many other trainers I looked at, but I think it is accurate. This was done here:

http://ratherrapid.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html

I have yet to take a close look at Plecher since November 2008. What little I have seen all remains the same training wise in his stable. We take note, of course, that Plecher horses continue to fall like flies, and although Plecher continues to win major races here and there, casual viewing also shows that Plecher is still playing the numbers game.

And then we have the training of Quality Road for the BC Classic. QR, received by Plecher from the barn of Jimmie Jerkens, has been turned by Plecher into one of Plecher's typical stall bunnies. The outstanding musculature QR had exhibited while in Jerken's barn is/was gone.

However, we had Plecher stating about a months ago that they were focused with QR on achieving distance fitness for the BC Classic. This was being done by longer gallop outs after the 5f breezes. With BC in a week, and the questions presented here, it will be a good time to look at all this next week! Will be interesting if the QR musculature has changed any with the longer gallops!

Training:

New energy yesterday. Dry weather shows into the foreseeable future. Wtf! So, one of those "new resolve" moments of getting things done to get to racing. I have pronounced it. There will be no January. This all begins this morning with yours truly oversleeping almost two hours. Passed on the plan training this morning and will begin this evening. Horses had lengthy fast riderless speed work Thurs.