Agreed that not all the bumper cars was his fault. At the same time, his lugging in at the end made me really nervous. But, he was still fighting and gaining on the leaders at the end, just like in the derby. Makes me wonder if he needed the race to be just a touch longer. Hopefully he and his connections get that habit figured out.
3 Likes
Gun Runner’s 3 yr old record was nothing to sneeze at though, he did pretty well and earned close to 2M.
I hope for the connections sake (as well as for the other runners on the track) that they can get Sierra Leone to run in a straight line.
3 Likes
Does CD have turnouts/round pens, like Saratoga does?
How common is it for tracks to have turnouts available onsite?
I’ve only seen a couple that have had them, but it was a LONG time ago lol
To add a little more excitement to the mix: Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien are tentatively planning to bring City of Troy, the Epsom Derby winner, to the US later this year for a possible BC Classic start. The son of Justify will face off against older horses first, in the Coral Eclipse at Sandown in July. I imagine his performance there will dictate travel plans.
Scat Daddy, Justify’s sire, is a stallion I don’t think anyone predicted would have the impact that he has had. Hennessey sired Johannesburg and some other precocious runners, but nothing of note in terms of sire power. And Johannesburg was a disappointment for Coolmore. They let Japan have him after mediocre results in the western hemisphere and he didn’t exactly set the world on fire there either. But he sired Scat Daddy, who may well have started a dynasty of his own. So unfortunate that he died at only 14 years old.
5 Likes
for sure but in all the big feature races that everyone seemingly pays attention to; he was much like sierra leone. he did extremely well, was very consistent, hard trier and finished in the money again and again but the W frequently eluded him. After winning the Lousianna Derby and the Risen Star; He was third in the derby, 5th in the Haskell, 3rd in the Travers, 2nd in the PA derby, 2nd in the Breeders Cup and he wrapped up his year by winning the Clark.
Sierra Leone also won two races prior to starting in the Derby where he was 2nd. Then he was third in the Belmont. He already has 2mil in earnings much like his sire did as a 3 yr old but I think if he stays sound and healthy and they are patient, his best days are ahead. He is a big, freight train of a horse with a lot of talent; just need to fine tune those edges
2 Likes
I think we are just brushing the surface on Justify’s potential global impact to not only sire a dirt horse but many talented turf horses. Coolmore has the financial bank and also the bank of top turf broodmares to give him many opportunities.
Did they do so with American Pharoah or did they strictly stick to dirt racing with him?
3 Likes
I have never seen a round pen at CD (though I haven’t been everywhere). They do have a big sand pit for horses to roll in. Space is at a premium on the backside. What isn’t used for stabling is now used for parking.
Turfway Park does have some round pens, although those are “private” (belonging to individual trainers) and not supplied by the track. Keeneland has no round pens on their main site, but there are some across the street at their Rice Road barns.
2 Likes
We all can tend to see when a horse runs back too soon or maybe needs a break, but what is happening on a cellular, biological level when we see a poor performance? Is it small muscle tears that need to heal? Slowed ability to detox lactic acid build up? Is there a scientific reason to give horses so xx amount of time between races/workouts?
3 Likes
Probably some combination of the above plus, depending on the individual horse, degrees of mental fatigue.
In humans, at least, lactic acid buildup from peak or near-peak athletic effort is generally cleared from the muscle in around an hour. Lactic acid causes the “burn” felt in a fatiguing muscle(s), but it’s gone before the general soreness (DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness) sets in. DOMS is the result of those micro tears in the muscle fiber. The repair process involves an inflammatory response, which ideally, and with other contributing factors, leads to a muscle that is stronger/has more endurance than before the workout or race.
This is where an experienced trainer is key. To an extent it is possible to further load and stress a muscle that hasn’t fully recovered from the most recent efforts, but there is a limit beyond which those fibers are going to need extra recovery time. You can’t keep piling muscle damage on top of damage without eventually seeing a decline in performance. The tendons and ligaments also need adequate recovery time in order to “keep up” with the better, stronger muscles. A good trainer can read the horse’s condition and attitude and know when to back off and give the horse a break…or ramp up training and point for a race.
The demands of race training stresses other systems besides musculoskeletal; the immune system comes to mind. Which is why it’s routine to temp check everything on the shed row every morning, to hopefully catch and treat anything before it becomes symptomatic.
Individuals vary in how quickly they recover from a strenuous effort. Case in point: after the 1978 Belmont Affirmed needed several weeks to recover before Laz Barrera started working him in anticipation of the Travers in late August. Alydar raced and won easily about six weeks after the Triple Crown, then won the Whitney two weeks later. Two horses, same race, both put in maximum effort, but different rates of recovery.
3 Likes
Another (Derby) horse is out for the count now.
It’s chips, which have already been surgically removed. According to either that article or another I saw somewhere, the Japanese media doesn’t have language to differentiate between chips and breaks.
2 Likes
Yeah. I had seen the post/comment on twitter shortly after I made the post.
Just forgot to come back & update/edit my post 
1 Like
