BC II

What of Quality Road, and Todd Plecher training? Take a look at the PPs.

11 July: 5f 1:00

18 July 5f 58.3

26 July 5f 58.4 (after exceptional work, they wait 8 days.)

1 August 5f 1:00 Only 5 days. Un Plecher like. Due to race coming.

7 August: Whitney 1 1/8 mile. All this gets them a second to Blame.

22 August: 4f: 51.4 over slop: 15 days later! Note that this speed is insufficient for

FR by my calculation.

29 August: 5f 1:00

4 Sept. Woodward 1 1/8 miles: twice in a row Plecher breezes the horse 5 days out from the race! A win!

25 Sept. 4f: 49.2 This time they wait 3 weeks.

3 Oct. 5f: 1.01.1

10 Oct. 5f 1.01

17 Oct. 6f 1:13.2 Nice work by the jock. Without a doubt Plecher instructed slightly slower that :12s, and that is what they got!

24 Oct. 1.01.2 BC getting close. Do they rachet things up as they did for the Whitney. Negative.

They're breezing slower now!

31 Oct. 4f: 48.3 This one is mind boggling. They have the horse set up for a fairly nice pre-BC work, and they decline. 4f in 48 would do hardly anything in terms of conditioning for a huge long striding horse.

Interestingly, before the Whitney they were letting the horse run in his breezes. They got beat by Blame and, apparently, decided the fast works were failing to cut it. Plecher thereafter reverts to his normal routine. QR has been trained per the usual Plecher the whole year: 1.01 breezes 7 days apart with 2-3 week gaps in speed work after races. Does this qualify for the minimum frequency in terms of FR would be the question. As to performance, will approach this with open mind as blog gets to performance. Doubtful to me this schedule does the horse any favors. Will need to compare QR schedule with rest of field and make predictions later in the week.

Training:

11/1: 4 miles continuous in 16s and 15s with several very short full speed bursts.

11/2: will go this evening 36 hours later.