More class, more stress?

[Sandgroper]

I read somewhere recently that in general, most top class horses can have at most 3 or 4 good runs within a couple of months before losing form. Something to do with higher class horses facing tougher opposition and therefore can have more stressful races.

Not sure if this subject has been discussed previously in the forum, if not what are your thoughts?

_________________
All the best from the West

Sandgroper :smile:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sandgroper on 2002-06-20 16:49 ]</font>

[Placegetter]

Good topic Sandgroper, I like it.

Lucky for most horses they don't have to string together more than three or four top class races, because they just don't come along in sequence like that. Personally I look at the number of races a horse has in the prep to see if it could have worn out, but it's only an educated guess, rather than applied knowledge. The nag might have gone around 8 times without trying, or at least the jockey instructed to have it under a tight rein, and then BOOM! it wins the one they were aiming at.

Barkada jumps to mind as a top horse given one race too many. I had already dropped it from my stable (Equine Investor, you must have read my mind) and gone for Dash for cash. Fortune or common sense? Who knows.

Placegetter

Depends how difficult the races were. Lonhro for instance was winning on its ear last year and strung together plenty of top runs. Races like the Melb Cup, Cox Plate take an awful lot out of a horse.

[Placegetter]

Good things are expected of Lonhro no doubt. When Athens and Moonflute chased him home last start, Quinn (?) did nothing more than hands and heels. I picked the trifecta in order that day, paid a lousy $10. Says something about who he was against I guess. so no burn out was expected there.

Any races which involves a lot of chasing could only be repeated once or twice before the horse would be sapped. Maybe frontrunners can handle more races in a campaign?

[Big Orange]

My thoughts are that many of the classiest horses around are able to handle the physical toll of racing against the elite without incurring injury or form loss. They also seem to have an extra capacity to SUSTAIN their performance levels over the greater part of each campaign. That doesn't necessarily mean they are always winning, but they do remain very competitive in most of their races at this higher class.

Naturally there are exceptions but the best of the best can maintain high strike rates even when competing in a number of feature races against well credentialled gallopers.

I usually get wary, though, once the campaign is prolonged over, say, 9 races or more. The probability of "training off" then comes into consideration and I rate it down a little. All generalisations, of course, but it's an interesting topic in form study.

A summary of the way I view this, in general, could be:

More Class = More ability to withstand stress.