Super Careful

Above, aptly named, Super Careful, is "for sale".  The world of OTB.  Super Careful in action:http://horsezone.com.au/category/205/Thoroughbred/listings/14295/Super-Careful-Super-Scopey.html

You know where this is going.  They're trying to get $17,000.00 for the horse.  Well, if u have a $17,000 horse, what do u do with him?  You sell him.  Goes without saying for those of us with normal size pockets.

$17,000 is a chunk of change and by chance the exact amt. of the windfall the blogger is about to receive.
Merriam Webster defines "windfall" as a sudden gain or advantage.  Like hitting the lottery jackpot was an incredible windfall (for the recently laid-off worker).

Windfalls come along on occasion, and if we have a $17,000 horse resulting from such a windfall out on the race track, how do we handle this horse?  Well..........we're Super Careful, in every way.   This blog has been partially about how this is accomplished day to day on the race track.

And so, now I hope to cement another portion of the Super Careful puzzle.  What is our optimal training schematic to prevent injury and get performance? "Preserve and Enhance"--the most enduring phrase from Tom Ivers.

Last post I outlined the problem of off day galloping combined with the short time between breezing.  If we're to go on a 3 day breeze, 4 day breeze or even 5 day breeze schedule we're always either resting a horse right after a breeze or going light the day before the breeze.  Rational injury prevention training and also performance would seem to require such a schedule.

And thus, we have generally only one day were the horse will be doing significant slow galloping work.  In the training cycle that's one day out of 3 or one day out of four or one or two days out of five.  E.g.

6f breeze  Sun
Rest  Mon.
2 mile gallop Tues.
1 mile gallop Wed.
6f breeze (or race) Thurs

repeated over and over.  The problem I referred to last post is that I start to get uncomfortable with those 2 mile gallops, and particularly if they're done at a snappy pace--:16s or :17s with some :15s thrown in, as fit horses are prone to do.

The inexperienced eye will likely figure we're without problems with the two mile gallops in the above scenario.  However, if you're out their leading your horse from the shed row through the gap to the race track for that 2 mile gallop, if you're thinking--you're concerned.  Just did 6f two days ago, last 2 mile gallop was, good grief, 5 days ago.  The horse has only gone two miles once in the last 9 days.  What is the possibility that it might pull something at this distance?

Answer to that last Q is probably "fairly small".  But this is the point!!!!!!!  If u want to preserve that horse here is the % of known risk u take:  0%.  None, nada, zilch. Never ever take a chance with the horse. Put another way--that "fairly small risk" repeated over, let's say, 10 2 mile gallops spaced as above becomes a much larger risk.  At some point somethings gonna happen.

And so, the blogger has struggled with the off day exercise protocol the whole time I was on the race track.  And, let's include without elaborating, there's a performance aspect to this also.  What does the 2 mile gallop really set the horse up for?

This is where my recent epiphany comes in.  Likely--if u really think about it--the 2 mile gallop sets the horse up for "nothing".  Truly, if we consider that racing is a speed game, what really are we getting out of a 2 mile :17 sec/f gallop.  I think my answer is "very little to be gained".  And so, my epiphany has been--you cut out the 2 mile galloping.  You eliminate it from your program.  Doing this--I think suddenly conceptually the pieces of a Tome Ivers or Preston Burch style speed program fit together much more logically.  Elaborate with an actual exercise schematic next post. As to Super Carful, let's sincerely hope he finds a good home.