Workouts

[The Horse Whisperer]

A few questions have hit my inbox already before I have had my morning coffee. The common theme is understanding workout times and how they translate to selecting the right distance/s for your horse in races. I could write reams and reams of words about different scenarios but I believe the best way is the old saying: a picture paints a thousand words.

I will breed a 2yo from the Public Breeders page and readers can follow this horse daily as I train it, work it and eventually race it. I will explain what/how/why in great detail as each day passes. This example horse will provide you with a solid grounding in what to look for and act upon with your own horses.

Along the way, if you have a scenario which isn't being answered by the example horse, please send me a PM with the details of your query and I will answer it as soon as I can.

THW

[The Horse Whisperer]

ok... I bred our experimental 2yo and called her Whisperz.

First thing is to get the Vet to check her out and he suggested that Bute is no good, Lasix is slightly positive and Vitamins is neutral.

Next: we go to Accessories and set our filly to use Lasix and Vitamins. With vitamins being neutral and seeing that our filly is experimental, next work will be without vitamins with no other changes and we'll see how it affects her.

Her initial work was:

01Jan CAL Dirt fst 6.0f
22.63 45.79 1:09.53 1Solis A(P) LV 118
STA: 100 STR: 100 SPD: 100 END: 100 FIT: 100

I normally prefer to use 5f workouts which I will explain later but because most stables work 6f, which isn't wrong btw, you can line up the split times with your own horses. Actually you can work them any distance you like as long as you can get useful data i.e. variances when set-ups are altered.

Now what information can we already see from her initial workout. She isn't a sprinter. 22.63 is a slow first 2f. Sprinters tend to work the first 2f in 22.20 or less. So it would be fruitless to keep working her over 6f. But we want to see how vitamins affect her first so next work will be 6f without vitamins to compare her next work to her initial work to see if it helps or hinders her. But before we can do that next work, we have to get her meters back up as close to 100% as we can.

Meters Now (after initial workout)

Stamina : 76%
Speed: 75%
Endurance: 78%
Strength: 80%
Fitness: 69%

With Strength still in the green (80%) tells me that 6f may not be the right distance for her. A decent workout should have all meters return around 75% except for Fitness.

Tomorrow: 11f long pony gallop dirt CAL daily train.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. I was told Endurance is only too help the horse's meter recover faster and doesn't effect the horse in a race is this true?

A. According to the Help Page:

"Endurance - Some horses will perform best running longer races. Some will prefer to race in sprints. Endurance controls this factor by determining how far a horse can carry its speed."

Therefore, Endurance does affect a horse's ability to carry Speed, which I see as adding to its "heart' in a race.

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Whisperz has had 2 days of 11f long pony gallops and all meters are at 100% ready for tomorrow's workout where we will run her without any meds to see if there is a difference to her performance.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. Hello can you tell me if the age change from 1-2yrs makes a difference in training
I.E 1yrs old nude time then tried 1 add then horse turns 2yrs do I have to start over


I have seen the recent concerns/comments about this on the other thread. Previous seasons I hadn't noticed a difference in workout times between a yearling and it turning 2yo. However this season I have spoken to other stables and they are seeing a 20 to 30 point slower work using the same set-up as their previous work as a yearling. I have bred early season 2yo horses and it was rare to get anything work as quick as a new bred yearling does. However they were still as competitive in races as the speedy yearlings. To answer your question given the current Forum discussion, I would start again to find your benchmark or if you are pressed for time and eager to get your horse into a race. If the other stables are correct, I would keep working with other adds and deduct 25 points ( .25 second) from their final work time to bring it into line with the yearling time.




also do jockey training times different after season change

The jockeys go thru cycles like biorhythms, peaks and valleys. Some jockeys stay at the peaks longer than others. There is no set time that all jockeys will cycle e.g. beginning of a new season. Smith J for example has been in the top 5 jockeys since season one. Gomez was unbeatable for 3 seasons but then dropped down a few places but tends to keep around the top 5. Castro was top for one or two seasons but has dropped well down the list. I have an interesting story about Castro that I will talk about later when I do a more detailed discussion on jockeys.

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Whisperz' last work (minus the meds the Vet suggested) improved 20 points from 1:09.53 to 1:09.33. Now before we all rush off to the Vet demanding our money back, I spoke to a couple of large stables and asked them if they could add some more info for us by doing the same exercise (taking off all meds) next work on a couple of their not so champion horses. I thank them for their assistance and the 4 horses that they worked were worse than their previous workouts with the same set-ups.

+ .10, +.16, +.33 and +.53 second

So for our experimental horse, I am going to leave the meds off while we do our add work. Then when we have isolated the best add/s will give Whisperz one final workout with the meds back on and see if there is still a difference.

Whisperz is on a rest day. Always give your horse a rest day after a workout to be on the safe side. An indication that your horse is overworked and needs a rest is when FITNESS goes negative after a daily train i.e. changes/stays in yellow or red. One rest day then continue the daily train until the meters get back to race fitness.

[The Horse Whisperer]

She had her rest day and the usual 11f long pony gallop.

Todays meters: 90 90 89 89 100

Tomorrow another 11f lpg should bring her meters to all 100s again.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Haven't forgot about our new horse Whisperz.

With unlimited training available, it has allowed us to fast track her training.

Initial work: 22.63 45.79 1:09.53

Best work: 22.35 45.33 1:09.20 (shadow roll, Lasix, vitamins).

Normally I would put her in a non-claiming maiden but there are lots of horses working faster than her at this time of the season. So I have opted for a 10K Claimer. I didn't get my 3 jock nominations, so have gone with one of the new ones on push. Drew awkwardly in #6 (this is becoming my normal draw) but it isn't a strong field. Doesn't look like much pace inside so she may be up with the leaders.

A clue to my true identity is in her Horse Notes btw. It will cost you 10K to find out

[The Horse Whisperer]

Our experimental filly did us proud and ran a nice 2nd place first up. Had some excuses in running but it appears to me she needs a bit more distance.

7f or a mile maiden will be our next target.

Gave her an 11f lpg train after her race:

Current meters: 88/92/88/85/91

11f lpg tomorrow. END is low at 85 which is a bit of a concern but the other meters should hit 100.

THW

[The Horse Whisperer]

Our experimental filly Whisperz ran a different type of race last time. Wasn't bad as she was up in class in a 40K Maiden. I didn't expect her to lead from #5 over the mile and fade to 3rd. We'll have to watch that in future. Will look for 7f next start in roughly the same maiden class.