It's pretty straight forward, its a distance, half a mile, you can measure it, its literally half a mile, but between East coast and West Coast workouts, a half mile is not a half mile, its really about being million miles apart.
In horseracing conditioning is all about running distances being the true way to train for a race, if so, why is the half mile so vastly different from East to West.
I have been doing this for 30 years, the last 12 back East.
The tabs are 80% half miles on the East Coast, but if you experienced them, watched them, clocked them and analyzed them, those half miles, on the East Coast, are anywhere from three furlongs galloping out a half, a half mile with 5f continuation after wire, even 6f or other instances 7fs for some trainers, off those half miles.
On West Coast, for example, California, a half mile is a half mile, the tabs are almost 50-50 4f and 5f, plus a handful of 6fs.
Why the difference? You literally got me there.
I have no idea and the only thing I can think of is trainers get away with doing more and getting less.
Todd Pletcher, 90% of the time gets half miles, as does Chad Brown and Brad Cox to name a few, they are timed to the wire, and everything else after is for the clocker and the trainer.
4f in 51, out 102.3, 6f in 114.4 and 7f 128.2. That's a work in my book, but you will get a 51 in your past performance workout listing for that day.
I recall asking about that my first year at Saratoga, and the response was a classic "then go back to California''. Some people in this game have the personalities of flesh eating bacteria, but let's move on.
Recording workout times is supposed to be for the benefit of the player, but its not viewed that way by the powers that be that record these works, they have convinced themselves they are hired and part of the clocking crews to provide a service to the horsemen.
That is where the problem lies.
The horseplayer is always last on the totem pole, at the bottom, even maybe the buried part of the totem pole.
"Treat'em like Mushrooms, keep'em in the dark closet and feed them bullshit'' quoting a famous trainer, is just about right in this industry.
That is why official clockers despise workout reports, because they can't control the message, and it's ALL about controlling the message.
Workout reports actually show horseplayers the inner workings of how horses are trained, regardless of the times posted. It is not about ratings or what an individual clocker assessment, its about the horse.
So, yes, Virginia,show me a sign, that there is a vast difference between a half mile out West and East.
The West Coast half mile is overused and overrated. Horses can go fast half miles, but its the extra furlong that usually is the difference maker.
If a horse works in 46.4, and goes out in 14 flat, for 100.4, they literally stopped to a crawl and slowed by a rate 15-20 lengths, now there are trainers like D Wayne Lukas and Wayne Catalano who are very judicious on who to let go out past the wire and not.
Wesley Ward, the most prodigious 2yo trainer, doesn't do too much after the wire, but when he does, you pay attention, when he works 5f, there is a statement being made there.
Bruce Headley never galloped out strongly, he would ask his rider to stop the horse after the wire, as he didn't want to do too much. He handled his horses like claimers, and saved them for another day. He was legendary.
He trained one of the fastest horses in Kona Gold, and five strides after the wire, 'Gold would be in a walk.
This practice often confuses some clockers, 'but he had no gallop out'. They just cannot comprehend that what one barn does is taboo in another, or as I say, these people have the memories of a goldfish.
Analyzing workouts by your stopwatch is another word for never really paying attention to the horse, just the time, please.
A horse can work 46.3 and be a crappy work. He or she can work in 51 and its a good work.
So many handicappers are competely addicted to times, purchase prices at auctions, and pedigree pages that they rarely just look at a horse, even just to see even if the horse had two ears and a tail.
The horse, a novel idea, they are not a number, not a figure, nor an auction price, or workout time, their true virtue can be disguised in a half a mile.
