Trainer Jonathan Sheppard Gets It-

http://www.drf.com/news/article/110095.html

(click above for full article)
TRAINING THE WAY NATURE INTENDED

There are no furlong markers, no bustle of horse traffic, no tractors, and certainly no official clocker. The master of this field, Jonathan Sheppard is doing things that no horseman has done before.

"I don't think Jonathan's operation is comparable to anything anywhere," said trainer Graham Motion. "His system, the way he trains on his farm, it's very different from what you would see anywhere else."

Vet Exams, Soundness, and Horsemanship

Recent pic above courtesy of the Paulick Report who had a piece this week about the 2 year old star Looking at Lucky and how he was passed over at a Keeneland sale by many because of a bone chip showing up in his xrays.

With traditional subjective, qualitative measures - many failed to realize this one's potential. 'Horsemanship' became the cloudy reason for either taking a chance, or passing on this equine athlete.

In my book, 'horsemanship' would be defined as taking ALL AVAILABLE DATA in regards to the animal in question before deciding on whether or not said bone chip would be a problem in his future development.

Ideally, one could hook up this colt to a heart rate/GPS monitor during a gallop, take blood lactate measurements before/after/during the workout, and/or submit the horse to an easy treadmill workout to collect further data.

Comparing these objective and quantitative numbers against other 2 year olds gleaned from around the world could definitely help the Horseman pin down whether or not Looking at Lucky was worth the risk.

All of the above testing can be done for under $100 and could be the deciding factor that turns a $40 investment into a $40 million one.

That is quite a nice Return on Investment I would say!

Finally a top trainer gets the surface question right..

I've been saying in this space for nearly a year: You cannot maximize a horse's potential in the Derby by racing and training strictly on synthetics prior to the big day. You can still win the race if you have the best horse - Pioneer of the Nile came close, but it's FAR from an optimal scenario.

Witness Bob Baffert and Looking at Lucky:

Likely Eclipse winning 2 year old has won 5 of 6 starts out West, all on synthetics. He will be rested and then prepped twice before the first Saturday in May, but BOTH ON DIRT!

Thanks goodness BB has figured it out, training/racing this fantastic colt on synthetics at 2, then changing to dirt at 3. Let's hope he doesnt just ship East for the races, but holes up somewhere like CD with a dirt training surface.

I don't care which surface you prefer, I don't care which is safer for a horse (infrequent breezing will hurt 'em all) - all I care about is winning races.

Perhaps at some point a 'name' trainer will breeze 2x a week and win the big one - so the copycats will follow - then we'll see our breakdown percentage drop nationwide.

Thoroughbred interval training programs

Boy, oh boy - of everyone who finds their way to this blog via search engine, 90% are looking for info on specific interval training regimens. So here you go:

www.racinghorsesbook.com/reference_tables.htm

Great stuff from an old school trainer in Europe. Nothing like the Tom Ivers programs, which may be a little too much for today's thoroughbreds, in the USA anyway.

This is a nice intro to the IT concept - but I would certainly recommend a heart rate/GPS monitor to keep things safe. Of course, you can get those from me, just let me know if you are interested-

Bill

Zenyatta's secret?

Trainer John Shirreff's was quoted mentioning that he feeds his horses in training SEVEN separate times a day, including superstar Zenyatta of course.

From a metabolic standpoint, all humans realize the key to athletic performance as far as nutrition is concerned is the consumption of several, small, well-balanced meals per day.

Nice to see a trainer doing the same for his equine athletes and realizing enormous success.

More on Mr. Shirreff's here:

www.trainermagazine.com/america/news/209/27

Not to say that simply feeding twice as often as other trainers is the sole reason for his big Breeder's Cup winning double last weekend, but it sure helped.

That is the mission of ThoroEdge - help horsemen figure out several 'edges' that accumulate to a few extra lengths on raceday. Here's one for free-

Dr. Rick Arthur on Synthetics

From the New York Times:
"When racehorses are at their best, I am absolutely convinced they are safer on the synthetics than they are on dirt."

Let's say you agree with that statement, I probably do.
But there is a qualifier - 'when racehorses are at their best' how exactly can we figure this out?

Collect reams of data, that's how. Chart heart rate response, body weight, gallop speed, blood chemistry, etc. like a madman; organize the data, and draw your own conclusions.

The racing industry has the subjective data from trainers, owners, grooms, exercise riders, to name a few - down pat. Too much info in many cases, probably.

But they typically ignore a huge part of the puzzle, what is going on inside the horse?
How much oxygen/fuel does it take for him to breeze a half in :49 this week? Next week?

Charted over time, is he reaching an all time peak, or is he flattened out?
Don't wait for several race results to tell you, learn from the training stimulus.

What can you add prior to his gallops to make them easier (i.e. faster speeds with less oxygen necessary)? A food supplement, a different warm up routine, equipment change, rider change, Equissage treatment, acupuncture, HBOT?

Each stable should be treated like its own exercise physiology laboratory - constantly changing variables in order to find the optimal conditioning protocol for each individual, all backed up by quantitative and objective data.

Just my two cents, please call me if you are at the Keeneland sales this month and would like to meet face to face.

Bill
502-541-5087

Shocking wins Melbourne Cup

The name certainly fits as that was his SECOND WIN IN 4 DAYS!!

You read that correctly, Shocking captured the $5 million Cup on Tuesday - after winning his 'tune-up' race over weekend just prior.

Says his trainer Mark Kavanagh: "He was so good on Saturday and he improved since that run, his preparation was timed to perfection."

Boy, do I agree.

Good to see that some places still train/race like the olden days. I have another post in here somewhere that indicates ancedotally that Australia also has the lowest occurrence of fatal breakdowns.