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Originally Posted by moodwalker
Scroll down on this link and look at the year by year campaigns of Makybe Diva.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makybe_Diva
The last one ending November 1st, 2005. So this isn't stuff that happens in the past, it just happened less than 9 months ago.
So in her last campaign (as a 7 year old) she begins her season with a little stakes race at 7 furlongs on August 27th at Caulfield. WON
Next race is September 10th in a stakes at a mile, she gets second by a nose.
Next race is October 1st at 1 1/4 miles, she wins.
Now, 21 days later on October 22nd she wins The Cox Plate (Group I)
10 days after that win at a little over 1 1/4 miles, she wins the Melbourne Cup at 2 miles.
So in 10 weeks and three days, she won 4 races and placed in one all against top company for each division from 7 furlongs up to 2 miles.
This was her lightest campaign of her career, 5 races in 10 weeks.
This type of schedule isn't unusual at all in Australia, no matter what class the horse is.
And the thoroughbred breed isn't any different over there than it is here as most of the sires are originally from America.
So I don't believe that horses in general regardless of class need that much time.
While Makybe Diva was a champion, she obviously wasn't "ruined" by her succession of 11 race campaigns in a shorter time than Angara from last year. And she didn't fare as well in the longer campaigns but got 5 good wins out of those 22 starts....really good wins.
How do you feel about these types of campaigns for a horse? Do you not think that the American horses could do it?
And if not, why? |
As I said, I don't know anything about racing in Australia. I don't know why that horse was able to do it. Racing overseas is quite a bit different though. European racing is certainly much different from American racing. I really don't know anything about Australian racing.
With regards to racing in this country, I don't think that horses over here can do it. If they could do it, you would see them doing it. It's extremely rare out here for horses to stay sound and hold their form if you run them too often. Not only do I see this with horses that I am involved with, but I see it with everyday handicapping. If I'm handicapping a race for tomorrow, I will automatically throw out any horse if they've already run 9 times this year. I'm looking for a fresh or at least a relatively fresh horse that's going to run a big race. If a horse already has 9 races this year, I know it's very unlikely that he's going to peak tomorrow.
I can't even tell you how many times I will be looking at the Racing Form and see a horse who had to take a long vacation because his trainer rushed him. For example, you will often see a horse that wins first-time out and then the trainer runs him back in 17 days or something like that. You will often see horses take a year off after the trainer does something like that. Horses are more susceptible to injury if you run them when they are tired. In addition, the horses rarely win when they come back so soon. On the other hand, if a trainer gives a horse 26-30 days after winning first-time out, then the horse has a much better chance of winning their 2nd race. Not only that, they have a much better chance of staying sound. That was one of the first things I noticed when I first started going to the track back in the early 1980s. I would see a horse break his maiden very impressively first-time out and these horses would rarely come back and win if they weren't given at least 25 days to recover. Even really good horses would usually get beat if they were brought back in 17 days. If they are stretching out, they need even more time. For example, if a horse wins first-time out going 6 furlongs, they have practically no shot if they come back in a 1 1/16 mile race 21 days later. They usually need time to get one or two 7 furlong works in the horse and maybe even a mile work. If I was going to stretch a horse out to a 1 1/16 mile allowance race off a 6 furlong win first-time out, I would probably give the horse about 6 weeks in between races.
I'm no sure exactly why horses seem to need more time between races in the US compared to overseas. My guess is that it's because the races are run so much differently over here. In Europe, they usually only gallop for 75% of the race and they sprint home. They train them a lot differently over there too. In the US, they are training on the dirt and working out pretty fast. In the races over here, they often times run hard for practically the whole race.