Weather factor?

[Segwin]

Does the change of seasons affect racing?

That is to say with the cooler weather coming back do the horses run faster? In the summer heat I'm not worth a damn but during the spring and fall I can work my tail off (so to speak).

I'm not sure it matters that much but looking for opines.

[Stillriledup]

The "elements" affect track biases, but i'm not sure if they affect the actual horses. Maybe older horses will do better in warm weather, i know certain older baseball pitchers "wake up" in the summer after a cold start in April and May, so, maybe some old horses with aches and pains will loose up in the hot weather and you could see some form reversals.

[flatstats]

I don't know about US racing but in the UK the seasons do affect performances.

First is the fact that we run flat turf races from April to October (give or take a few days). This is Spring to Autumn.

Jump Racing is predominantly October to May (give or take a few weeks).

Then there is all weather flat racing, which takes place all year with the peak season November to March.

The point?

Some yards shut down in specific months and some yards target specific months. The result being that trainer performance and horse profiles are season dependent.

Gender Bias
We have a strong gender bias in this country. Female horses tend to do well in the summer months and struggle in the winter. This is due to the breeding cycle in the northern hemisphere; it is ultimately due to the amount of daylight, which regulates the breeding cycle.

Weight For Age Scale
This was created in 1855. This scale adjusts weights for horse gender and age per month.

There is talk that the scale is flawed slightly, and needs tinkering. But one definite flaw is the gender bias as stated above.

All weather racing was only introduced in the early 1990s. Rous and the modern day official handicappers never had to realise that 2yo colts or fillies would be racing in December, or 3yo colts or fillies racing in January. Prior to that they were put away for the winter.