Preakness Training

Finally found the Pimilico barn notes such as they are.  As in human athletics the persons writing them are without any appreciation or understanding of the nuts and bolts of an athletic performance, and hence the "barn notes" say very little other than who went to the track.

The Preakness trainers, apparently, are taking Jack Van Berg's advice to avoid breezing en masse.  That is, for the one's that raced in the Derby, and, I guess, that's Creative Cause, Bodemeister, Went The Day Well, I'll Have Another.  It's to to bad that a potentially great colt such as Hansen is in traditional conventional trainer hands and therefore skipping this race where with any sort of intelligent training he'd be right in there.

So, if ur'e a Derby trainer with your horse running a tough race and you're looking at the Preakness two weeks down the road, what is the thought process? Graham Motion's obviously is, do nothing.  Ditto with Animal Kingdom a year ago. They never learn. Went the Day Well first hit the track after the Derby on Friday and apparently Fri and Sat. galloped only a mile.  We know it was about a :17 sec/f gallop from what Animal Kingdom did last year.  Went the Day Well likely will do other than that on Preakness Day.

Bodemeister has been galloping Baffert style, which is also about :17 sec./f for 1.5 miles every day since Wed. (I think).  Will be interesting if Baffert does any speed work going into the Preakness.  Surely he will.

Creative Cause has I think since Thurs. been trotting 1 mile galloping another.  This is fairly decent training in terms of volume though I have zero idea how this moves the horse up for the Preakness.

And there's I'll Have Another who trotted Wed. and since Wed., apparently has done his 2 min clip stuff and a little faster down the lane.  I take it the total distance is about 1.5 miles.  Obviously this colt is both getting his Derby bounce due to his training, is out speeding the rest of the trainers every single day and should, depending on what the others do, probably run away with the Preakness IF he holds together.  I've written that you're unable to get away with 2 min. clipping every day and will stand by that.  Of course it might be different if the distance is just 5f of this.  Nevertheless a horse will obviously thrive on this sort of work until the moment when you've bent the wire back and forth just one too many times.  Worry.

The other interesting aspect is the trainer comments on how "shocked" all of them are as to how well their horses bounced out of the Derby. I can never understand this.  Good grief.  If your horse is healthy and you've done a good job of training why would you expect anything other than that the horse would bounce back quickly.  The exception to this is horses that go off feed due to loss of gut bacteria.  If the horse has survived going off feed then I'd be amazed if the horse did anything but be fresh as a daisy two days after the race, and, that's what they're all reporting about their horses, or course, though "in amazement".  As noted, all these guys know how to throw horse feed.

Today's training:

1 hr. 3.59 miles  Av. speed 3.5mph, top speed 3.8 mph HR 95. Inj. still holding together, maybe strengthen slightly. had to resist bumping up speed today.