Rider IntoThe Clubhouse Turn

As a BC aside, how unsurprising is the dull work put in by Havre Degrace on Monday with the horse's trainer immediately observing that, of course, was all "we" wanted? Readers of this blog know how little sympathy I have for these connections, from who you notice the absence in their interview of any concern for "their horse". With them its always to the effect "we might as well give this a shot here or there". Forget about what they did to 8Belles. An up the track performance from Havre is expected Sat with the caveat that I have done zero following of the BC this year. This prediction will test my own off the cuff observational abilities from the short vid I saw of the next to the last work of Havre Degrace. Some small evidence there the horse was traveling less than comfortably. Will see.

For here we're about to start a 5f to 5f 2m gallop with our rider having successfully navigated into the correct lead into the Clubhouse turn. What is and what should be going on in the rider's mind at this point and what does he see up ahead.

Varying circumstances depending on the particular rider.

While any jock doing this work might be on automatic pilot at this point, we'd still hope he'd be mentally into the work instead of considering his afternoon rides or whatever. For purposes of discussion, let's assume our trainer has enough influence, mental pull, and previous conditioning of this rider that our exercise rider indeed is into the work and trying to get out of it the maximum.

On board the horse as we pass the 7f pole multiple considerations for the rider. What path to take through the cuppiness of the race track, anybody coming out of the gate up ahead, sun (at the Woodlands) shining directly into the eye balls, clockwise traffic up ahead heading to the gate, or some fast galloper to the inside coming up behind, all while simultaneously monitoring the horse itself for gradual speed up, control, safety--is the horse showing any signs of injury(?)--reins held correctly, hand on whip at the correct position on the handle. And then the performance stuff--we're in Ivers words rounding on the bit to get a stride although it's completely other than that (for a future discussion).

We are trying to get into a maximum bounding stride for the horse which is something the jock should be aware of every work. The good one's do this naturally because they recognize the importance. The aim would be in every workout to get the horse traveling a little more efficiently to maximum efficiency for this horse. As a e.g. I've observed Uncle Mo traveling less efficiently than he was in those pre-Derby vids.

Some varying versions of the above will be going through the riders mind in the Clubhouse turn. It's a nerve racking thing. Horse racing with these unpredictable animals is moving the brick from point A to point B. There are definite things we're trying to get done with an animal that may be cooperating today, or it may be completely otherwise.

As the speed up from :18s into :16s at the 6f proceeds the sand below becomes more a visual blur and the divets are passing by you at an increasingly faster rate. If we have a cooperative horse today--and let's observe the different personalities--if we're on a nervous deerlike animals, getting them into the 2m gallop in general a matter of "restraint". This horse is going to want to go, and the rider will be more trying to figure how to hold the animal to the speed.

If in contrast we're on my own horse, Lazy Rod, and in particularly on a day he's in lazy mode, as we pass the 6f the consideration is how to get the horse up to speed.

As we approach the 5f, next post.
Training:
Sun. 10/30: 4 times up and down the hill last heat in high :14.
Mon. 10/31 on last day of Oct. we do get the fast one. Small deal for most horses. For ours it qualifies as a big workout. Rod was at least at :13.5 sec/f on the last heat and maybe a little faster. Nob reported the stride of this surprised him as he was expecting the big bounding stride with head held fairly high that we see in the riderless paddock. Instead the strides were short chopping ground pounders with the horse's head going low in the effort. Probably inexperience though will see what kind of stride we get at speed as this goes. Horse panics at the dismount nearly losing the rider.
Tues. 11/1: Off.
Wed. 11/2: 36 hrs. after last w/o due to being in hurry decision to go riderless. The horse is into it for about 5 or 6 speed furlongs which go about as expected as we've done very little speed work while transitioning to all tack work.