Injury Prevention And Accuracy

Early 1980s before I ever got into horse racing an old lawyer now deceased moved into the office next to me name Jim Forney. Forney had on his wall a huge win picture of one of his quarter horses that he kept on his farm in Oak Grove, Mo. just east of KC.

Forney said the horse won $15,000 that day, quite a pot in that time, and, needless to say the RR mental computer went into high gear. Looked to me that one could make a lot of money racing a horse, I said. Forney's response I've remembered well. A puzzling statement at the time that interestingly stuck with me although it was still two years before I first went to Ak Sar Ben. Forney responded: "you could, but these horses are so dammed fragile".

Forney is deceased now, but his wisdom describes the sport. To stay in somehow we've got to keep them running.

The best stats on this that I ran into were Bill O'Gorman's stats outlined in the first part of his book. O'Gorman specialized in two year olds and said over several years that about 2/3 of them make it through one year. Could we perhaps improve that to 75% with extreme hands on care? If 3 out of 4 of our horses race year to year survival seems more possible.

And so, this blog has spent probably too much space on injury prevention. I want to make a few comments on the accuracy of the observations made, and then give my thoughts on what has to be done in toto to give each horse a chance.

Training:
Thurs. 3/24: On a raw cold day with Mr. Nob complaining about weather related arthritis and out of condition riding muscles-- 4 times trot-gallop up and down the hill. The horse did well. Nob-- survived.