Night Races and Horse Sleep Cycles

[BetHorses!]

Aren't horses suppose to sleep between 8pm and 4am. Are some horses just exhausted before they have to race at night. I have always been curious about this but never researched it. What can we look for, any angles? Any experts on the subject?

thanks

[delayjf]

I would look for trainers that do well on Friday. Some stable will not run on Friday nights so some trainers might take advantage of that. Also, so Jockeys don't normally ride on Fridays either, so if they should show up especially for the late races, could be a good indication of trainer intent.

[Zaf]

What about day horses shipping to night tracks? Ex. PHA to PEN,
PIM to CT.

Do the night horses have an edge ?

ZAFONIC

[JustMissed]

I SNATCHED THIS FROM ABOUT.COM:

"Moving to a new barn, variations in turnout and exercise times, and other changes in routine can also disrupt sleep patterns. But horses are remarkably adaptable about sleeping. They can get used to many different situations, even to constant change. Put under lights (to get broodmares cycling or to keep coats short), they soon get used to the long hours of artificial daylight and go back to their usual daily patterns of sleep and rest. Even circus horses, which are moving all the time, don't appear sleep-deprived, says Sue McDonnell. They get to know the daily travel and performance routine, then settle down and rest.

Horses can become sleep-deprived if they're prevented from lying down and so can't achieve deep sleep. But this won't happen in a day, or even several days; it takes weeks, research shows. And most horses find a way to lie down and sleep, even in situations you might think are less than ideal. "

JM

:)

[Skanoochies]

Ok, this will take a few moments to type. ( I`m slow). Back in the mid 80s our track in Van. B.C. (Exhibitin Park, now Hastings) used to run Wed. & Fri. nites and Sat. & Sun. aft. from approx. mid April to mid Oct. I had about six years of forms, missing very few, and one winter decided to try different ways of determining why horses might win. So you can imagine the work to figure out whether a certain date was which day, three or five years ago without an old calendar and no calculator just a pencil. Nevertheless I persevered and found about twelve or fourteen horses that either had won all their races at night or vice versa.
When I ran this by a trainer friend he wasn`t all that surprised. He said some horses had strange tendencies. He had one horse that would not run inside horses, but was great when in an outside pp. Another would not respond to the whip. Anyway to make a short story long, I did get a few winners that paid very large prices the following year, but if you figure out how much time it took me, I probably made about twenty five cents an hour for my trouble. Hastings park now runs only Sat. and Sun. and holidays in the Aft. only. A track like Emerald downs might be worth while keeping track of as they run both day and nite cards.

P.S. the trainer said he would be surprised if any trainer even had an idea that a horse might run better at a certain time of day.
It`s something they would not even keep track of.

Oh well it was boring shitty winter anyway. :D

[kenwoodallpromos]

Perpetual calendar= www.vpcalendar.net (year correlation). Useful for me too.