Workouts!

Laura Ferguson · Post by **Laura Ferguson** » 17 years ago

Better you than me. I'm not using workouts unless there's a significant layoff between races (nothing smaller than four weeks) or the horse is returning from an injury that has him or her sidelined for several weeks. The potential for tiring a horse is too great. You never have been able to equate a SIM week to a certain period of real life time - and I think to start now is a mistake. In my opinion, you are more likely to have a tired horse, who is more prone to a bad result or injury, than a fit horse. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I'll let someone else be the guinea pig on this.

Laura

Mandy Saunders · Post by **Mandy Saunders** » 17 years ago

Laura F. wrote: Better you than me. I'm not using workouts unless there's a significant layoff between races (nothing smaller than four weeks) or the horse is returning from an injury that has him or her sidelined for several weeks. The potential for tiring a horse is too great. You never have been able to equate a SIM week to a certain period of real life time - and I think to start now is a mistake. In my opinion, you are more likely to have a tired horse, who is more prone to a bad result or injury, than a fit horse. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I'll let someone else be the guinea pig on this.

Laura

I'm with Laura on this one. Only after a long layoff, injury, or prepping a young one for their first start.

Otherwise, I'm too afraid to use it. There's too great a risk for injury and fatigue.

Mac Silver · Post by **Mac Silver** » 17 years ago

I worked a few today that had run a race this last week. It certainly seemed like they were slower than their first works. So I am assuming they were tired. Of course it could be due to adjustments from the beta version. It will be fun to try and figure these out for sure.

Post by **The Steward** » 17 years ago

Of course, workouts aren't the devil with the sole purpose of trying to break down all your horses. You just have to be smart. Ian gave a great example: Lava Man worked 6 furlongs 8 days out of a 1 1/4 mile race. That's a good barometer and typical of a long distance race - you wouldn't want to work 6 furlongs 5 days out because then you might be too tired. Workouts do provide an amount of schooling and conditioning to a horse, so they shouldn't be shunned like the plague, however, they were designed to be a tool, not a necessity.

Ian Nicastrin · Post by **Ian Nicastrin** » 17 years ago

*grumbles* and scratches all but one horse after being told that sim days are in fact just like rl days and sim weeks are in fact just like rl weeks... and 5 days before a race is too close for a 5f... 5 sim days doesn't equal 8 rl days.

I am keeping a sub optimal turf sprinter in a 6f race this week who did a 2f workout 6 days out... so I will see what that does.

Steph Lonhro · Post by **Steph Lonhro** » 17 years ago

this week's horses have not received a work out a few for next week have had short ones like 2 furlong short

I am weary to give longer work outs the closer I get

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

I've given most of mine (yes even those running this week) a two furlong workout. I know it's possible for the horse to be tired or whatever but I didn't work those I know whose lines are prone to soundness problems or two year olds. I just want to see what happens. I'll most likely regret it later but I'm being a guinea pig I guess.

John Slotmon · Post by **John Slotmon** » 17 years ago

I gave at least one of mine a 3f work for this week's races. We'll see how that works out for me.

Nikki Everdeen · Post by **Nikki Everdeen** » 17 years ago

I sent my horses who ran Week 3 all 2 furlongs each on their respective surfaces (unless they have yet to run, then I sent them 4 furlongs). The only horse I didn't send out was Desert Victory, as I'm too scared to touch him right now. I've noticed that a couple of trainers I've worked for in real life have sent horses who are about a week away from running "down the lane," which is essentially a two furlong work. Not enough to be timed, but quick enough to be called "down the lane". So we'll see what happens. I probably won't send many others out after this until I see the results.

Peihe Sun · Post by **Peihe Sun** » 17 years ago

Well I'm kind of being a guinea pig too. Here's how I'm doing my experiments:

Constants: distance, level (allowance, claiming, stakes etc), space in between races (this last one is harder to keep constant, though, I'm aiming for 2 weeks in between races, so racing weeks 3,6,9 etc)

And splitting my horses up into three groups:
2yos, regular racers, comming off layoffs

The 2yos I am dividing into two groups by ability as best as I can. All will get regular (am debating every other week or every week, what do you guys think? hmm..another experiment to do) workouts leading to their debuts (most of my stable is probably distance leaning) from 3f up to 5f. However, one group will stop the week before their debut with a 5f breeze and the second will end with a 2f breeze the very beginning of the week.

Comming off of layoffs (since I only have a couple) won't have very reliable data, but all horses will breeze twice. One group will breeze 3 then 5f and the other will breeze 5f then 3f, with the latter once again ending the same week.

My regular racers are split into two groups. One will be breezed halfway in between races, and the other breezed the week of. All distance horses (1mile or higher) are worked at 6f and sprinters at 5f.

I will get working on my yearlings once Week 10 passes, for the sprinters.

And lastly, is working our horses like shipping? I mean, does it matter what day we work on or does it only count on a week-to-week basis?

[edit] If anyone wants to know the numbers, I only have 20 2yos, 2 horses on layoffs (currently, the number may change), and 53 regular racers. It's not near enough for accurate test numbers. Anyone else want to pitch in with my setup?

Post by **The Steward** » 17 years ago

It definitely matters what day you work, especially in regards to how far you work. That's if you're doing it the week of a race, obviously. If your horse isn't running for a while it won't matter.

John Slotmon · Post by **John Slotmon** » 17 years ago

Well, I'm hoping a quick breeze on a Monday isn't necessarily a bad thing for Saturday races...

Scott Eiland · Post by **Scott Eiland** » 17 years ago

J Slotman wrote: Well, I'm hoping a quick breeze on a Monday isn't necessarily a bad thing for Saturday races...

This may say more about me than anything, but when I read the above I read it as the following:

"Well, I'm hoping a quick BEER on a Monday isn't necessarily a bad thing for Saturday races..."

to which i internally replied : "Certainly not!"

Ian Nicastrin · Post by **Ian Nicastrin** » 17 years ago

Just no 5f on mon for a sat 1 1/8 m race

Janey Adams · Post by **Janey Adams** » 17 years ago

Ill be everyones Guinea Pig....

I have HISTORIC entered in the Suburban at Belmont for Saturdays results. I worked him 5 furlongs on Saturday (1 week out) as a "blowout" or "Tightner." He went 5 in 58.64 for a 1 1/4 race. I think he is still going to do GREAT! (Now that I said that...) Well anyway, typically he will have two days of "standing" and he will jog and gallop into the race. Thats how I see it anyway.