Poly Prepping

[Bobby Fischer]

its a unique situation for each horse.

Street Sense could have prepped anywhere. It was just a matter of not being too muddy, Pletcher not smashing him with cowtown cat at the break, and then not getting cut off or sent 10 wide on his late run. - No advantage


Hard Spun - he has some major turf in his pedigree and the lanesEnd set up like a dream prep. His action was nice over the polytrack and he flys over it. The race was cheap enough for him to dominate, but fast enough early to properly prepare him. It was a good spot after the southwest, and it didn't hurt that he loved the surface and could concentrate on simply re-establishing his form.

Sedgefield - He never ran on dirt so it was either turf or synthetic , and his last race prior to the derby was turf - no big deal.

Dominican - It helped me for him to run in the bluegrass because it gave the illusion that he could get 10 furlongs.

Zanjero - not a big deal he closes anyway

Great Hunter - possibly hurt him, because he got taken out of the action part of the race and didn't get anything from the prep.

Tueflesberg - should have helped general form because he Prado did so well to rate in the bluegrass , but you need to be a contender first before you worry about little details

[Danzig]

perhaps the good ones can run over either or....but unlike hard spun, does street sense actually have a win over poly?

the danzig line only strengthened, a tri-surface sire! hard spun will be worth his weight in gold.

[PeteMugg]

Or maybe two quality horses managed to find the short way around in a race that was adding distance. Love to see a trackus on this one.

[King Glorious]

I've always said that if I had a horse pointing to the BC Classic, I would make his final prep be in one of the 8f grass races like the Oak Tree Mile, Shadwell, or Kelso. Those kinds of races are run strongly enough to help your horse get the conditioning he needs. Take some edge off, get some conditioning, and more importantly, it's more forgiving than running in one of those traditional dirt preps. Poly isn't grass but it seems that they play similar.

[Kasept]

Note the difference in Hard Spun's work at KEE.. 1 mile.. not 4 or 5f.. Larry Jones said that work was important because he needed the colt to get something out of it with what was going to be a 6 week break between Turfway and Churchill. He said Saturday night that Hard Spun came out of that work 'blowing pretty good for 15 minutes', and that he knew he had gotten what he wanted.. He then sharpened Hard Spun's speed with the :57.3 blowout over the race surface.

There will certainly be future Derby winners that make the Lane's End and/or Blue Grass their final preps and work up to the race at KEE. But that winner will have been trained with the adjustments required to reach and maintain the appropriate fitness level required to perform to maximum capacity in the Derby, each horse's first attempt at 10f... (Something the guy with 5 horses fails to comprehend.)

[paisjpq]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Note the difference in Hard Spun's work at KEE.. 1 mile.. not 4 or 5f.. Larry Jones said that work was important because he needed the colt to get something out of it with what was going to be a 6 week break between Turfway and Churchill. He said Saturday night that Hard Spun came out of that work 'blowing pretty good for 15 minutes', and that he knew he had gotten what he wanted.. He then sharpened Hard Spun's speed with the :57.3 blowout over the race surface.

There will certainly be future Derby winners that make the Lane's End and/or Blue Grass their final preps and work up to the race at KEE. But that winner will have been trained with the adjustments required to reach and maintain the appropriate fitness level required to perform to maximum capacity in the Derby, each horse's first attempt at 10f... (Something the guy with 5 horses fails to comprehend.)

meaning that the guy knows that this particular horse needed to do more...be very careful making blanket statements based on the performance of ONE horse...


BTW, when did you get you trainer's liscense?

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by paisjpq

meaning that the guy knows that this particular horse needed to do more...be very careful making blanket statements based on the performance of ONE horse...

A lot easier to know a particular horse in your barn when he's one of 25-30.. A little harder when he's one of 386 at one of 11 shedrows across the country.

Originally Posted by paisjpq

BTW, when did you get you trainer's liscense?

Recently completed the University of Phoenix Online degree program.. I should have 250-300 head in no time.