I love off tracks particularly when I have a mud horse and this running of the 2011 Belmont is no exception to how powerful the track’s surface can be in denoting an outcome. Most horses tend not to like sloppy heavy, muddy tracks. The good news is that in our modern times, most tracks if given half a chance and miminum of rain, can get a off track tight and hard with floating, etc. The bad news, some times they can’t. 

This year’s Belmont is an example how the only horse in the field that had won a race on bad going, did it again. This brings to mind one of my favorite mud racing stories of all time and involves a Missouri bred horse winning the Kentucky Derby under Boots Durnell. The horse, Elwood. 



By 1903 he (Boots Durnell) was racing during the summer in Chicago and heading to California for the autumn and winter. He was stabled in San Francisco that year when he heard one day that a horse sale was to be held at a local boxing ring. He and some friends decided to attend, but not with the idea of buying anything. According to Ransom, “the stock was ragged and the breeding rather poor, but finally, out came a slender colt, a bay yearling son of Free Knight out of Petticoat, by Alarm. Petticoat was a granddaughter of the great American Eclipse and her dam was a daughter of Leamington. Something about the youngster fascinated Boots, although it was not his looks, and he bid $100 on him. After three more bids, he was knocked down to him for $300, and he led the little fellow to his barn.”



Mrs. J.B. Prather of Faustiana Stud in Maryville, Missouri, had bred Elwood. The horse was not named at the time of the sale, and Durnell bestowed his mother’s maiden name — also his own middle name — on the colt. Elwood raced in the name of Boots’ wife, Mrs. C.E. (Lasca) Durnell.

At two, Elwood raced in some $300 claiming races, but he was not successful enough to attract a claim. He made seventeen starts and won only once, although he finished second in two little stakes, the Youngster Stakes and Competition Stakes.

The highlight of that California campaign came when three-year-olds were asked to go a mile and a half as early as February 27 in the Ascot Derby. Most of Elwood’s races had carried purses of $400 or less, but the Derby had a purse of $2,000. He finished second to Bill Curtis, beaten by four lengths on a muddy track.

His next start came nearly a month later, on May 2, in the Kentucky Derby.

Several elements of the lore of Elwood’s Derby tend to be questionable and contradictory but charming. A story recorded by Ransom was that “One day in … 1904, Boots’ brother-in-law phoned him from Kentucky and said ‘if you have any kind of a three-year-old handicap horse, put him in a car and ship him to the Derby. It has been raining for days and the track’s a quagmire. No one here has been able to train their horses.’ Boots hung up the phone, disconsolate, for he had no such horse in his barn. He yearned for that far-goal of glory, the Mecca of every breeder and race horse man [obviously a statement assigning the Derby’s later status retroactively]. He shrugged off the idea as an impossibility … However, when he walked back to his stable and ran speculative eyes over the awkward carcass of Elwood, his optimism rose. He suddenly remembered a workout when the horse was just flying in the mud, jumping and kicking like a bronc. He had a real mud horse.”

Ransom tells how Durnell, low in funds, traveled with Elwood, bedded down himself in a box car he shared with the horse. Elwood seemed stiff and sore after the long trip, and that, along with his origins, summoned snide reference to “the Missouri mule.” Durnell had difficulty finding a rider, and Frankie Prior agreed to take the mount only because he wanted to ride in the Derby.

The version attributed to Durnell is full of emotion, detail, and bravado:

“They finally got away in the deep slop and as they swung into (the) backstretch, I could see nothing of my awkward plater and I knew then the real heights of my folly. But wait. As the flying pack plowed into the gooey stretch, from far back came a mudplastered woeful sight, a horse eating up ground in great surging strides, and up there on his back was a ludicrous Ichabod Crane. Down through the long and boggy stretch the strange apparition continued his long furious jumps, simply running over horses at the end and coming out to open daylight at the wire. Somewhere along the line and with stunned disbelief, I might have sensed the real meaning of that long, awkward stride and who it was, with hoarse bellows of encouragement; I shouted the unknown horse home.”

Greatest Kentucky Derby Upsets

 By the staff of Blood-Horse Publications



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I am going to predict something here, I almost never do. A European horse, MASTER OF THE HOUNDS, will take it this year. Most of the time, horses that ship over here, a 12 hour plus plane ride are just too stressed to do well against our fresh horses, even if they are better prepped and they usually are!  We all know how jet lag feels! Try running soon after such a trip! I think MASTER OF THE HOUNDS will be that exception this year. He ships super well. His long plane flights seem to minimally bother him with a case in point being is ride earlier this year to the Dubai Derby where he finished a nice second. In the Kentucky Derby after another long ship right before that effort, he finished 5th but was making up ground at the end looking like he could have taken the roses,  if that race had been a tad longer.  Knowing the Irish and their habit of racing longer races, more like our Belmont Stakes, they know how to get a horse ready for a mile and a half. It is reported by the head stable lad that Master of the Hounds has been getting fast works, twice-a-week since his trip back from the Kentucky Derby, and I think this will be another key why he will take the Belmont this year. His work schedule is hidden from the general public and the DRF when he is home in Ireland. Our USA horses are mostly babied up to the Belmont following our mantra of always racing a “fresh” horse. Our view of fresh horses is a horse with a lot of rest and not stressed between the Derby and the Belmont. None of the USA horses in this year’s Belmont have breezed over 5f as a prep for the Belmont’s mile and a half distance. Give me a royal break! Are they crazy? How can any horse be ready for a mile and a half effort by doing so little work? They can’t? They run on guts alone. I suspect Master of the Hounds will have good old Irish training as an advantage in this one and taking his penchant for easy shippping–Watch out! Plus I like him starting on the rail! That should save him ground for a long effort if he stays put for a  while once he reaches the rail.

Master of Hounds in Louisville, Ky

(1) MASTER OF THE HOUNDS (#1)

(2) SHACKLEFORD (#12). . . . . . . . This horse did well in the Derby and Preakness and should have the guts to continue in the Belmont, but due to his classic lack of training which is typical in the  USA, he will probably be sorely tested by the Belmont’s distance. He won’ t have the depth to pull it off. Few USA horses have that training depth any more to do the mile and a half well,  let alone take the triple crown.

(3) RULER OF ICE (#3). . . . . . . . . . This is my long, long shot pick. I just have a hunch he may do well. His beyers are not that impresssive, but so what? A mile and a half is a different animal. He starts close to the rail and should get a good trip if the jock and luck is on his side.

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Ok, my Kentuck selections mostly bombed this year. So goes life and racing. Racing luck can never be under-valued and no one knows that better than jocks and trainers. We have a 14 horse field in this years Preakness. Again, I prefer the horses with the best chances to be those that have the most 2011 starts with the last start closest to the Preakness, and with decent works leading up to the Preakness. I like.

(13) Concealed Idenity. . . . . . . . . . . he is a long shot to put it mildly and I never  bet the chalk. He has raced five times this year with his last start being a win in the Tesio on May 7th at Pimlico.  His last work was on May 18th

(5) Shackleford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . he has four starts this year with a 4th in the Ky Derby.  No works since the derby, but that ain’t that uncommon.

(4)  Flashpoint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . he is a hunch bet. His  last raced on the 3rd of April in the Florida Derby with a 4th. I am betting his new trainer can improve on Dutrow.

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My, how time flies! Ky Derby time again.  I got lucky last year and picked the winner. Let’s see if I can do it again?

Since I am no longer a track denizen but have to rely on hunches and what I read at the DRF, I am at a disadvantage. What does it take to win the Derby? First and foremost, one needs a fit horse that can handle the distance. Then one needs luck! Luck is the hard condition to guess in any race. As every horse trainer knows, we are at the mercy of the Gods of Luck whenever we send a horse out to race. A 20 horse Derby field just makes luck even more pertinent and trying to find a Derby winner is more of a crap shoot. Jocks, I don’t pay much attention to. At this level, they are all about the same. One exception and that is Calvin Borel. Borel knows how to save ground and save a horse, presuming he is allowed to. Most of the time, he isn’t and this Derby day may be no exception. His style is getting too well known for his own good. It is unlikely that the other jocks will let him move on the rail like he has in the past. He is certainly on a horse that could do it, if the Gods of luck are present. I do admire the way he rides!

Which of these 20 are fit horses that could handle the 1-1/4 route? First, I like to see how many starts each have had this year. This is important. As any old timer will tell you, there is nothing like a race to get a horse fit. You can work most any of ‘em every week, but they will always get the most out of an actual race. Of the 20, only 1 has had 5 starts this year and that would be TWINSPIRED (#10) trained by Michael Maker. Six entrants have had 4 starts in 2011 and they are ARCHARCHACRH (#1), PANTS ON FIRE (#4), DERBY KITTEN (#9), MIDNIGHT INTERLUDE (#15), NEHRO (#19), AND WATCH ME GO (#20).   Eight horses have had 3 starts in 2011, four horses have had 2 starts in 2011, and only one horse had one start in 2011, the European.  Modern horses tend to be babied and few race over 3 times before the derby in that year. I contend this is not conducive to starting a fit horse. This was most certainly not how horses were conditioned over 50 years ago.  I like to see a 2011 seasoned horse go into the Derby.

How about current works? I want to see a horse that has had a good breeze very close to the derby day. Few modern trainers like to stress their horses close up. Too bad! Just proves, they don’t know how to prep a fit horse.  Geeze, look at Pletcher! He doesn’t even seem to like to gallop them hard during derby week let alone breeze them! What a whizzo! As the Daily Racing Form writes, he had Uncle Mo spend three relatively inactive days in the barn after his May 1st work at 5f and only on Thursday, decided to send him out for a paltry 1-1/2 mile gallop. Mamma-mia!  Few trainers seem to even want to stress their horse with just daily gallops anymore! Mile and a half gallops seem to be the norm. Most humans go more than that and not think a thing about it as their daily routine and yet derby trainers seem to think anything much over a 1-1/2 gallop is detrimental. How can these trainers figure that babying their horses so is a a good strategy?  COMMA TO THE TOP only jogged this Thursday and has done precious little else this week. Zito is another trainer that does not seem to know how to work horses. He has DIALED IN working only two half mile breezes since the Florida Derby win, over 30 days ago!  Only one horse worked May 3rd (5 days before the derby) and that was ARCHARCHARCH in 4f in the slop. Five horses worked on the 2nd, 6 days before Saturday. They were BRILLIANT SPEED in 5f, SANTIVA in 4f, MIDNIGHT INTERLUDE in 5f, NEHRO in 4f, WATCH ME GO in 5f.  I won’t talk about the others here.

    How about the post positions? As usual, everyone seems to hate the one hole and prefer to be way on the outside. This has always been a mystery to me. I like to see good horses down close to the rail where they can avoid being pushed out wide. Granted, one does not need some early speed to take full advantage of the rail, but even if you don’t get away well, you still can get to the wood fast and save ground. Thoroughbred trainers and jocks often have a much different view on that topic.  Trainer Fires is not the happiest with ARCHARCHARCH’s number one draw, but he feels he can live with it. I guess so! I say it is all bull shit. Jocks are scared being down on the wood and trapped down there scares them. They are more likely to get hurt down there unable to avoid an accident. Plus, they are an impatient lot. They find it hard to wait for an opening that will appear in many cases, if one just waits for horses to split. Calvin knows this well. Jocks talk to their trainers and since most trainers don’t or never did race ride, they believe shit and this myth grows. Take it from an old harness horse driver, the closer to the wood you can leave the gate the better off you are at saving ground. No way around it.

What if it the track turns up bad? Strange things happen in the mud!  Favorites lose consistently and long shots come in. Also, Borel often can rule the day, if he is on a horse that can handle that type of going. Jocks tend to perceive the track down on the rail as not good when the track is off. Borel can take advantage of this. Jocks because they like the middle of the track on an off track, will leave Borel alone to do his dirty work on the wood. What derby horses seem to be able to handle the mud?  ARCHARCHARCH, STAY THIRSTY, DERBY KITTEN, SANTIVA–all maybe.    PANTS ON FIRE AND SODALT, absolutely!

I tend to like Archarcharch, Twice the Appeal, Derby Kitten, and Twinspired.

My selections:

1)  ARCHARCHARCH. . . . . . . . . I am choosing him because I like his odds and he won the mile and an eighth Arkansas Derby and was one of the few horses that did a work very close to derby day. I like his post position and if given a half of a chance, should get a good position along the rail to save ground and won’t be caught wide like a good portion of a 20 horse field.

2) TWICE THE APPEAL. . . . . . . Ok, I can’t discount BO-rail! I generally don’t put much value in the jock, but Calvin may be the exception. He may find a way to exploit this horse’s talents by saving ground. He often can!  I don’t like the fact that this horse last raced on March 27th, nor do I like his last work being on the 30th of April, but that is pretty common in this field.

3) TWINSPIRED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . My last pick which is purely a hunch bet. He about won the Blue Grass only 20 days before Saturday–one of the few horses entered in the derby that has raced so close. I like that. He last worked on the 30th of April which is further away than I would like, but it was a longer 5f breeze which is better than a customary 4 furlongs. He has is the most seasoned with five starts this year.

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 My research and personal experience shows exactly the opposite that
today’s average thoroughbred track is far “softer” and better maintained
than tracks back 50 or more years ago ever were and that would certainly
also hold true for the natural terrain any horse would go over in the wild
or farm. Just stands to reason when you consider our big tractors and
sophisticated harrows and our cranky modern trainers that are fixated with
not wanting to hear their horses’ pounding hooves over the track as they
pass breezing. All you have to do is look at some of the old antique race
track photos to get an idea how hard those old tracks use to be in the old
days! I might also add that the tracks were maintained back then with the
minimum of water and with a team of horses pulling a simple harrow AND most
of those tracks back then were used for both harness horses and thoroughbred
racing at the same time. Harness horses race on relatively harder tracks and
you can bet that they did not convert the track from one breed to the next
like they do now!

    As any human knows, it is much more tiring to run over a deep surface
than a hard one and this should equally hold true for the equine hoof. True,
a hard surface may be harder on bones and hooves, but I contend, not so
much, if you train your animals over that type of surface from the very
beginning. Bones are remarkable at remodeling and engineering themselves to
cope with what they train over and that includes hard surfaces. Hooves when
protected with plates and daily care can also handle hard surfaces. I might
also add as a trainer that I have had far more problems going from a hard
surface to a softer, sandy surface than I ever had in the reverse. This
scenario will open your horse up to all types of muscular and ligament
stifle/back problems, etc.

    One other point. For those of you that have hung around the backside
when the trackman for what ever reasons allows his track to get harder than
usual, you know that race times in the afternoon or evening always was
reflected with increases. A simple fact: a harder track improves race times
while a deeper track slows them down. That means less effort is needed on
the part of the horse to travel that piece of ground. When this occurs, our
modern trainers will raise bloody hell for a softer track! This happened at
Prairie Meadows a few years ago as it does at many other tracks from time to
time.

    I contend that one reason why more track records were broken in the
first half of the 20th century was because of harder surfaces. Having
interviewed a number of old time horsemen, they never seem to recall that
their horses were any more likely to break down back then than our modern
horses are now. Scanning through past period literature, one never reads
much about breakdowns or the public’s concern at breakdowns like we do now
in the news. Perhaps the sports writers of long ago had different
sensitivities, but I doubt it. A breakdown is a breakdown, past or present.
If a horse was prepped over a hard surface from beginning to end, you will
see no more bone problems than you would today with the majority of
racehorses running over softer surfaces. Perhaps even less!

    There is more to the surface of our dirt tracks than a hardness or
softness factor! Dirt often breaks away more easily which is definitely a
negative factor and shod or unshod hooves will react the same. Many dirt
tracks are not as smooth as you may think, too. You get the factor of the
horse’s hooves not landing level. Harrows produce ridges, previous horse
traffic produces all types of unevenness.  Both shod and unshod hooves would
land unevenly on such surfaces. I remember a number of times of taking my
horses to the paddock from the barn area and having to get there by going on
the main track. AKSARBEN and Hawthorne were two such tracks which required
that. Even though I galloped my own and my horses seem to travel ok over the
surface, I was always amazed how uneven and rough and difficult it was for a
human to walk over the average dirt track’s surface. Of course, had we done
this same walk over a smoother hard turf course, there would have been no
comparison to the less effort involved in just walking over these two. Speed
and deep going kills, shod or unshod.

     Below is an an old photo showing three teams of horses pulling harrows conditioning a track before mechanization. Do you really think this produced a softer track with more cushion than our sophisticated equipment would today? If you do, let me sell you a sterling silver horseshoe.  You can bet that the characteristically harder surfaces of these long ago tracks were one reason why more racehorse records were broken on a more consistent time frame than they ever are now.  This may also be one reason why there were probably less break-downs, too, in the long ago past even though this cannot be proven.  A harder surface takes less energy to travel over! The key is to prep your animal from the very start on hard surfaces. The harness horse people do it all the time, and they don’t nearly have the incidents of break-downs as we do.  

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Ah, I love the Belmont Stakes! It is my favorite American race at one of my favorite distances, the classic mile & a half. There aren’t many of these around in this day and age of fast preps and even faster careers of both horse and man. I have never been much of a sprinting horseman. During my training/racing career, I only used the sprints as initial prep for the routes and kept my horses in the routes most of the season. Some of you out there that may ask what if I had a sprinting bred horse?  I say to you, there is no such creature in the general affairs of racing.  Sure, as in all things, you may have a certain individual seem to favor the shorter distances. This would be horses particularly fleet of foot that can get away well and finish well from start to finish, but in general, I have found these types rather rare. As one of my heroes, the old grand master trainer, Woody Stephens, observed, there isn’t a sprint horse alive that cannot be extended in distance with proper conditioning. So true! There is really little value in classifying one family or another as a stayer or sprinter.  As a trainer dealing with cheap horses, I came to the conclusion very early in my career that it is much harder to win a 6f race than a  1-1/16 one. Speed in a racehorse is an often very well known commodity and very well paid for, I might add. One cannot go out and buy or claim fast horses cheaply.  Accordingly, when one drops a horse into the sprints, you are often dealing with the best horses from the best stables well financed. On the other hand, route races do not fill that well particularly in the Mid-west and West. These regional trainers favor the sprints with race secretaries often being hard put to fill the longer races. This is the tip-off. Many modern trainers no longer know how to condition horses for the longer races. The routes make them uneasy which is my point. A trainer with modest horses can always do well against the big well heeled stables at the longer distances because natural speed stops being a factor and conditioning becomes all important! A modestly bred and less talented horse that is conditioned to the hilt can win over more expensively bred horses. I have done this time and again!

Back to the Belmont. You would think that a classic race of the stature of the Belmont would attract a large number of distance horses, but this seems seldom to be the case. Yes, you will occasionally get the Europeans sending over distance horses that on paper look like they could easily handle our mile and half, but you just don’t get American three year olds that have raced that distance in their short careers. Three year olds racing much more than a mile is more a rarity than the norm in this country, even if one is pointing that horse to the grand old Belmont. Modern trainers don’t even breeze these three year olds very long distances either. It is back to the modern mantra of hoping a “fresh horse” can stumble or wheeze across the wire ahead of the other equally tired horses. They figure these three year olds can take on the mile & half by simply last racing in a 1-1/8 or 1-1/4 race plus a little genetic ordained staying lineage. Bull shit! Any sensible trainer should know one should not jump one’s horse training schedule a quarter to three-eighth of a mile with no additional preparatory work! No wonder there are so prevalent of breakdowns in our sport.

Take a look at the 12 horses in this year’s Belmont. You have only three horses that have raced 5 starts in 2010 (less than a race a month), five entries in the field have 4 starts, and four with an outrageous meager 3 starts. What horse can be fit to race a classic 1-1/2 miles by racing only 5 times, let alone 3 in 2010? Precious few with no equally demanding breezes. I have to at least give it to John Sadler (Dave in Dixie) for working his horse a mile in 1:39.3 on the 27th. Certainly rare trainers ever seem to work that far before a big race in this day and age. However is a mile work long enough for a mile and a half race with his last race way back on April 3rd? No!  Not only that, but this mile work was a long 12 days away from the Belmont. Nice try, John, but no dice.  It seems 4 and 5 furlong breezes before the Belmont is the rigor of the day,  mostly a week before the event. It don’t get any “better” than that in modern times.  So again this year, you have a field of talented three year olds , not the top, but good enough to be nominated and dropped into a rich race by the big stables hoping to get a classic race feather in their caps. None are fit for the distance and you are essentially hoping your horse will hold on long enough to out struggle the others. It is really impossible to bet a race like this as form will never hold true for any of them. PPs mean little as was true in the previous two triple crown races.

Amanda Duckworth (ESPN) wrote in her Jun 3rd column:

Perhaps more than any other Triple Crown race, the Belmont more often than not comes down to one thing: pedigree.

She has got to be kidding! She obviously knows nothing about the backside and training horses. She tries to prove this absurd statement by showing that the longshot Birdstone won the Belmont in 2004 with his sons, Summer Bird and Mind that Bird also racing well in that long race.  Since when do sons or daughters of winners really mean anything? Think of all the sons and daughters that lose or race miserably by great racehorses.  Race track theologians are often shy on personal practical experiences and Ms. Duckworth seems no exception. Never underestimate a tough trainer that can prepare a tough racehorse for a route of ground. Sunny Jim Fitz and Woody were some old time trainers that knew that lesson well.

My selections? Certainly Zito’s horses look competitive, but I dislike Nick and his training methods, plus I don’t bet the chalk. I like Billy Mott’s Drosselmeyer.  He’s raced all year over a mile which isn’t too bad, if only four times and he has placed well each. I just have a feeling he may do well.

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I went to see James Cameron’s Avatar like everyone else when it came out last winter. I was particularly smitten with the Mountain Banchee scene in which Jake has to prove himself a warrior by “breaking” and bonding with a flying creature known as a Mountain Banchee. I was not sure or really questioned much why I was fascinated with this particular cinematic section of the saga until I watched it a few more times on the small screen. Then it came to me. I was Jake as are all thoroughbred farm trainers! We all select which colts we want and though we tend not to resort to such brutish force as Jake was obliged to in this scene, the scenario is mostly the same as is the process and the exaltation. After long months of your colt trying your patience every step of the way, he finally acts like a race horse, skimming effortlessly over a smooth race track rhythmically floating. Flying, if you will. Yes, I suspect nothing on this earth comes as close to riding a Mountain Banchee as a young thoroughbred flying over a track on a cool morning.

Of course, there are those animals that will do everything right the first time, but there are a precious few others that fight you every step of the way and in the end there seems to be a deeper bond created when you two finally get it. That was my Mountain  Banchee experience coming back to me which I have long forgotten until that movie. This is what makes training racehorses infectious and forever fascinating. The bond between you and an animal that can simply fly.

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John Servis, trainer of Smarty Jones says of that horse’s prep for the Preakness:

“Really, I think the secret is you don’t do a whole lot. They ran a mile and a quarter two weeks ago, so they’re not going to get too much more fit than that. From a physical standpoint, I thought my horse was fine. I wanted him tearing the barn down and ready to go after someone. I trained him really light, got him to where he was full of himself.”

Unfortunately, most of our modern thoroughbred trainers seem to feel the same way as Servis and live by this mantra of Freshness. Sure, one’s horse may win under such conditioning, but is it overall good for that horse in the long run? If they manage again to perform well two weeks later in the Preakness, the Belmont will always stop them cold. One can only run well so far on guts and freshness alone. Again I rail on how ignorant our horsemen are at gauging a fit horse and knowing exactly what a fit racehorse is! The above quote exhibits that! Baffert thinks once you get to the derby, you can coast into the Preakness with little work. Accordingly, he gave Lookin at Lucky not one work in the 14 days between the two events.  Pletcher put a easy 3f work into Super Saver on the 10th, 6 days before the big race and a 5f work in Aikenite, 7 days before.  Outside of Baffert and Dale Romans (Paddy O’ Prado) who both did nothing, all of the Preakness trainers have put light works into their horses roughly 6-10 days before Saturday’s race.  In my experience, for the average racehorse that is far too light of a work and far too far away from the effort you are aiming at.  To win the gruelling Triple Crown, you must have a fit horse which is why such classic winners are so few and so far in between and are so much more numerous in a past age of American racing then with today’s fresh horses.

Back 50 years ago, horses were breezed every 3 days or so. This was particularly a mandate for the young or laid-off horse coming back to the races. Now it is more like every 7-15 days. Take Max Hirsch, he would often breeze a horse every-other day. He did that with Assault, who came back after a 6 month layoff using such a training schedule to win the 6f Experimental Free Handicap. Eleven days later he wins the Wood. Hirsch worked High Gun the full mile and a half during the week prior to the Belmont and won by a neck. Preston Burch was a stickler too for works. He took his nice mare, Flower Bowl, who he was prepping for a stake race in 1956.  He told his boy to take her a mile the Tuesday before that race. The boy went too slow, so he got another boy to take her again in 30 minutes a sharp 5f work. That saturday, she went the race of her life winning the Delaware Handicap.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything and a good trainer knows if his horse likes and strives on work or not. A precious few horses do not. I understand that, but most in my experience can benefit from stiff close works.  An intensive program of racing and breezing is the only way to produce a fit horse and maintan that fitness. Thoroughbred men seem to be clueless that days of idlness can dull a horse’s fitness. Servis wants to see them bouncing off the stall walls or bucking/kicking while on the lead. Those displays are never a sign of fitness, but quite the opposite, idleness. A fit horse will never act a fool like that. He will be alert and amused at the things around him, but he will never react in that way.

We will see how fit Super Saver will be with all of Pletcher’s crying that his horse doesn’t have enough time to refresh. I think he could come back and do quite well, even if not really “fit”, but I doubt if Borel can get by with a rail ride at Old Hill Top like he would prefer.  From all accounts, Super Saver came out of the derby sound and finishing his feed tub clean. He and Paddy O’ Prado should both do well even with little work in this field. The entire 12 horse field is very unimpressive to me. They are all competitive in the sense that they are quite equally unfit. I can’t pick one over the other from their PPs or works, so I am going to go with a hunch bet. Paddy O’ Prado is my horse, just because, it may be his turn to win. No other reason. It is all a shame!

1)  Paddy O’ Prado

2)  Super Saver

3)  Aikenite

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From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

“There’s on the fence, and there’s on the fence,” Borel said at Churchill Downs on Wednesday. “You know, to me, if you can get right on it, there is traction there. But if you get a half a horse off of it, (the traction) is good and bad, and then they’ll start bobbling, and people don’t realize that.’

     Ah, all I can say to this is brillant! I have always been a student of the rail, the shortest way around a racetrack as many old harness horsemen have been, but it never occured to me till I read Calvin’s quote, how good he really is! I have often told my jocks save ground on the rail where possible and some times they would. Most of the time, their definition of “riding the rail” is one-or-two horses out from the wood and most of the time on a bad race track that part of the track is deemed inferior by most all riders and they head for the middle.  Another excuse to ride wide and lose ground. Now Calvin’s riding inches from the rail where the harrows and floats are hard put to touch is a different story! It is quite possible that under such conditions, Borel has hit the nail on the head and knows a great secret. The dirt is firmer down there inches from the rail where few jocks trust to ride. My hat again goes off to the old boy and his genius!

Filed under: Horse Racing in General by admin
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Todd Pletcher after winning the derby:  “The biggest challenge is running back in 14 days that concerns me. Our statistics show we’re most effective running back 35-60 days after a race. In a perfect world, we’d have more time.”

Is Pletcher for real? Unfortunately, he just does not know any better and it is obvious he was an assitant trainer for a quarter horse trainer before he set out on his own. It just proves my point that modern thoroughbred trainers do not have a clue what a fit horse is, let alone how to condition one! What a dumb thing to say! Isn’t it his job as a trainer to have a horse ready to race back in 2 weeks at the very least, barring some unforeseen problem? Certainly, a horse does not have ingrained in its DNA some gene that says that I am only good if I can race every 1-2 months. That training “statistic” as Pletcher describes it is a function of the conditioning foundation a racehorse has in it prior to racing. It is the trainer’s job to have that horse ready and fit to race back in 1-2 weeks.  We have lost the way!

Filed under: Race horse conditioning by admin
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