American Pharoah's little sister, American Cleopatra makes her maiden debut

[rascalpony]

Me too. I hope Union Rags makes it as a stallion.

I was ogling him earlier today. He is a looker! Quite a racehorse too. I didn’t realize he was trained by Michael Matz. I was deep in a college finals haze when he won the Belmont.

I enjoyed this race. She seemed to have her head on decently straight for a horse in its first race. She’s definitely smaller and stockier than her brother - sometimes it looks like she has quite a short neck, and it throws me off. But shoot, if she’s even a quarter of the racehorse her brother was, she’ll be a good one. Time will tell.

[digihorse]

Brother has a short neck. It is more apparent now that he is a stallion… that it could use another 6" or so… IF one wanted to be vewy picky.

[beaujolais]

Regarding the picture that GT so helpfully posted - so the buckle sits, basically, at the bottom of the girth area? Thanks so very much. :yes:

I’m wondering if that is done up under the horse, as shown, or buckled more mid rib and slid to the bottom. Exactly underneath seems like a precarious place for the valet/trainer to be in with some tbs.

One more thing, valets usually do the saddling but the trainer can choose to?

One day I truly hope to get some practical experience, (!@#%^ back injury has so ruined my life).

As an interesting comparison, stb grooms do all the tacking and hooking up to the bike themselves, usually.

[Flying_Fox]

[QUOTE=vineyridge;8773039]
She’s right. But Tesio thought that exceptional race mares were more often than not busts in the shed. He thought they used up their vital energy (a now discredited theory of his day) racing before they got to breeding. I think exceptional race mares rarely are able to reproduce themselves, but it’s better than 50-50 that they will produce runners.[/QUOTE]

He believed that a horse’s racing ability was a direct
result of
inherited nervous energy, and that the energy pattern
follows a
cycle over several generations, rising to a peak, then
falling,
and then remaining dormant for a period before
beginning to rise
again. His studies convinced him that the decline
begins after
the generation. As a practical application of
this theory,
he purchased broodmares from bloodlines that he
believed were
ready to leave their dormant period and enter into a
new energy
cycle. Most were real bargains, selected for their
bloodlines rather than their beauty. Donna Lydia and the Marchesa tried to work out what Tesio would have done
but he had apparently never been very good at communicating his ideas, even
to his intimates. Regardless that the stud now had access to greater funds
than ever before [in part because of Ribot’s exploits on the track and later
at the stud], slowly the races won by these new stud products were less at
the Classic level, and increasingly just minor handicaps and local maiden
races.

[snaffle1987]

i still want to know where Bob sources his bridles from with the raised brow and nosebands. I have yet to figure it out…but I want one.

[gumtree]

[QUOTE=beaujolais;8776238]
Regarding the picture that GT so helpfully posted - so the buckle sits, basically, at the bottom of the girth area? Thanks so very much. :yes:

I’m wondering if that is done up under the horse, as shown, or buckled more mid rib and slid to the bottom. Exactly underneath seems like a precarious place for the valet/trainer to be in with some tbs.

One more thing, valets usually do the saddling but the trainer can choose to?

One day I truly hope to get some practical experience, (!@#%^ back injury has so ruined my life).

As an interesting comparison, stb grooms do all the tacking and hooking up to the bike themselves, usually.[/QUOTE]

It takes 2 people to put the saddle on. Usually the trainer and the jocks valet. There are 2 girths, the under and the over which are entirely made of elastic material similar to what is used on one end of a leather English girth.

The girths can stretch quite a bit but it takes quite a bit of pull/strength. Different trainers, jocks may use a slightly different “setup” under the saddle, a thin rubber nonslip pad, then the weight blanket, numbered saddle cloth and the under girth attached to the saddle. This is usually “stacked” by the valet before being placed on the horse.

How quick and easy things go from there depends on the horse. Once the saddle is in place one person holds in place. The other grabs the under girth, a girth channel, which is a made of a type of foam or rubber (if looking closely at the picture you can see the white edges) is placed on the under girth.

The girth is sort of pulled/stretched down up to the single billet and run up to the desired billet hole. Keeping the girth channel in place on a fractious horse takes a bit of practice. Because the under girth has to be pulled quite hard to get it to stretch is the reason the second person is needed to hold the saddle in place. Otherwise if tried alone the saddle would be pulled out of position end up on the side of the horse.

The over girth is then placed on top of the saddle with the ends hanging on either side. This part has to be choreographed/timed right between the two. Each person takes hold of an end, 1-2-3 pull straight down the tail is quickly inserted through the buckle and pulled to the desired hole. Checked for desired tightness and adjusted if needed. If the buckle is out of position it can be “spun” into position. The over girth goes right on top of the under girth. The tail is put threw the keepers and looped back towards the buckle as shown in the picture.

Everything is checked to make sure all is well and the horse if off to the races. All this is not as easy as it looks. Practice makes it look like it is. Those of us who have tacked up a racehorse watching from the sidelines and a horse on its toes is tacked easily can appreciate the talent of those doing it.

[Xctrygirl]

Having tacked many a racehorse I can tell you the above description is wonderful.

What you saw “flapping” was the excess length of the overgirth. The keepers used are not like bridle keepers. They just slip into slots on the girth. The overgirth tails come undone often. Not a big deal. The strength it takes to undo an overgirth is not minimal. Plus the length flapping would never be long enough to step on.

Below is an actual picture of an overgirth with the slots for the excess length.

Really not a concern.

Emily

https://ii.bigdweb.com/fcgi-bin/iipsrv.fcgi?FIF=/images/bigdweb/source/16213.tif&wid=1000=&cvt=jpeg

[Where_sMyWhite]

Yes, excellent description of the “dance” that you can often see on TV for the big races where the coverage includes the saddling paddock/stalls and walking ring.

Sometimes there you can really see how challenging it is when the horse is having none of that standing around.

I’ve also seen saddle adjustments behind the gate when the jock must not be happy with how something is setting.

I’ve often wondered when the horse is a late scratch and they pull the saddle, one of the ponies leads the horse to wherever it goes (barn, rail, ?). But, how does the jock get back if the gate is, say, on the backstretch. Does he have to walk with the saddle or is there a “ride” they can hitch with to get back to the front straight?

[beaujolais]

Thanks so very much Xctry & GT. Gumtree, I can’t thank you enough, again, for your time, energy, vast knowledge & willingness to help. You are an incredible writer, also. I don’t “know” you, but I am in awe!

“Because the under girth has to be pulled quite hard to get it to stretch is the reason the second person is needed to hold the saddle in place. Otherwise if tried alone the saddle would be pulled out of position end up on the side of the horse.”

Ah ha, that explains it. I never quite understood why the grooms aren’t the ones to tack up, but now I do.

“All this is not as easy as it looks.”

Gotcha.

[Where_sMyWhite]

American Cleopatra had a gate drill at Del Mar today. Being pointed to the Del Mar Debutante September 3.

[dressagetraks]

She got second! Big jump up in class from first race to a grade I. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her.

[Palm_Beach]

[QUOTE=Flying Fox;8777089]
He believed that a horse’s racing ability was a direct
result of
inherited nervous energy, and that the energy pattern
follows a
cycle over several generations, rising to a peak, then
falling,
and then remaining dormant for a period before
beginning to rise
again. His studies convinced him that the decline
begins after
the generation. As a practical application of
this theory,
he purchased broodmares from bloodlines that he
believed were
ready to leave their dormant period and enter into a
new energy
cycle. Most were real bargains, selected for their
bloodlines rather than their beauty. Donna Lydia and the Marchesa tried to work out what Tesio would have done
but he had apparently never been very good at communicating his ideas, even
to his intimates. Regardless that the stud now had access to greater funds
than ever before [in part because of Ribot’s exploits on the track and later
at the stud], slowly the races won by these new stud products were less at
the Classic level, and increasingly just minor handicaps and local maiden
races.[/QUOTE]

It’s due to genetics. Nothing else. Great mares rarely reproduce themselves because they are the result of a rare combination of genes that makes them great. As we see with Cleo, even siblings are not identically great.

[Where_sMyWhite]

Union Strike looks like a nice filly as well. Potentially another one to watch. Union Rags’ first black type stakes winner and first Grade I winner

Great stallions rarely reproduce themselves either

I though American Cleopatra did run a nice race as well even if second.

Looks to be a nice 2 year old crop of fillies.