Thoughts on morning workouts

[Flighted Iron]

I spent some time this summer down on the rail watching horses pony,gallop and
work. I like making my own assessment of horses as they move similar to every
handicapper will make their own assessment of a written figure cycle. Unfortunately there wasn\'t a way to distinguish one horse from the next for the most part. During Derby week the DRF makes this an integral part of the program.
What about the rest of the year? thoughts?

[FrankD.]

Flighted,

I spent a ton of time in the 80\'s and early 90\'s with clockers in the mornings and still will get up to Oklahoma a dozen or so mornings before the Spa meet begins.

It has always truly aamazed me how they keep track of who is who. Many times they will narrow it down by the excercise rider, blanket colors and the grooms or hot walkers as to who is the trainer and go from there. They will make notations on markings, size, conformation etc.. It\'s not unusaul for them to grab a workout and find out who it was afterwards.

This year Pletcher had to have 100 2 yr. olds up here and other than Archwarrior it was really hard to tell them apart as they came out in waves of 4 and 5 at a time to work. It was crazy until the main track opened up in June.

During the 40 day meet they have a breakfast at Saratoga program (on the main track) where Maggie announces who is working and gives comments and back ground on the runners. It\'s a very enjoyable morning at the track.

Some great old time stories of day break works that never made into the form or sometimes had a few ticks added to them. Not so much anymore as everyone seems to know everything these days.

Good luck,

Frank D.

[plasticman]

I think you would see a lot more people at morning workouts if horses were required to wear saddle cloths that identified them. But, its not a bettors game, its an owners game and as long as its an owners game, horses are allowed to train in public and only the most experienced eyes could identify who is who.

For the Breeders Cup, horses train with their names on the cloth,...presumably because those horses arent being \'manipulated\' to cash bets, so much purse money is available for those type of horses, there\'s really no need to \'hide\' one of them for betting purposes. Not as much with regular overnight horses.

[Flighted Iron]

Plasticman,

  Having a scrambled egg n bacon sandwich and coffee and listening to someone give me the rundown of each horse working and or galloping would be nice,but i\'d settle for maybe a saddle towel with their tattoo i.d. or some way to make the distinction.
In the end it all boils down to integrity of the horsemen/women to refrain from
playing three card monte.

Flighted

[Flighted Iron]

Frank D,

  Some great stories definetely. I had one ,but I forgot the name of the 2year filly. Nevermind the name, as the story goes this baby girl works with Little Bold
John going a half and outworks him. She\'s 10/1 ml and 1st flash she\'s 6/5. Well, she drifts all the way up to 16/1 and absolutely parks.

  Now i\'m not saying this has to be public info in the sense that it\'s completely
detailed,but if someone is so inclined to be on the rail( joe handicapper ) at 0600 they should have the names of the hosses.


Flighted