Beyer On Quick TurnAround

[randallscott35]

Cautious approach deprives Preakness Stakes of challengers
By Andrew Beyer
Wednesday, May 12, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...051104922.html

Trainer Todd Pletcher has one source of concern as he brings Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver into the Preakness: the calendar. He frets about putting his colt back into competition only two weeks since he ran at Churchill Downs.

To people who pay only casual attention to the sport, as well as to some old-timers, such a worry might be hard to comprehend. The Derby and the Preakness have been spaced two weeks apart since 1950, causing no evident problems for the horses or their trainers. In earlier years the races were closer together. Sir Barton won the 1919 Derby on a Saturday and captured the Preakness the next Wednesday.

But the methods of most American trainers have changed profoundly over the years, and Pletcher embodies the new thinking. He believes in bringing "fresh" horses into major stakes, giving them plenty of time between starts instead of racing them hard to get them fit. He told a pre-Preakness teleconference, "Our statistics show we're most effective running back in 35 to 60 days" after a horse's previous start. That is why he said of Saturday's Preakness, "Our biggest challenge is the 14-day turnaround." At least two factors have influenced this philosophy. Modern-day thoroughbreds are less durable than their forebearers, and trainers can't campaign them as if they were Seabiscuit -- who ran seven times in one month as a 2-year-old.