Can you read anything about a horse from their race charts? (Edit: Sorry if the title of this thread is dumb)

[strangewings]

I’m perusing race charts for some CANTER horses, and was wondering if their “personality” comes through when there are really consistent phrases used to describe their runs across multiple charts? Like, in ads you’ll read “just too slow” or “just showed us he wasn’t interested anymore”, etc. How might that show up in a chart?

In the other direction, I was looking at one tonight who in all her races it basically said “chased the pace, then weakened” - as a non-racing horseperson, this reads like it might mean the horse runs a bit blindly to stay with the pack until they can’t anymore. Wondering if this would be the type to get panicky/overly amped when around other horses running? Or if there’s another way to interpret this, or if there’s no meaning whatsoever.

Another horse, a war horse, I looked at a relatively random sample of his races across several years, and saw the language of “settling early” and “closing late”, regardless of where he ended in placings. That and other language in his charts makes him sound confident and adjustable. I would guess that he’s good-minded.

[punchy]

Not really. Don’t forget racehorses have jockeys, who get instructions from trainers, who condition the horses, the performance of which is briefly described by one person writing race comments.

I’d pay attention to ‘vanned off’ or ‘bled’ or ‘pulled up’ but the rest I think just shows how successful their racing career was—without anthropomorphic interpretations.

[fivestrideline]

I asked a similar question on a different board if you feel like sifting through

OTTB shopping - high or low race mileage? And general track record questions

I’m starting to casually look for a new horse, mostly window shopping at this point. My budget is solidly 4 figures, because I just don’t want to spend more. I could, but I don’t want to. Since I’m wanting to do H/J and am tall (aka a chunky 16H is my MINIMUM), that puts me firmly in OTTB land. My current horse is one, and I’ve ridden plenty of them - we get along great and I love the work ethic. I see lots of ads with “low starts” and “never raced (but trained)” as positives, but my thinking i…

(Not sure how to attach a link but I think this will work)

What I was told is that the big Red Flag notes are definitely worth investigating but also might not mean RUN AWAY. It’s all extremely formulaic. What matters is the owners (lots of different owners might mean something, might not, but does mean the history is murky), purses on the races (suddenly dropping WAY down might be worth investigating why), timing between races and workouts (planned break or injury?), and a whole lot of other things you can’t determine without insider knowledge.

[Texarkana]

I’ll throw this out there again: I’m always more than happy to read past performances for people and see if there is anything that strikes me as odd or suspicious.

But in the end, reading their charts can be insightful, but there aren’t really any absolutes. If you have some insider info about the connections or the horse, you can often piece a bit more of the story together… but charts in general tend to use very formulaic verbiage that can be applied to too many situations to count.

[OverandOnward]

Question about a specific pattern in the results. If the horse is one that someone thought had some speed, but they never move up from the back of the pack after say six or seven races, does that say anything about a horse’s lack of willingness to try?

Or maybe racing was just not the environment where that horse would flourish. Doesn’t mean they won’t like a different job much better. I don’t know, just thought of that as an alternate interpretation.

[findeight]

@strangewings

n the other direction, I was looking at one tonight who in all her races it basically said “chased the pace, then weakened” - as a non-racing horseperson, this reads like it might mean the horse runs a bit blindly to stay with the pack until they can’t anymore. Wondering if this would be the type to get panicky/overly amped when around other horses running? Or if there’s another way to interpret this, or if there’s no meaning whatsoever

No. As already noted, there is a jockey so don’t overthink or embellish the very brief remarks. The horse did not panic or “run blindly”- it tried but never got to the front and could not keep up. Whoever writes these terse recaps of every horse in every race sticks to the facts only, no guessing at why.

When people are trying to sell any horse, they often revert to “ adspeak”. Charts can help cut through some of that flowery BS and sometimes hint at patterns related to soundness and/or management issues.

ETA, in this example, if you see consecutive races with some version of never a factor and finished well back? Possibly dropping in class after each disappointing outing? This is a horse that needs new career. You don’t want one that never tries though, you want one that does try with trainer that tried to pick races they would be competitive in but just not fast enough for even slow competition. Or so I have been told by those who pick them out for successful second careers.

Horse has to want to work with you and try for you no matter the job.

[endlessclimb]

@OverandOnward

If the horse is one that someone thought had some speed, but they never move up from the back of the pack after say six or seven races, does that say anything about a horse’s lack of willingness to try?

For me, if in works the horse performs but not in races, the horse may not like being pelted in the face with dirt and that backs them off.

[OverandOnward]

Thank you, thanks to you, all is now explained. This horse doesn’t even like being pelted with big raindrops. If he’s in the pasture when the rain is starting to let big drops fall on his tender hide, he bolts for the shed.