. . . especially sprinters.
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/6/20150310
Thank you - It was rather too deep for me to read in its entirety so I scrolled to the Discussion and found the precis very interesting, but more studies needed.
Very interesting was talk of the jockeys’ positions, adopted universally earlier and then modified to mimic Lester Piggot’s style, to gain speed. And I thought it was all in his magic hands!
“However, commercialization of racehorse breeding also occurred during this period, with increased importing of well-bred American horses” (13). They buy some of our best breeding stock…
And, I read the study to say that they compared like to like, meaning the times in UK to the times in UK, and the times in US to the times in US, and the UK had more improvement than the US. However, they did not compare UK times to US times, if I read it correctly.
With all the scientific knowledge in feeding, shoeing, footing, training, vet research, nick to nick breeding … it seems odd that there has not been huge improvements in the last hundred or so years, no?
Oh dear… I think I have now lived in Lex, KY too long :lol: The first thing I thought when I saw UK was Univ of KY… Lord, help me LOL
I wonder if the incremental increase in speed For the breed has been an incremental factor in the perceived less durable modern racer.
[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8869846]
“However, commercialization of racehorse breeding also occurred during this period, with increased importing of well-bred American horses” (13). They buy some of our best breeding stock…
And, I read the study to say that they compared like to like, meaning the times in UK to the times in UK, and the times in US to the times in US, and the UK had more improvement than the US. However, they did not compare UK times to US times, if I read it correctly.[/QUOTE]
It sounds like you read Shammy’s title, or I should say, mis-read the title, the same way I did. I thought he was saying that the study concluded that UK Thoroughbreds were faster (than U.S. Thoroughbreds), but I think he meant, or at least the study concluded that the UK Thoroughbreds are faster than they were before. There was no data comparison of UK and US horses.
^^^Yes, I mentally added “than US tbs” to the end of Shammy’s title.
[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8869891]
With all the scientific knowledge in feeding, shoeing, footing, training, vet research, nick to nick breeding … it seems odd that there has not been huge improvements in the last hundred or so years, no?[/QUOTE]
That’s always been my thought. You’d think with all the technology we have now and the breeding for speed that horses would be breaking the old records left and right (even with the potential chemical advantages they had back then) but the breed really hasn’t made the massive leaps one would expect.
Speaking of the effect of jockey position on the speed, or better said athleticism, of the TB I found this 2009 article that is quite informative.
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1911101,00.html
