Old quarter horse trainers just don’t get it!
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012Beyer had some interesting things to say about Bodemeister:
http://www.drf.com/news/beyer-bafferts-training-could-help-bodemeister-buck-history
I suppose the key paragraph would be:
“He was flying leaving there,” Smith said. “He was two (lengths) in front
leaving the gate.” Smith and trainer Bob Baffert had talked before the race
about such a scenario, and Baffert had no reservations about letting his
colt go to the front. Some second-guessers have criticized Smith for letting
his mount go so fast in the early stages, but he was making a reasoned
decision. Bodemeister had raced only four times in his career, and Baffert
had not had the luxury of experimenting to learn whether he could be
restrained to sit behind other horses. “I didn’t want to change his style,”
the trainer said, knowing that the Derby is no place to experiment.”
You know, this rather blows my mind! Baffert didn’t want to change his
style? Trainers are suppose to condition their horses to the style of racing
they will encounter. Why on earth was he not conditioned to come from
behind, to be on top and every where in between during his early works? Why
was he not trained in sets? He should have been trained to be comfortable
doing it all in the mornings. That is one of the luxuries of having a large
stable in that one can train in sets and replicate racing conditions. It
appears that Baffert had worked him at least 26 times before his first
start. Surely, he could have attempted to teach him to rate and find out how
he was from off the pace long before the derby? Apparently, it never crossed
Baffert’s mind?
Another journalistic piece may be as telling:
http://www.drf.com/news/beyer-bafferts-training-could-help-bodemeister-buck-history
Reading between the lines on this one, it appears that Baffert felt the
horse needed a lot of speed work. He seems oblivious to the importance of
race strategy. This harkens back to his quarter horse background of all out
racing from start to finish. I suspect Baffert really does not understand
the classic distances where horses just don’t win, if they leave the gate
like a sprinter. Rating is a must even with speed horses going a route of
ground.
Actually, I think this is the crux of the whole matter. Bodemeister is a speed freak who is one of the few that can carry that speed much further than many, many horses. The win in the Ark derby at a mile & an eighth blinded Baffert and Smith. Put that kind of a horse with an old quarter horse trainer, and he reverts back to his roots. He thinks this speed can be carried even for a mile & quarter. What’s another little eighth of a mile? Unfortunately, it makes all the difference in the world, particularly if you are going faster fractions. Sure, he may be proud of the horse’s efforts, even amazed, but in the end, he lost. Smith said. “He’s such a free-running, talented horse. It cost me at the end, but he ran dynamite.” I am afraid “dynamite” don’t win classic distances!
I just uploaded to YOUTUBE, the video of the Santa Anita morning work on
April 7, 2012 of Bodemeister being caught in a fast moving set of breezing
thoroughbreds. This amazing footage supports the fact that Bode would have
been good in the Ky Derby from coming off the pace.
Watch it:
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