Uncle Mo As Guinea Pig

Uncle Mo(outside) seems to show more of his sire Indian Charlie than his broodmare sire Arch. The closeness of the breeding pattern to my own aspiring prospect, currently very busy grazing in our pasture ,causes some attention by us nevertheless. Certainly Uncle Mo is longer in several ways and has significantly more scope in the photos than our Rollin' Rodney. Interestingly, the slightly climbing stride seems somewhat similar.

And now there is also the phenomenon of Uncle Mo's training pattern and how it fits in with the minimum injury prevention of this blog. Check out the formula:

4f in :12.5f/sec once a week.

The assertion has been made on this blog that adherence to this formula for about 3 months will produce fracture resistance (FR) for up to 1.25 mile distances. And, interestingly Uncle Mo becomes a guinea pig for this of sorts because Uncle Mo. has been primarily since mid-January doing once a week 4fs in slightly slower than :48s. Thus the Q, as Bill Pressey speculated in an earlier post, can Uncle Mo make it through?

First the caveat that it continues to be unknown what Plecher does with his horses other than published workouts. Given their flacid appearance and condition you'd have to say "not much", meaning the slow days are the normal 1.5 miles in :18s and :19s with an occasional spurt. But, in terms of certainty, unknown.

Presumably Uncle Mo will be on a similar pattern through May 1 and then the 1.25 mile Derby very possibly, considering the weather, in the slop again. Will he last past that Derby?

Observe again that the blog formula is a minimum. Do less at the horse's peril! At best Plecher, imo, is skating on the bare edge with Uncle Mo, and typical Plecher two(or more) weeks off from speed work following Derby preps would put Uncle Mo under the minimum. So the possibilities with Mo:

1. Plecher gives too much post Derby prep off from speed work--the horse is under the formula--the horse fractures, OR
2. Plecher achieves the minimum average in terms of frequency.

In the latter case will Uncle Mo make it through without fracture? If #2 above is achieved, and Uncle Mo fractures that would put the formula in question. Either way, since the horse's training closely fits the training pattern, it will be interesting!

Again, soft tissue injury--I believe the chances of that type of injury for Uncle Mo, given the w/o schedule, are high.

The blogger will be distracted with office work till Friday.
Training.
Sun. 3/6--Pasture romp was all conditions allowed. They went as fast as they could on slippery wet ground. No point to tack work on this.