Training Schematics

Here in KC--the Q what's wrong with the KC Royals?  Answer--just about everything.  As with most teams with bad managers things go from bad to worse to total implosion.  This is a historical phenomena that we see operate in sports time after time ad nauseum. Same deal with Kansas City Chiefs when Herman Edwards, former Head Coach of the N.Y. Jets was hired.  The Chiefs performance would decline under Edwards by anyone that had seen his miserable work with the Jets, the Chiefs' performance did decline, who'd have thunk? Currently in KC we have the failed manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, Ned Yost, at the helm.  It has taken our good fans a couple of years to figure out that managers do make a difference in baseball as we see Yost screwing up in game after game.  It's more than in game screw ups, of course.

With horses there are similar applicable principles to performance.  The #1 requirement for owner success on the race track better be a trainer that knows what they are doing.  That is to say--other than a trainer that creates a nice party for you on race day, or in another life would be an expert used car salesman, or someone with a high win %.  On the latter, good grief, if u have any ability at analysis.

In my younger days I watched thousands of basketball games specifically with an eye to what separates winners from losers.  Back in those days of the late 1960s, early '70s the most consistent separator was conditioning.  In the sport of basketball conditioning is rarely a separator these days. Most basketball coaches long ago figured out conditioning.  If you read "The Jordan Rules"  you understand quickly the real reason Michael Jordan was superior in his time.  He lived in a weight room. These days, unlike times past, Jordan would have a lot of company.

With horses conditioning is still a significant separating variable. Where does conditioning stand these days in terms of importance in winning races?  Come back to that one.  For this post those things that I term variables of performance--i.e. we can control a variable--were stated on my "List".  The list has been collapsed to its most general categories:

The List:

Animal Husbandry
Athletic Conditioning For Performance And Injury Prevention
Race Strategy
Injury Prevention--a category unto itself
Misc.

The above are the things the Ned Yosts off the world screw up.   We want to avoid our horse getting Yosted. A few more general comments then on to the subject of training schematics for optimal conditioning and performance.