Performance Variables: What Are They

It is helpful to think of athletic performance in a certain organized way. Watching horses race to me is similar to analysis of performance in all sports.  Certain consistent observations can be made that affect success or failure.

And so, we consider the "variables" to performance.  Take a look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_%28research%29

The next step after identifying the variable is to "control" the variable.  As a coach/manager/trainer u like to think u can direct your athletes like puppets on a string.  Up to a certain limits, as trainer, you can.

The first step in this process of controlling and directing our animal athletes possibly is to understand the various factors, objects, characteristics that go into winning a horse race.  I thought the Wikepedia piece interesting because indeed a lot of this is intuitive, logical, even obvious.  As the piece goes on to note, however, some other of it is ferreted out by science and study.  This may explain why (in part) most of our trainers, similar to their human athletics coaches/manager counterparts are so utterly oblivious.  I must say, listening in on some of these fellows conversations about their horses, one has to smile.

At any rate--I will now start listing the variables.  Will have to do this from memory.  The most obvious one first, and such a good e.g. today.

Nehro is hurt.  I looked at his PPs before the Stephen Foster and noted that Asmussen was basically going light on the horse. One among many PPs that I looked at--  4f breezes in :50 followed by strenuous racing--and had the flash thought that this horse was fixing to get hurt, by the PPs--and hence the first performance variable and for horses the most important one:

1.  Injury prevention.