Inevitable gallop cryfest

[Lily Wilkins]

I just bought up a bunch of young "Allowance" geldings right around rollover to bulk up my racing string. After galloping this morning, a majority of them have dropped to "Productive" which is kind of crummy.
I'm not too upset though because I know their actual ability level didn't change and they'll probably still do fine on the claiming circuit, which was my intent with them anyways.
I trained Castle Call earlier because I was terrified that she dropped after the change, but thank goodness she is still a Freak. Harness seems to have been hit less hard by the tweaks.

[Amy Bahama]

hahahaha That's more like it Polk Thanks for the laugh. I'm over it. Someday I'll beg for forgiveness and drop my stats on the scientist thread, but not today.

[Dan Kauffman]

I have a very irrational fear of galloping my stakes gallopers for fear they will decline. I pretty much never do it.

(My freak gallopers? I auction those off ...)

[Loree Ethell]

I have to cry about this one. I started a thread about this mare because I was pretty nervous about breeding her. Thought I made a good choice, got a solid galloper. That would be my luck lol.

No freaks this season and my 2yo freaks were downgraded. That was kind of a bummer, but at least now I don't have to blame my training when they don't run like freaks haha.

[Michael Looker]

I have to cry about this one. I started a thread about this mare because I was pretty nervous about breeding her. Thought I made a good choice, got a solid galloper. That would be my luck lol.

Sorry. If it's any consolation, after I helped push you into the mating I did a similar thing (a great old Kya mare for her last foal to Mark Me Gold). Only got a productive. We can always hope they become blue hens, I guess.

[Dan Kauffman]

Always hope for a gallop change, especially if the pedigree is good.

(My band of broodmares doesn't allow me to hope for much in the way of positive gallop changes, but hey, MY lack of hope shouldn't hinder YOUR hope!)

[Kinclaire Farm]

I took the leap and re-galloped my 2yo mixers. Quite honestly I think all mixers should be able to be re-galloped without affecting them since this change has taken place. Amazingly my two freaks stayed freaks, but everything else took a huge drop in class. I usually get 5+ freaks/crop, dropped to one this season. I’m incredibly grateful to have that one, but it’s still very frustrating. A few seasons ago I started dropping everything under allowance. Not sure how much I need to change that system now… I guess it will take a few seasons for things to iron out.

My other concern is how this is going to affect new stallions. My guy Moriarty is brand new to the shed. His shining recored was significantly diminished by my inability to run him for his 3 and 4yo seasons. He seems like he is doing decently, but I know stallions without freaks are not going to look nearly as appealing as those who have a boatload of them from before this change.

On another note, did the harness horses also change gallop comments? I ended up with two freaks and an allowance out of 3 foals. This is my first time breeding harness horses, so I don’t know much about it, but I am pretty shocked at that.

[Ali Hedgestone]

Basically the change means that you don't need to ditch those allowance horses because they will actually be competitive in allowances. Nothing changed about your horses, just the scale changed that the gallop numbers were being measured against.

The stallion concern is semi-valid, but it's something that should be kept in mind by breeders that older stallions numbers will be off. Though this is nothing new, if you re-gallop an older horse and they change then that change is also reflected in that stallions's data. So you should be looking at the progeny and how they run vs just the gallop %s.

Harness horses did change. But, the steward even admitted that they will probably need to be adjusted more.

[440 Racing Barn]

I say the hell with gallops lets just do away with commints

[Mr. Lord Rich]

I say the hell with gallops lets just do away with commints

Was it bad? Cause it was pretty bad for me, but I know my horses are still the same do not going to worry about it too much. Will just figure out the quality by the workout times. Well for my sprinters. For mids and routers I have no clue. Will just have to race them all lol.

[Michael Looker]

Harness horses did change. But, the steward even admitted that they will probably need to be adjusted more.

I'm still not convinced of this. My yearling gallops were in line with what I would have expected pre-tweak, and regalloping my equipment-set 2yos revealed that none had gone down a comment and one had gone up.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Em told Admin "Tweak the mixer gallop comment boundaries" thinking that all non-TBs are mixers, to which Admin thought "There are three types of horse; TBs, SBs and mixers. I'll tweak the third bunch".

[Ali Hedgestone]

Harness horses did change. But, the steward even admitted that they will probably need to be adjusted more.

I'm still not convinced of this. My yearling gallops were in line with what I would have expected pre-tweak, and regalloping my equipment-set 2yos revealed that none had gone down a comment and one had gone up.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Em told Admin "Tweak the mixer gallop comment boundaries" thinking that all non-TBs are mixers, to which Admin thought "There are three types of horse; TBs, SBs and mixers. I'll tweak the third bunch".

Per The Steward they did get the drop. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=44686&p=386323#p386323

[Tan Gent]

Just FYI, 9 freaks in my 2 YO crop - Regalloped - 3 left as freaks LOL. Got to love it.

I dare not to regallop them yet lol
But the real freaks are gonna remain freaks.

[Te Akau Downs]

i had 1 arabian freak but i got a few allowances and they say they will be competative in stakes now so i,m happy, my stakes from last year are allowances but my freaks remained true freaks so im hanging onto them babies with my life now lol

[Andrea Bouwkamp]

Well, the nice thing about these gallop changes is that it validated some of my sad stakes gallopers to what they really are bringing out the terror scissors. Lol.
Another nice thing it made me retire some Arabian fillies that were downgraded to allowance. I got two formidables, two stars and two new blue hens. They are more valuable to breed than race in the Arabian division. I only run fillies that are stakes or higher. The males can run in claiming company.