Racing at 3, when should I break?

[Blue feather]

I have changed my view and decided to race my horses at 3 instead of 2. I was having my yearlings broke in the fall of their yearling year and then sent directly to South Carolina to train. My current 2 yo's were broke as yearlings, I'm sending them to South Carolina early November which means they have had a year gap from breaking to training. Those of you who race at 3, what is your program?

[bcassidy]

blue feather----I do not race my 2 yr olds either. I breed to race in a state bred program so there is no significant advantage to getting there early-----there is only one 2 yr old stakes race. My pedigrees are not precocious and it saves a lot of money.
I start breaking mine in late spring/early summer of their two year old year and have them ready for their first race by late February of their 3 yr old year. If they are going to buck their shins I want to have them buck by late February at the latest so I can get them healed and legged up again by late April. Our state bred program starts in May and runs through Nov.
I don't do much with them as yearlings except let them be horses and handle them a little bit.

[winds]

I managed a farm where we only started at 3. I broke them as yearlings and kept them going as 2 yr olds, but I had the luxury of having a training center close where I could train them. I put alot of miles on them, did a lot of 2 min licking going long( like 1 mile ). I wanted to build their bones and muscles, I figured they could put the speed in them at the track. I had no bucked shins and they won within their first 3 races in NY.

winds

[griff]

I read a report last year that claimed horses that race as 2 YOs rack up more total life time races and winnings than horses that start at 3. Something about young horses building more bone in responce to stress training..

Having read that I still started one gelding in November of his second year and the other ran is first race at 34 months. One developed chips in his anchel and the other developed a chip in his knee..

I do have a broodmare that was imported at age 4 and raced until she was age 10, retireing sound with over $200k in winnings and 64 starts.

Maybe age 4 is the magic number.

griff