Circular Quay

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

I can't figure out why he ran her 7 furlongs first-time out. She has a lot of speed. That's not the kind of horse that you would normally run that disatnce. I don't know why he didn't run her 5 1/2 furlongs.

Rupert, I never get on a guy for losing with a firster, no matter who he or she is.
Albertrani learned a lot from Mott. Although Mott has been much better with 1sters the last 3 years or so, he still doesnt pound on em. I assume Albertrani incorporates what he learned from Mott in his training. It sure didn't seem to hurt Bernadini to lose his debut. A lot trainers like to have a horse fit enough to run its debut and get something out of it, but not cranked up so much that it has to win.
I think its a pretty good way to start em out personally. Perhaps he thinks the horse has enough quality to be really good going longer and wanted to put foundation into the horse to do that. Those really short sprints at 5 1/2 often have blistering paces and I'm not real sure that horses always get a lot out of battling a wicked pace or chasing one.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by oracle80

Rupert, I never get on a guy for losing with a firster, no matter who he or she is.
Albertrani learned a lot from Mott. Although Mott has been much better with 1sters the last 3 years or so, he still doesnt pound on em. I assume Albertrani incorporates what he learned from Mott in his training. It sure didn't seem to hurt Bernadini to lose his debut. A lot trainers like to have a horse fit enough to run its debut and get something out of it, but not cranked up so much that it has to win.
I think its a pretty good way to start em out personally. Perhaps he thinks the horse has enough quality to be really good going longer and wanted to put foundation into the horse to do that. Those really short sprints at 5 1/2 often have blistering paces and I'm not real sure that horses always get a lot out of battling a wicked pace or chasing one.

I think you're probably right. He probably wanted to teach the filly the right way to run. A horse doesn't learn much by getting gunned in a 5 furlong race.

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

I think you're probably right. He probably wanted to teach the filly the right way to run. A horse doesn't learn much by getting gunned in a 5 furlong race.

I agree. You can't really teach a horse much in a race less than 6f. Its not the distance they are running, its the pace they are running at. At 6f or longer they don't all come out screaming and whipping and hustling. Pace is more realistic and more like what they will face the rest of their careers in races. Those short ones usually produce crazy paces and everyone has to scream and push hard just to keep up. And if you use one that short as a prep race, the problem is that they can be beaten 20 lengths and come out of the race with a negative view on racing, discouraged by the race.
A trainer i respect who has won hsi share of huge races told me that horses always remember the first race they ever run on the track more than any other. He said if they have a bad experience in their first race that they often never like racing or that it takes a long time to get them to like it.
Chasing or setting a wicked pace and getting beat a bunch of lengths probably isn't a whole lot of fun.
He also said if they learn early that they are supposed to gun themselves as soon as the gate opens that its very hard to correct that as well.