A magnificent article on the subject from the Thoroughbred Times staff writer Denise Steffanus this week about Antrim County and trainer Jay Wilkinson and their 2008 exploits:

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/racing-news/2012/02/22/training-interval-training.aspx

Many of you may remember me writing about this topic 3 years ago, as I was the one who sold Jay the HR/GPS monitor used in the preparation of this 2-time Claiming Crown champ:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/interval-training-an-iron-horse-with-pps/

The TT article is a professional job, unlike my post, and quotes Jay extensively as he gives a horseman’s view of how/when he utilized interval training to turn this $5k claim into a $50k claim in just a few month’s time. My blog post gives some further details, including the actual PPs from the time frame in question – along with a litany of comments from non-believers.

Strange that the TT piece crops up 3 years after the fact, but nice to see a mainstream publication picking up on Jay’s amazing story. Jay is listed as Clifford Wilkinson if you wish to add him to your virtual stables, please send me a note if you wish to get in touch with him. He’s an old fashioned standardbred guy who interval trained this gelding and increased his earnings per start by 300% in a few short weeks.

Here’s why I think some standardbred training regimens can do wonders with thoroughbred stock:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/what-can-thoroughbred-trainers-learn-from-standardbred-conditioners/

After all, the winning time in the Hambletonian has improved at a 500% greater rate than that of the Kentucky Derby in the past 70 years, so they must be doing something right!-

No, this isn’t my ego talking – there actually was a book similar to the one I am working on authored in 1985 that was proclaimed as such by several newspapers in Australia and New Zealand.

The tome was titled ‘Racehorse Training and Feeding: Modern and Scientific Conditioning Methods’ by Dr. Philip Swann and the 1980 Australian Harness Horse of the Year named Pure Steel was conditioned according to these methods. When the owner was kind enough to give public credit to Dr. Swann’s role in his success; the ‘3 million dollar book’ was revealed to the world. A later version of the work was called ‘The V200 Plus Scientific Method’ and we will read much about V200 and its role in equine conditioning in my upcoming offering tentatively entitled: “Internal Horsemanship – Your Horse Conditions Himself with Feedback Induced Training”.

My goals in writing this book are twofold: firstly to help the ‘little guy’ compete with the deep pocketed owners around the world, for as top South Africa/Dubai based trainer Mike de Kock says: “When your horse may not have the bloodlines or ability of their opponent, fitness is the one area where you can beat them.”

Secondly, I wish to be involved with the next American Triple Crown winner in any way, shape, or form. I am currently located in the bluegrass of Kentucky, but I have clients in 6 countries outside of the USA – and I am constantly striving to increase my reach in order to become known as the author of the next ‘3 million dollar book’.

Here are the first few paragraphs from the introductory chapter:

Let’s get this straight from the get-go: the horse is the boss. The puzzle that is equine performance is composed of many pieces, yet conventional horsemanship only looks at half of them, the half that is observable from the outside.

F.I.T. stands for Feedback Induced Training, where internal responses to exercise are gathered before/during/after exercise sessions and later analyzed to determine the 3 F’s: how Fast, how Far, and how Frequently each horse is telling you he needs to go in order to improve with the smallest chance of injury.

Have you ever tried to lose weight? Nearly all of us have. The experts continue to impress upon us the importance of counting calories and of weighing ourselves weekly (at least). There is a reason for that: when attempting to influence a variable such as your bodyweight, the most effective approach is to measure your caloric intake as well as your rate of weight loss. If you just ‘wing it’ and attempt to eat less without looking to the scale at regular intervals, you are more likely to fail in your quest, or least not achieve the maximum desired effect.

A common saying in the field of personal development summarizes this concept quite neatly: “What gets measured, also gets improved.” If we stick to the thoroughbred industry, we are given a similar quote from the great Italian breeder/trainer Federico Tesio: “It is difficult to predict the race career of a young unraced colt just by looking at it, and without actual measurement.”

Traditional horsemanship entails observing the outer signals (behavior, coat, eyes, ears, etc.) when making training decisions; what I aim to do is teach horsemen how to collect and analyze the inner signs (both good and bad) of a horse in training. Most all feedback gathered from a horse in the traditional manner is subjective and qualitative; an expert opinion, in other words. However, the internal feedback gathered during exercise is both objective and quantitative, a series of numbers.  What FIT gives you is a measure of actual fitness, and therefore the best opportunity to improve it.

—–

Stay tuned, hopefully the e-version/.pdf will be ready in early March, with the paperback available later in the month.

The above chart is taken from a recent swim session where the horse in question was outfitted with an onboard heart rate device (click to enlarge). The red line is the HR in bpm and the x-axis is elapsed time in minutes.

Walking to the pool at the start of the chart; one can see a very relaxed HR of roughly 40bpm. But, at approximately the 3 min mark he finally enters the water – and his HR immediately jumps to 170bpm as excitement and apprehension sets in. At this point the HR is NOT a measure of aerobic exercise intensity, as it is artificially high due to the excitable nature of the thoroughbred. However by minute 5 this effect dissipates and we have an accurate number to discuss.

The blue shaded area of the graph represents a HR range of 140-160bpm, or 60-70% of maximum heart rate. This level of intensity is nearly 100% aerobic in nature, and essential to developing the foundation for later gains in stamina. On the track this horse slow gallops/canters at a 5min/mile pace to reach this same level of intensity.

But in the pool, a large percentage of the bodyweight is supported by the buoyancy of the water; making any effort to swim far less intense than most earth-bound exercise. Sure many muscles are being exercised as one swims; albeit in a non weight bearing environment. As a result, HR hovers around 125bpm, roughly 55% of maximum.

This lines up perfectly with what I find when I swim. As I run I can hit max HR values of 188bpm, but I can swim like a shark is chasing me and still struggle to reach 155bpm – as my 200lbs is greatly reduced by the water. I’m breathing heavily and my shoulders burn; but I’m not doing a ton to help my 800m race times on the track.

Look again as the horse exits the pool at the 11:30 mark, once more the change in activity excites him and his HR spikes to 185bpm for nearly 30sec – if a vet slaps a stethoscope on him now and sees this HR – he’ll proudly proclaim: “185bpm – he really got a lot out of that session!” But he’s wrong as the horse only hit a ‘true’ HR value of 125bpm on average during the whole exercise. (I’ve seen vets WAY smarter than myself make this elementary mistake at top rehab facilities.)

So, is swimming a waste of time? Of course not, but it’s far from an alternative to even the slowest of trackwork in building  a foundation of aerobic fitness. Now if yours is coming off an injury or is otherwise unsound, swim away until he’s ready to move forward – just know that the real work begins only when out of the pool.

The ideal use of the pool may be in the afternoons, giving the horse a break from the monotony of the track and allowing him to stretch his limbs in a cool setting.

EDIT: 2 readers alerted me to an Aussie trainer atop the Hong Kong standings named John Size who swims his twice a day, once after morning work, again in the afternoon before a long walk, and even swims on raceday mornings…here’s Mr. Size’s bio:

http://www.hkjc.com/english/racing/trainerprofile.asp?trainercode=SJJ

EDIT2: Magnificent tool in place at the barn of Niall Brennan in Ocala: an aquacizer that only fills up the water to just below the shoulder – allowing for walking/jogging in cold water and achieving heart rates well within the aerobic zone of intensity:

http://niallbrennan.com/images/niallbrennan.com/default.aspx?contentName=aquaciser&gallery=1&galleryID=119

Here’s a cool behind-the-scenes view of Manor House Stables in England; a successful barn marrying both the art and science behind thoroughbred conditioning. Watch it – then read below. The stuff germane to this blog runs from roughly the 8:30 through 13:00 minute mark, but it’s all quite fascinating. Kudos to staff equine exercise physiologist George Wilson who is captured installing the HR/GPS gear at the barn as well as later analyzing the data on his laptop.

Jointly owned by ex-soccer star Michael Owen and Betfair founder Andrew Black – it’s obvious that both analytical business sense as well as modern conditioning methods contribute to this stable’s success. Hats off to trainer Tom Dascombe, as we see just how he must juggle so many competing interests in making the tough decisions concerning who to race/where to race/when to race.

Feeling legs for heat is a perfect example of the intersection of horsemanship and technology. All horsemen know that heat in a foot or ankle is a bad sign; but where do you suppose this heat comes from? It’s the body’s response to repairing damage – by forcing blood into the affected regions. Obviously this blood comes from the heart, but what many don’t realize is that the heart doesn’t simply produce more blood per beat in this scenario, it beats faster – and that is measurable via quite simple means.

All vets know that a horse with a common resting heart rate of 31bpm that suddenly shows a number of 35bpm one morning is exhibiting an early sign of stress. But that data is nearly impossible to get as once the horse sees you coming with any device, his HR begins to rise.  It also rises when he wakes up, is ready to eat, gets tacked up to gallop, etc. Too confusing, too many variables at play in order for us to acquire actionable intelligence.

So we look at exercise instead, where the resting HR values are multiplied by 6X or more. It’s the same here as in the stall – more blood than usual is a bad thing. While your horse may not show heat in his legs in the morning while standing in a stall; he may now show extra heat (blood) at a gallop – and that is crucially important to know. Likewise, he may use less blood (heat) to accomplish a piece of work – and that is a good thing.

For a practical applied view, let’s take a 3yo making his first few starts, the following example comes from real-life here in the states – but I must respect my client’s anonymity, so we’ll use no names of horses, trainers, owners, or specific races in the 2011 season.

This colt has promise, and impeccable breeding. After a few minor problems at 2, he’s brought along with extreme patience and makes his first starts in the spring of his 3yo season. A good effort out of the box in a MSW is followed up by a strong in the money finish in a non graded stake despite a less than optimal trip.

What next? A common saying is ‘you gotta run them against tougher to see what you have at some point, may as well be now’. That’s 1930′s talk folks, but this is the 21^st century. Measurements of how he gallops and breezes, objectively, tell you what you have under the hood, here’s how.

My role is to simply gather data in this case, and report my findings to the connections, making suggestions as to how far/how fast/how frequently to gallop – as well as what class of athletic ability is being demonstrated in the morning workout sessions.

So we have the 3yo in question coming off the first few races in his career. His HR/GPS data from training sessions are beginning to form what I call his ‘metabolic signature’ – and this is becoming quite valuable in making racing decisions.

In this case, our colt was galloping at a 2:17 min/mile pace with a HR of 200bpm (which was 85% of his maximum value) prior to his first MSW victory. After a game effort during a race that was quite a step up in class next time out – his V200 value has improved from a 2:17 pace to a 2:07 pace – indicating possession of stakes level stamina, but certainly not that of the graded stakes variety just yet – he’s certainly on the improve, but caution must be exercised for his next ‘test’.

However, traditional horsemanship dictates otherwise, and he’s sent to post in a big 3yo race against seasoned competitors – where after contesting through the first half mile…he fades to a 30+ length defeat.  It’s been many months since and he has yet to find the winner’s circle while now toiling back in the allowance ranks.

Here again we see how science and technology can impact the art of horsemanship. In the above clip it’s quite evident how important it is to keep horses happy and confident. When you put one in against much better competition to gauge precisely what you have – you run the risk of ruining this carefully cultivated mindset of confidence, and many will never be the same again psychologically, not to mention physically.

You had no other option but to make an educated guess over the past 70 years, but today you do – if you take advantage of it. Coolmore leads the way in Ireland, as does Manor House in England, but who will step up in the US?

P.S. The entire Equidia documentary of Manor House can be found here in 4 parts:

http://www.manorhousestables.com/videotour.html

‘Conformation is the blending of the various body parts, and how well they fit together visually and physically to create a running machine.’ - http://www.horsehats.com/Conformation.html

As the image above indicates; conformation can be further defined by various subjective opinions of the head, neck, shoulder, hip, legs, feet, walk, etc. More modern work has focused on equine biomechanics – or objective measures of many of these same factors. Gait analysis of 2yo in training quantifies this further by putting the horse in motion.

Horsemen hone these observational skills concerning what makes a runner over decades watching horses race, exercise, stand in their stalls, and parade around various auction rings worldwide.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE INSIDE?

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 is to educate the thoroughbred world about the importance of internal conformation – how the equine lungs, heart, spleen, blood chemistry, enzymes, muscles, capillaries, mitochondria, etc. act in unison to define ‘class’ and athletic performance. You can’t see this stuff, and it doesn’t mean anything while a horse merely stands or walks – but put ‘em at a gallop and the resulting numbers tell much of the story.

I could stop here and go into detail about each of the aspects of internal conformation, but that misses the entire point – it’s not the heart, or lungs, or biomechanics, per se that define athleticism – it is the inter-related function of ALL systems during exercise that provides the most valuable insights.

We are no longer predicting potential based on pedigree or external opinions, we are measuring actual performance objectively through data analysis of workload vs intensity of metabolic effort.  Just as any horseman can tell you the potential equine version of Michael Jordan from observing the chassis, when you look under the hood during exercise – one can gauge just how accurate that assessment is.

EXTERNAL VS INTERNAL HORSEMANSHIP

In writing this blog about conditioning, I am routinely told ‘all horses are treated as individuals’ when it comes to training, and I have no doubt this is partially true. Trainers observe their charges each morning, feel legs for heat, check out the feed tub, and decide whether or not a particular horse will walk, jog, gallop, or breeze on any given day.  That is traditional horsemanship, it is external in nature and highly subjective – no numbers are present, only judgments.

Internal horsemanship accomplishes much of the same, but with one major difference: once the decision is made as to the type of exercise to undertake, internal horsemanship tells you precisely how far and how fast to go. If the last breeze was 4F in :51 and the 2min heart rate recovery was 115bpm – this time you can go either further or faster. Similarly, if the last gallop was a mile in 2:30 and the blood lactate level was 2.7 – this time you can go in 2:20 to the mile, or stretch out the 2:30 pace by an extra half mile and be assured you are giving him exactly what he needs to get better, and no more.

Remember, humans have opinions – but horses have the facts, and HALF of those facts are on the inside –  a valuable source of feedback that can be objectively turned into a set of numbers to guide you towards optimal conditioning – maximizing fitness while minimizing injury.

Finally, please consider:

Horses with crooked legs can win races, so can horses with other conformational defects – hell one of my all-time favorites, Assault, was known as the ‘club-footed comet’, showing us that even the old saying ‘no foot, no horse’ isn’t always true as he galloped his way into the Triple Crown record books.

But, no horse with a maximal heart rate of 197bpm can ever win a race, nor can a horse who travels just 7 feet every time his heart beats during a gallop. Likewise, if you are a 22yo human standing 6’2 at 180lbs you may look like an athlete, but if your vertical jump is measured at just 17 inches – you are not going to be able to dunk a basketball.

Horses don’t have to catch, throw, or shoot any ball – they just have to run.

As much as the greats in our sport have been romanticized over the years, it’s not magic folks – these standouts have superior internal conformation that allows them to accomplish great workloads with lesser effort (a large heart is only one aspect) – and these characteristics are largely invisible to even the best horseman.

Now you have two horses with identical physiological underpinnings hook up in the stretch eyeball to eyeball, and one outfights the other, that is magic and well worthy of our respect and awe. Some things are indeed, indefinable – but that is the vast minority of cases.

Have you ever been to Siena Farm in Paris, KY? You must go just to see the above sculpture, surely one of the world’s best works.

Today happens to open a telling window into the 2 wildly divergent preparations trainers take in order to get a runner to his/her first race. Race 3 at both Santa Anita and Gulfstream is a MSW worth approx. $50k, with SA sending 9 starters to compete over 6F, and a field of 8 racing 6.5F in Florida. That is where the similarities end, and quite abruptly I might add:

Number of horses with 6F works on the tab:
-8 of 9 at Santa Anita
-1 of 8 at Gulfstream

Total number of works 6F or longer in the field:
-21 at Santa Anita
-1 at Gulfstream

Avg. number of works at the race distance per starter:
-2.3 at Santa Anita
-0.13 at Gulfstream

To summarize, the average entry into a 6F MSW out West has 2-3 similar works under his belt, while 7 of the 8 starters in the East have zero such efforts.

For simplicity’s sake we can pin the SA approach to Bob Baffert, and the GP routine to Todd Pletcher. Earlier in the year we examined this matchup in greater depth here, where we highlighted the different approach to getting both The Factor and Uncle Mo back to the track after a layoff:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/baffert-vs-pletcher-head-to-head/

In retrospect, both The Factor and Uncle Mo were obliterated at the Breeder’s Cup in November. The link above states that Baffert performs better when volume is taken out of the equation – earning over $27k per start compared to Pletcher’s $17k and change.

Both trainers coming into BC2011 had 7 previous winners on the big weekend of racing, but Baffert accomplished this feat with 20 less starts than did Pletcher.

But this older post dealt with mostly older, more seasoned horses, today we are looking at maidens, and many first time starters. So, back to the subject: Why do West Coast trainers as a group work MSW stock 6F or more 21 times while East Coasters only do so once?

It’s well known the track at SA is rather hard, and the GP strip is fairly tiring – but those who train at each location must also race over the same surface, so it’s tough to buy that as an excuse.

Secondly, the common argument is ‘some horses take to more work than others’ – but that, too, fails to hold water as nearly all CA horses are sent the full race distance in this case, yet only one FL horse does so. Surely no one can claim that West Coast horses ALL require/thrive on more speed work?

Most likely it’s the copycat syndrome at work here. Trainers at each location copy what they see coming from the best – which results in horses going longer at SA where Baffert is king, and shorter at GP where Pletcher is the role model.

However, when it comes to results on the racing world’s biggest stage, the Baffert approach reins supreme as evidenced by both his Triple Crown and Breeders Cup records. Every young trainer today can choose which approach to emulate. But, why stop there? Why not consider some of the sport’s Hall of Famers from around the globe…

Anyone here remember the great TJ Smith in Australia? He took the Baffert approach to extremes with his ‘bone and muscle’ method of conditioning. Smith would put speedwork into his youngsters 3x a week – inducing nearly all of them to go off their feed.

What then? Lay off? Hell no – push forward with more training.

Those that got back into the feed tub continued on to help Mr. Smith win 33 consecutive Sydney training titles! Those who stayed off feed were sent away, as he felt it was best to find out early which had the talent to succeed. Interestingly enough, Smith seems to be one of the first to include a healthy dose of protein in his feeding program. Surely more to investigate there, but that is many steps above my pay grade.

I doubt many commercial US trainers looking to attract new owners can follow the model of TJ Smith, as no one wants to be known on the backside as the guy, or gal, who purposely conditions stock to the point where they lose appetites.

My new book will show you how to objectively determine if your horse needs the Baffert or the Pletcher approach, so stay tuned. Please see my last post on how to secure your complimentary advance .pdf copy.

One working title is ‘Internal Horsemanship – Reading the inside signals of your horse in order to gain optimal fitness.’
Traditional horsemanship is really ‘external’ in nature as one is reading the outside signs of horse health and behavior, striving to determine if one should walk, jog, gallop, or breeze on any given day. These opinions are subjective in nature, and quite valuable.

However, once that is decided, ‘internal’ horsemanship takes over and dictates precisely how far, how fast, and how frequently exercise sessions should be structured in order to maximally benefit the individual. That reminds me, I gotta stop posting and start writing this damn thing.

Happy New Year!-

As a big fan of geography, I always find these things interesting. Above is a snapshot taken this morning of web traffic to this blog in the overnight hours of December 21st. Volume is quite low given the holiday season, but here are all of the countries represented in that roughly 8 hour window:

United States
France
Serbia
Israel
South Korea
Malaysia
Australia
New Zealand

Pretty cool. At one point earlier this year I had counted over 25 countries sending traffic to this small blog concerning the physiology of thoroughbred conditioning. Overall, I would say the largest single country outside of the US is Australia – where I hear they have hundreds of racetracks. Seems that horse racing to Aussies is like baseball or football in the US?

Lastly, here is an electronic gift to all readers. Over the next few weeks I will complete my first book:

Is Your Horse F.I.T.?
Your Thoroughbred Conditions Himself with Feedback Induced Training

Let’s get this straight from the get-go: The Horse is the Boss.

FIT stands for Feedback Induced Training, where internal responses to exercise are gathered before/during/after exercise sessions and later analyzed to determine the 3 F’s: how Fast, how Far, and how Frequently each horse is telling you he needs to go in order to improve with the smallest chance of injury.

Traditional horsemanship entails observing the outer signals (behavior, coat, eyes, ears, etc.) when making training decisions; what I aim to do is teach horsemen how to collect and analyze the inner signs (both good and bad) of a horse in training. Most all feedback gathered from a horse in the traditional manner is subjective and qualitative; an expert opinion, in other words. However, the internal feedback gathered during exercise is both objective and quantitative, a series of numbers.  What FIT gives you is a measure of actual fitness, and therefore the best opportunity to improve it.

Tentative chapters:

1. ‘THE $3 MILLION DOLLAR BOOK’
2. F.I.T. – FEEDBACK INDUCED TRAINING
3. HRV – THE SAFETY NET AGAINST OVERTRAINING
4. SUPERCOMPENSATION – THE KEY TO OPTIMAL CONDITIONING
5. THE HORSE IS THE BOSS – INDIVIDUALIZATION
6. 6 PRINCIPLES OF EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY
7. HOW HORSES DIFFER FROM HUMANS
8. DIET – FEEDING THE F.I.T HORSE
9. HORSEMANSHIP AND FITness
10. SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HORSE RACING
11. STEP ONE: SELECTION OF AN ACTUAL ATHLETE
12. NIAGARA EQUISSAGE, STORM, AND PHOTOBIOSTIMULATION
13. IF YOU LOSE LASIX
14. ON AVOIDING BUCKED SHINS
15. GALLOPS OVER DIRT VS SYNTHETIC
16. THOROUGHBRED INTERVAL TRAINING IS NOT HUMAN INTERVAL TRAINING
17. NEUROMUSCULAR COORDINATION IS ALWAYS OVERLOOKED
18. THE PRE-RACE BLOWOUT IS A NECESSITY FOR SOUND HORSES
19. STAMINA – THE MYTH OF THE 2 MINUTE LICK
20. 21^ST CENTURY BLOODWORK
21. A NEW TRAINER’S DIARY REGARDING PROGRESSIVE CONDITIONING
22. THOROUGHBRED ‘MONEYBALL’
23. PEDIGREE IS MERELY POTENTIAL, YOU CAN MEASURE ACTUAL ABILITY
24. RECOMMENED READING
25. APPENDIX A – GUIDE TO GRAPHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

–

Perhaps half of the material is found somewhere on this blog over the past 36 months, but there will be much original, practical, applied info and several HR/GPS charts from horses around the world – including a multiple Group One winner training at Newmarket, England.

Please leave a comment below if you would like to receive an advance .pdf copy in January. I’ll see your email address on this end, but other commenters will not.  You must leave your comment before Dec. 31st at midnight to qualify for the freebie and you can expect the book in late January, should be close to 250 pages.

Thanks to all for the support, and here’s wishing you a prosperous 2012!

Wild by Nature got whipped in this race after a stumbling start, but that is not the object of this post. 106 horses ran under Lasix today at Gulfstream and 80% of them were disappointing as well. The point here is what does Mr. Jerkens do in order to compete without the drug?

On the PP sheet above we see the following workout pattern for Wild by Nature:

Dec. 4 – race 8+F
Nov. 30 – breeze 5F/1:00
Nov. 24 – breeze 7F/1:27
Nov. 20 – breeze 5F/1:03 over off track
Nov. 15 – breeze 4F/:49
Prior works and 1 race at Belmont

Now I don’t have access to this horse or trainer, but this blog is certainly a fan of breezing 85% of the race distance, working more frequently than the typical once every 6 days, and the mixing of short/fast moves with longer/slower breezes.

Last week we talked about this approach in getting horses to the races without the use of Lasix, and here Mr. Jerkens continues to practice what he preaches well into his 80s:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/eiph-if-youre-not-breezing-youre-bleeding/

While I certainly applaud Mr. Jerkens sticking to his guns and racing this 2yo without Lasix until he proves he needs it, I realize that he is competing at an extreme disadvantage – likely spotting the rest of the field 20+ pounds of fluid.

To summarize: primarily to bleed or not to bleed is up to the pulmonary capillaries of the individual horse, but human intervention, as proven by Mr. Jerkens, can aid the process significantly. It’s not racing that makes ‘em bleed, it’s not training that makes ‘em bleed – it’s the DIFFERENCE in intensity between the 2 tasks that is the culprit.

Put another way, if you can breeze 7F and scope clean, you are more likely to race 8F and scope clean as well.
The same cannot be said for entering that 8F race off of a series of ‘clean’ 4F works.

Alas, true horsemanship in this manner will not be around much longer as the Mr. Jerkens of the world are slowly receding into history.

What a mess: we are breeding for speed – but not getting it, and simultaneously our horses are getting injured more often while running route races in times similar to those of the 1940s. Unlike the Leonardo da Vinci quote above – some of us are indeed saying something about it.

Dick Jerardi recently wrote about the lower Beyer figures for BC Classic winners these days here:

http://www.drf.com/news/jerardi-top-beyer-figures-thing-past

But, I beat him to the punch just over a year ago when comparing raw winning times in American classics over the past 7 decades:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/triple-crown-times-have-not-improved-in-70-years-why/

OK, so we’re not appreciably faster despite 70 years of selective breeding of ‘the best to the best’. With an average foal crop in that time span of 15k or so, that gives us 1 million chances at breeding a faster racehorse.

Back in the 1980s we even decided to help this process along a bit, by legalizing raceday Lasix and Bute in an effort to humanely allow these animals to reach their full potential on the track. Certainly if our horses are no faster – and now benefit from these veterinary treatments during competition – we at least should be seeing fewer fatalities, right? Wrong:

Thoroughbred fatality rates per 1,000 starters:

US – 1992 – 1.6 (http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/aaep/1997/Mundy.pdf)
US – 2010 – 2.0 (dirt = 2.14, turf = 1.74, synthetic = 1.55) according to the Jockey Club

Back in ’92 there was no Polytrack or Tapeta to ‘cushion’ the stats either, or they would be even lower and the current negative trend would be more pronounced.

How about the pace scenario in route races like the Kentucky Derby?

Perhaps our horses are faster through the first few panels these days, and that ends up hurting the final winning times? Not according to Derek Simon at the TwinSpires blog:

http://blog.twinspires.com/2011/03/no-early-speed-no-triple-crown.html

Lasix and 1992:

According to the Jockey Club, 1992 was the first year where more than 50% of US racers were administered Lasix. That year the breakdown rate, as noted above, was 20% lower than today’s number where 95% of starters get the drug, and remember, also generally running slower in the process.

Perhaps off topic, perhaps not – this week former WinStar Farm co-owner Bill Casner enlightened us on the objectively measured post-race/recovery effects of Lasix in his string of runners:

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/national-news/2011/12/06/casner-weighs-the-consequences-of-salix.aspx

My Admittedly Biased Solution:

Condition your horses like the old timers, plain and simple, but do so with an eye towards science and modern technology in order to ‘stack the deck’ in your favor as much as possible.

When one breeds for speed, what one is trying to get is a horse capable of producing a greater force against the ground when sprinting – that is what pure top-end speed boils down to. One manner in which a horse can do so is to possess lighter bone structures in his lower leg, as it gives him less of a weight to swing through his stride cycle.

So if you have a precocious 2 year old who is blazing fast and possesses a certain amount of stamina up to 8F you have two opposites at work: outstanding musculature capable of exerting massive amounts of force on the ground, AND thinner/lighter than average bones in the lower leg that are more prone to injury; both skeletally as well as to the supporting soft tissue systems.

You have to address this problem through progressive conditioning protocols, the polar opposite of never breezing further than 5F once a week. Don’t listen to me, I could very well be an idiot, but listen to the Hall of Famers who were able to race the champions of yesteryear:

Allen Jerkens:
“Horses worked a lot harder in those days, the strain on them in the race wasn’t as much as the strain is on them now. They trained almost as hard in the morning as they did when they ran. The best horses would often work the full distance of an upcoming race five or six days before, breeze a half-mile two days out, and maybe even an eighth of a mile the morning of the race.”

Billy Turner:
“A good horse needs a lot of training. Not only can they take it, they want it, and you’re not doing them any favors if you don’t give them the chance to develop their ability.”

Trainers today universally espouse the ‘less is more’ philosophy, but the speed data and injury rates cited above actually seem to confirm the opposite, that ‘less’ is actually ‘less’ – especially when it comes to producing strong racing bone in fast, sound horses.

Allen Jerkens pointed to a fitter, sturdier animal as another reason why bleeding was considered atypical in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He said none of his good horses were bleeders.

“Horses worked a lot harder in those days,” he said. “The strain on them in the race wasn’t as much as the strain is on them now. They trained almost as hard in the morning as they did when they ran.”

The best horses would often work the full distance of an upcoming race five or six days before, breeze a half-mile two days out, and maybe even an eighth of a mile the morning of the race. As but one example, three days before Assault finished off the Triple Crown, Max Hirsch sent the colt out for a 12-furlong breeze in 2:32 at Belmont.

-above from yesterday’s DRF article: http://www.drf.com/news/lasix-demystifying-drug-methods-training-without-it

Why do some horses bleed enough to negatively impact performance, while others do not?

We’ve been down this road many times on this blog, but the recent attention paid to the future of Lasix in US racing begs us to take a more detailed look at the role of conditioning and its effects on bleeding/EIPH. One point of this post is that every drug in the history of the world has negative side effects, some that take years to be discovered. Lasix is no exception. Drugs are shortcuts, meant to make things easier on the trainer and owner, often at the expense of the horse itself.

Look at this image above of a horse’s lungs; on your left is the cut-away view where you can begin to see the branching off of networks of blood vessels. After dozens of successive divisions, these vessels become smaller and smaller, eventually ending in air sacs called alveoli. Covering each air sac is a tiny network of blood vessels called capillaries. How thin is the skin of an air sac? About 1% of the thickness of a human hair – that is all that separates the air sacs of the lungs from the blood found in the capillaries. No wonder this membrane breaks under pressure!

If we take all the alveoli in a horse and spread them out we end up with a surface area equal to that of about 10 tennis courts – all this space is where the actual movement of oxygen from the lungs finds its way into the bloodstream. The number of capillaries surrounding these ’10 tennis courts of air sacs’ is believe to be around….300 billion, wow.

Back to conditioning, exercise, and its role in EIPH. Even at a walk, trot, or slow canter some capillaries are bursting. When the lungs are being buffeted by the other internal organs during a gallop even more pulmonary capillaries are exploding with each step. This is inevitable and is the basis for the statement; ‘all horses bleed’. Lasix lessens, but does not prevent, this occurrence. And this ‘lessening’ is vitally important, but also achievable by a logically progressing dose of exercise at speed – as we will soon see.

Think of these alveoli, or air sacs, as balloons coated in a network of blood-filled capillaries. Remember, these balloons are going to burst even at a jog or slow gallop, probably even moreso over a hard dirt surface as compared to synthetics or turf. The key question becomes: How do I manage training to avoid ‘popping’ a significant number of these balloons at any one time – resulting in a bleeding episode significant enough to hamper performance?

Well, the solution is most certainly not to breeze a 2yo up to 4F from a rolling start and then throw him in the gate for a maiden effort at 6F+. At the start of this 2yo’s conditioning regimen, everything is actually perfect. Many of the FL breakers of these juveniles follow a sensible, scientific method of progressive overload meant to avoid bucked shins and grow strong bone as detailed here:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/the-ideal-2-year-old-training-program/

Again, perfect! In order to avoid shin soreness due to a sudden increase in the training load; breezes start at perhaps 1F/:17 and systematically progresses to 4F/:50. An unintended side effect is that you also get optimal development of soft tissues such as ligaments and tendons. Notice that the proven frequency needed to progressively grow dense ‘racing’ bone is a bout of speed every 5 days or less, any longer and you lose the cumulative effects of the exercise. Unfortunately, burst capillaries due to EIPH do NOT regenerate themselves as does bone, that would make our job so much easier.

Many top thoroughbreds are getting Lasix at this point as a preventative measure, but it’s not necessary for most due to the gradual increase of the exercise load at speed. Keep in mind this is a key time for skeletal development, and 25+ Lasix shots accompanied by the associated leaching of calcium (a crucial bone builder) is probably not wise. Here is where the shortcut to avoid problems in one physiological system exerts negative effects on another as US turf runners breakdown 3x more often than those in Australia:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/its-not-the-surface-stupid-us-turf-runners-300-more-likely-to-breakdown/

If you choose not to believe the use of Lasix contributes to US horses being the most fragile worldwide, that is your right – but you are also then of the belief that Lasix/Salix is the only drug in the history of the world to produce no negative side effects. C’mon you are most likely a bettor, what are the odds of this? 2,000-1?

Sure, possibly millions of alveoli/air sacs/balloons are bursting during each breeze session, but never a billion at one time are exploding and causing a Grade 4 episode:

Grades of EIPH (Photos courtesy of Dr. Ken Hinchcliff, DVM):

Grade 0 – no bleeding visible during scope – fantastic

Grade 1 - flecks of blood, or single stream found in trachea – stinks, but even humans can bleed this much, performance unaffected

Grade 2 - multiple streams of blood, but covering less than 1/3 of tracheal surface – the dividing line – some horses impacted, others not so much

Grade 3 - multiple streams of blood covering over 1/3 of tracheal surface – probably no fun for a racing horse at all as performance is being negatively impacted

Grade 4 - blood everywhere, a virtual slaughterhouse – performance definitely compromised, nasal bleeding evident in many instances

Even under the liberal use of Lasix, Grade 1-2 bleeds will be common. What we hope to avoid is the Grade 3-4 episodes, and nearly every horse conditioned to breeze 4F in :50 from a rolling start now expected to race 6F in 1:10 from a gaited start is going to bleed significantly, likely suffering from the first significant lung bleeds in his/her young life.

Move ahead to the 3yo campaign: classic contenders are now racing 8-9F, but still mostly breezing 4-5F in training. That was emphatically not the case in the days of Allen Jerkens, Max Hirsch, Assault, and pretty much every other Triple Crown winner in American history.

So, if a trainer is scoping a horse after every breeze and race, that is a good thing, but one must act on that intelligence in a practical manner.

When you are breezing 4F without Lasix and getting Grade 0 or 1 bleeding episodes – move to 5F when all other systems say ‘go’. You will possibly see a Grade 2 episode, followed by Grade 1’s and 0’s…..now work 6F and begin the process again.

On the flip side, if you continue to breeze only 4-5 panels and race 6-8+, expect multiple Grade 3’s, and get that syringe ready.

Hell, in the time it would have taken a vet to research and write this post this morning, he could have given 20 Lasix shots at $12ea on the backside for a trainer’s breeze day. I can’t blame him, medical intervention to solve problems is the basis of their education/training and now their manner of making a living – but you wouldn’t ask your cardiologist to train your son for a 400m race, would you?

In summary, all horses bleed, and if we are going to race them, they are going to bleed more. Yes, controlling these episodes is necessary and humane, but Lasix is a shortcut that most likely diminishes proper skeletal development at its most crucial stages – and the same effects can be achieved through the conditioning protocol of the old timers.

P.S. Want to see this concept in action (minus the repeated scoping)? Check out a 22yo vet student and his training diary:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/a-new-trainers-diary-regarding-scientific-conditioning/