So much for horses needing 4 to 5 weeks rest
 

So now we've had Corinthian win on 3 weeks rest, Einstein win on 2 weeks rest, and Miss Shop win on 1 week rest. Guess we can toss all that BS the trainers are spewing about not being able to bring back stakes horses without at least 5 weeks in between. I don't ever want to hear 4 weeks referred to as short rest again.

I was having this very discussion with Zito a little earlier today and the conversation got around to Jerkens. Nick predicted he would run 1-2 in today's race.

Pretty close.

Any excuse to name drop. LOL

You know me.

In Australia and England they run them every weekend or 14 days when they are on a campaign.

But don't be talking about that in America, those foreign trainers are just wrong.....

Makybe Diva won the Cox Plate at 1 1/4 miles and the Melbourne Cup at 2 miles 9 days apart when she was 7 years old.

I wish these owners and trainers of million dollar horses could agree to run their horses more often. Like the way it used to be. To me horses (at least on the high-end stakes level) are like Major League pitchers.

Eventhough they run less and less frequently, they still get hurt and come down with injuries... and subsequently get retired. Pitchers run on 5 days reast, and rotations are bigger so they don't have to throw as much... and yet pitchers still have the same arm problems.

So does the amount of rest ultimately help them, or does it work inversely? Maybe since horses don't run enough and pitchers don't pitch enough, they don't build up the proper endurance to get through these injuries??? Agree? Disagree? Apples and Oranges Cajun?

I think the attitude needs to change from "my horse can't lose if he doesn't race" to "my horse can't win if he doesn't race".

horses can race into condition instead of popping off 12 .48 second works before a start.

bullshit is what it is

True, but they also seem to get time off back at the farm. Here everyone wants to seem to race year-round.

How many US horses in training get to leave the track (if not injured) and get let down, then get brought back into training the next year?

Time in the paddock is invaluable to a race horse in my opinion. I completely agree.

Plenty do but it doesn't effect the way they are campaigned when they do come back. Actually the horses that stay in training tend to be the ones raced more frequently even when the horses that had their vacation come back.

I suspect it is because most vacations are taken out of necessity (injury), not just letting the horse down.

How often does he run back on short rest? Not very, correct?

Also, what's the deal with Sun King?

No, I'm thinking of stakes horses the past couple years that have been given a break all winter. Most of the top stakes horses that don't go to Dubai wait until May or June to comeback. Then they wind up making four or five starts the rest of the year if they are lucky. The horses that stay in training that stay healthy wind up racing more than 4 or 5 times from May on despite never getting a vacation. In the case of Sun King I highly doubt he will race anymore between May and October than he did last year despite getting the winter off this year and staying in training last year.

His horses run.

As far as Sun King.....I haven't mentioned him in over six weeks. Trainers work too hard for me to bother them about their horses.

Think it is more of a matter of "work" them up to a race, rather than race them into shape in the US?

Tell Maxine and Carlos that I said Hi...

I'm not in Florida. I only see Carlos in NY these days.

Every single study I've ever done shows that the sooner a horse comes back off of a good performance, the better they perform. This whole bounce thing is a bit perplexing, and usually just gives trainers another excuse they didn't previously have at their disposal. It seems to have replaced my personal favorite, "the track was cuppy".

Weight for time off races
 

Why don't they have races that are handicapped for time off. For example, if you run 7-14 days since your last race you get 10 pounds off, 14 -21 days - zero, 21-48 add 10 pounds, 48-96 - add 20 pounds etc.??