When to start facing older horses

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Lisa Bennert
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When to start facing older horses

Post by Lisa Bennert »

(Hopefully) A topic for discussion:
How do you decide when to start your 3yo against older horses? I usually go by gut feeling, looking at the competition and what fits their schedule best, but I wonder if anyone knows certain rules/ thresholds?
I think the Steward mentionend once that it's very hard for 3yos to face older horses before week 9, but I'm not sure if that only applies to TB routers... Is it the same with Mixers? And what about the sprinters/ milers? Anyone have some helpful info? :)
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Regina Moore
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Re: When to start facing older horses

Post by Regina Moore »

The 3yo only races start disappearing around Week 6, though it might be Week 9 that there's very few of them left.

Whenever I have an option between two logical races, I almost always choose one for 3yos only over one for 3yo+.

However, when it comes to something like a maiden race for sprinters, in a 3yo+ race the 3yos might have an advantage because a 4yo+ that still hasn't broken its maiden is probably a really low quality horse. In those situations, I prefer to race a troubled 4yo in a 4yo+ race, though those disappear pretty quickly after the first weeks of the year.
Joseph Depaulo
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Re: When to start facing older horses

Post by Joseph Depaulo »

Lisa Bennert wrote: 4 years ago (Hopefully) A topic for discussion:
How do you decide when to start your 3yo against older horses? I usually go by gut feeling, looking at the competition and what fits their schedule best, but I wonder if anyone knows certain rules/ thresholds?
I think the Steward mentionend once that it's very hard for 3yos to face older horses before week 9, but I'm not sure if that only applies to TB routers... Is it the same with Mixers? And what about the sprinters/ milers? Anyone have some helpful info? :)
For my top 3 year olds the ones competing in the Sc or other big races i want to run them against older as soon as possible i think the first time they run against older they have a disadvantage but after that they improve or gain experience. The lesser horses i stay away from older as much as possible
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Tammy Stawicki
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Re: When to start facing older horses

Post by Tammy Stawicki »

I try to keep mine with only 3yos as long as possible. I figure why go looking for extra competition. This is actually one of my biggest frustrations with thoroughbred mixers is that the 3yo onlly races become pretty sparse pretty early in the year.
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Lori Hamill
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Re: When to start facing older horses

Post by Lori Hamill »

I start racing them with older once I can't find anymore 3 year old races for them - usually. Sometimes I will race them with older in NW races if I can't find any 3 year old NW2/3/4 for them.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Carolyn Eaton
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Re: When to start facing older horses

Post by Carolyn Eaton »

If I can find a good 3yo only race, I'm going for it, but typically distance and conditions become more important around week 8
I'm just here for the fun of it
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Darren Rook
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Re: When to start facing older horses

Post by Darren Rook »

this is a fascinating topic.

if we look at RL, right about now is when the book is opened for 3yos to take on their older counter-parts. The Newmarket July meeting being case-in-point. I'm sure the SIM attempts to mimic RL as best as it can.

Now, it depends on how good you think your horse is.

If you think you got a superstar, you'd probably want to try it against older competition as soon as possible - in order to find out where the horse is at.

If you got a medicore horse - i would suggest running against its same age - maybe against its same gender if filly.

further down the ranks - it's likely a crap-shoot with many variables - far too many for these qwerties.

these are my thoughts for sprinters.

it now depends how you rank your horse - most people over-estimate their horses' ability.

when it's all said and done - anything can happen - which is why there are bookmakers taking peoples money every day. including sundays.

god bless.
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Lisa Bennert
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Re: When to start facing older horses

Post by Lisa Bennert »

Thanks for the input, everyone! With the 'NW' races it seems like others are seeing it more as a srategic thing, too. My post was meant more for stakes caliber horses for which you can plan the schedule a bit in advance. I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing with my horses (maybe pay a little more attention what results my decisions really have...) and look at each case individually.
Regina Moore wrote: 4 years ago The 3yo only races start disappearing around Week 6, though it might be Week 9 that there's very few of them left.
Just to clarify: Which group of horses are you talking about here? I can't ever seem to notice (and remember) these type of things :roll:
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