Gypsy Robin MSW

The MSW race at Keenland is on the lower far right.

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/breeders-cup/contender-detail.aspx?id=juvfillies&contenderno=2255

Can we agree Gypsy Robin is a very nice talented 2 year old filly?  There's the Q of how this performance was got, and the mystery Q, what about all those others.  There's hardly a one of the others doing any real running in the stretch of a 4.5f race.  How do such non-performances happen?

Trainers with a GR new to the shed row tend to stand back in awe that they have a horse that can flat out just "do it".  And, let's confide, that all horses can run a little, particularly the two year old youngsters, and by my experience a horse that can run generally does so for 3 or 4 races before the training deficiencies start to show big time.  That's assuming injury prevention, of course.

Assuming there's legit trainer input in the resulting performance let's also acknowledge off the bat that there are many ways to peel the apple.  It's hardly being suggested that there's only one certain way to get a performance.

I am wanting to draw up an exercise schematic.  Let's assume, in case of GR, that there was a program that brought her into this race, and also a program from this race to the next.  Since GR training and PPs are unknown, I am left to speculation.

What do we do to come up with the training schematic?  Just pull something out of the hat?  Use something that worked with Horse X a year or so back?  Put in a D.W. Lukas tape and copy cat him?

My approach here is going to be to randomly--as they occur to me--make some observations that will in the end dictate the applicable training schematic.  I've put horses through Tom Ivers program twice, used Preston Burch's program and certain variations of my own.  Am currently experimenting with myself in the gym.

There are certain lessons that result from this.  Here's a couple e.g.s that occurred to me just today:

1.  In gymnasium when I run fast and then slow down--e.g. dial the speed up to 6 mph and then back to 3 mph or 4 mph--the slower speeds are really easy.   A corollary is that once the athlete has trained at the faster speeds for any extended period the amount of training effect from slower speeds is almost nil.  U may at slower speed get some maintenance certainly, but in terms of moving forward it does almost nothing to train at 4 mph after training any significant length of time at 6 mph.

For the horse then--which is a better training effort--a 2 m gallop or a :12 sec/f 4f gallop?  Pretty easy answer for me.  Certainly the :48 work.

2.  In my weight training I've noticed the heavy weights is where it's at.  I can do endless reps at lighter weights.  Certainly there's benefit to that.  Improvement, however, requires heavier weight.  The more weight the merrier. For horses this requires speed work, the faster the better.