"Riding the Pine"- Top US Horses Vs. Europeans

[Patuxet]

A TDN Magazine article in which writer Ryan Goldberg looks for reasons "Why the best American horses stay on the bench while their European counterparts log extra minutes". It's an in-depth piece that rounds up more than the usual suspects -- i.e. Lasix and dirt -- and includes telling observations by men who have trained on both sides of the Atlantic.

http://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/re ... N=24687621

[Whirlaway]

Good article and interesting perspective coming from the good and fine gentlemen racing in other parts of the world. I think most of us are aware of the problems and focusing on the problems is fine and good. How bout' the solutions? What about the solutions? The author doesn't offer any.

[Patuxet]

Whirlaway writes: "What about the solutions? The author doesn't offer any."

The solution seems self-evident: reverting back to training that worked in the US in the past, incorporating what works in Europe now, weeding out drugs and brittle breeding stock and a return to breeding for the track not the sales.

However none of this is bloody likely in the face of the deep-denial of the self-satisfied, institutionalized US racing establishment. They're like addicts which find ways to cover up and deny the problem. Before help can be administered the sport/industry has to admit there is a problem. And a great September Keeneland sale isn't going to force the issue.

[Whirlaway]

Whirlaway writes: "What about the solutions? The author doesn't offer any."

The solution seems self-evident: reverting back to training that worked in the US in the past, incorporating what works in Europe now, weeding out drugs and brittle breeding stock and a return to breeding for the track not the sales.

However none of this is bloody likely in the face of the deep-denial of the self-satisfied, institutionalized US racing establishment. They're like addicts which find ways to cover up and deny the problem. Before help can be administered the sport/industry has to admit there is a problem. And a great September Keeneland sale isn't going to force the issue.

I doubt it is possible to revert "back to training that worked in the US in the past" as the nature of the breed has changed. The thoroughbred today can't tolerate the rigors of the training regimen of the past. If they could and the horses would benefit from such, trainers would do so. And "incorporating what works in Europe now" isn't practical. They race on grass, we race on dirt and as written, "most horses in Europe are graced with opportunities to train over stamina-building terrain in pastoral settings." Where do dirt horses find such "stamina-building terrain in pastoral settings" here in the US and would they benefit from such? I do agree with "weeding out drugs and brittle breeding stock and a return to breeding for the track not the sales." But many disagree and argue adamantly that race day medication is necessary, and how and whom decides what is or isn't "brittle breeding stock."
~
No doubt and I agree, breeders produce a fragile medication dependent horse where winners are sent to the breeding shed to produce more of the same. It appears the industry is in a destructive cycle from which extrication will be very difficult.

[ides of ice]

I was interested by the differences in our racing calenders. Is there no winter racing in UK? Weather an issue?

We have alot more land here than there so I think the opportunity exists for stamina training but we have to make the effort-think outside the box.

[Joltman]

Whirlaway writes: "What about the solutions? The author doesn't offer any."

The solution seems self-evident: reverting back to training that worked in the US in the past, incorporating what works in Europe now, weeding out drugs and brittle breeding stock and a return to breeding for the track not the sales.

However none of this is bloody likely in the face of the deep-denial of the self-satisfied, institutionalized US racing establishment. They're like addicts which find ways to cover up and deny the problem. Before help can be administered the sport/industry has to admit there is a problem. And a great September Keeneland sale isn't going to force the issue.

It should be possible for an American trainer to do all the things mentioned above (including racing on turf almost exclusively) and in the manner of the Euros (without Lasix) and do just fine - picking their spots judiciously. It would require a facility like Fair Hill and a willingness to swim against the tide and be ridiculed.

jm

I doubt it is possible to revert "back to training that worked in the US in the past" as the nature of the breed has changed. The thoroughbred today can't tolerate the rigors of the training regimen of the past. If they could and the horses would benefit from such, trainers would do so. And "incorporating what works in Europe now" isn't practical. They race on grass, we race on dirt and as written, "most horses in Europe are graced with opportunities to train over stamina-building terrain in pastoral settings." Where do dirt horses find such "stamina-building terrain in pastoral settings" here in the US and would they benefit from such? I do agree with "weeding out drugs and brittle breeding stock and a return to breeding for the track not the sales." But many disagree and argue adamantly that race day medication is necessary, and how and whom decides what is or isn't "brittle breeding stock."
~
No doubt and I agree, breeders produce a fragile medication dependent horse where winners are sent to the breeding shed to produce more of the same. It appears the industry is in a destructive cycle from which extrication will be very difficult.

[ides of ice]

Joltman....no response?

[Jorge]

Sub-par performances when going to Ascot?
http://www.pedigreequery.com/forum/view ... hp?t=33939

[Mickey the Marcher]

I was interested by the differences in our racing calenders. Is there no winter racing in UK? Weather an issue?

We have alot more land here than there so I think the opportunity exists for stamina training but we have to make the effort-think outside the box.

There is racing in the UK in the winter, but it is almost all over fences. The only flat racing in the winter is on a handful of all-weather tracks (synth/poly), but it is very poor quality racing for small purses. It is just betting fodder.
The first flat races on grass in the UK are early April. The first G1 is early May. The first G1 for older horses is in mid May. Last G1 is in mid Oct. Flat racing on grass shuts down start of Nov.

There is no reason horses in the US couldn't be trained in "pastoral" Fairhill type locations. It's not like the land isn't there. People are just used to doing things a certain way and like the convenience of on track training and don't want to change.

[ides of ice]

C'est la vie!