Well researched look at past training methods.
"Either they don’t make ‘em like they used to or don’t train ‘em like they used to. Thoroughbreds going for horse racing’s Triple Crown aren’t given nearly as much work between races as their predecessors were back in the 1930s, ‘40s, or even the ‘70s and ‘80s."
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s ... -patterns/
Triple Crown Training Patterns
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Patuxet
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Triple Crown Training Patterns
"He is pure air and fire and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him; he is indeed a horse ..." Wm. Shakespeare - Henry V
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Whirlaway
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Wonderful read, thank you for posting the link, us fans of the classic race horse appreciate it.
At quote from one of those who read the article and I concur:
Racingwithbruno • 10 months ago
" . . . I only dream to have a time machine and go back and watch how each and every one of those horses, looked, moved, and exited those breezes and long gallop like works. Wow! Just to understand how horsemen thought and dealt with workouts, here, now we have guys that freak out if they have work five or six days after last work . . . "
At quote from one of those who read the article and I concur:
Racingwithbruno • 10 months ago
" . . . I only dream to have a time machine and go back and watch how each and every one of those horses, looked, moved, and exited those breezes and long gallop like works. Wow! Just to understand how horsemen thought and dealt with workouts, here, now we have guys that freak out if they have work five or six days after last work . . . "
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. - William O. Douglas
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It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships, that they give credibility to the opinions they attack. - Voltaire
training
Just a great article, Patuxet!! Just the kind of material I have been looking for.
Does anyone have an approximate idea about how many miles a 3yo in training does in a week? Training as in, with a rider and not walking but trotting, cantering or galloping.
As we all saw in the Derby and ALMOST every other thoroughbred race for that matter, the horses tire pretty significantly in the last half of the race. Has anyone defined if this is a function of muscular fatigue or cardiovascular fatigue?
Does anyone have an approximate idea about how many miles a 3yo in training does in a week? Training as in, with a rider and not walking but trotting, cantering or galloping.
As we all saw in the Derby and ALMOST every other thoroughbred race for that matter, the horses tire pretty significantly in the last half of the race. Has anyone defined if this is a function of muscular fatigue or cardiovascular fatigue?
Thanks for the article.
This is no new revelation, but it certainly needs to be understood if there is any hope of a return to the kind of hard/long running soundness that could allow classic winners to perform at such a level for months at a time. It consists of several things, IMHO.
- Starting them at 2 and training them to readiness, hard enough to build bone and physique that they'll need down the road.
- Many miles of both long and slow work to build both slow and fast twitch muscle cells, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, and circulatory efficiency.
- No Lasix that washes out key minerals and nutrients from the system, and throwing things out of balance. Overuse of antibiotics and 'medications'may be hurting the performance.
- Natural nutrients in the grains that they are fed, as well as hay. (this is not well understood)
- Keeping the horse's head together through it all.
I had looked for a long time to find someone who would train mine using the old time methods. had to give up.
We could get lucky and get another triple crown winner but the kind of warriors of old will not surface until duly trained. The rise of Wayne Lucas, followed by Baffert and their imitators in the 1980s preferentially biased trainers toward:
- horse conformation more muscular and bulky like a quarter horse.
- faster sprinting works, very little distance work that gets the horse closer to his bottom between races.
Breeders have followed suit giving the market what it wants. There's no place for the smaller, lighter racey looking tb who could run forever.
But in the end its still a thoroughbred sport so, amazingly, the sire lines that survive are still the ones that have some stamina performance because, in the end, the real performance standard is the classic distance.
jm
This is no new revelation, but it certainly needs to be understood if there is any hope of a return to the kind of hard/long running soundness that could allow classic winners to perform at such a level for months at a time. It consists of several things, IMHO.
- Starting them at 2 and training them to readiness, hard enough to build bone and physique that they'll need down the road.
- Many miles of both long and slow work to build both slow and fast twitch muscle cells, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, and circulatory efficiency.
- No Lasix that washes out key minerals and nutrients from the system, and throwing things out of balance. Overuse of antibiotics and 'medications'may be hurting the performance.
- Natural nutrients in the grains that they are fed, as well as hay. (this is not well understood)
- Keeping the horse's head together through it all.
I had looked for a long time to find someone who would train mine using the old time methods. had to give up.
We could get lucky and get another triple crown winner but the kind of warriors of old will not surface until duly trained. The rise of Wayne Lucas, followed by Baffert and their imitators in the 1980s preferentially biased trainers toward:
- horse conformation more muscular and bulky like a quarter horse.
- faster sprinting works, very little distance work that gets the horse closer to his bottom between races.
Breeders have followed suit giving the market what it wants. There's no place for the smaller, lighter racey looking tb who could run forever.
But in the end its still a thoroughbred sport so, amazingly, the sire lines that survive are still the ones that have some stamina performance because, in the end, the real performance standard is the classic distance.
jm
Run the race - the one that's really worth winning.
training methods
Well said, Joltman. 
Does nobody want to work with Billy Turner? He's the only active Triple Crown winning trainer. You'd think he'd know how to do it if anybody.
As far as daily methods, what do he and Allen Jerkins do with a horse? Does it differ much from your Baffert, Zito, Pletcher, etc.?
As far as daily methods, what do he and Allen Jerkins do with a horse? Does it differ much from your Baffert, Zito, Pletcher, etc.?
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana"
