What is your opinion about work out / track work of horses

[wkcalvin]

All we know every horse need track work/work out before races, what is your focus point or evaluation method of good work out to determine horse with good fitness and ready to win ?

- Frequency of work out ?
- Speed ( Fast Gallop vs Trot) ?
- Distance ?

or any other ideas, methods ? thanks for your comments.

[chadk66]

the first thing to deal with is the published number are wrong quite a bit of the time

[forced89]

Important to me are frequency of works; how current they arel number of works; spacing between works; distance; and with non starters, gate works. Time can be important depending on trainer's history of works.

[Zaf]

I agree with chadk66, How accurate in general is the reporting of workouts? How many go under the radar ? Works on farms etc. I look at the published ones and if the horse I happen to like for other reasons has a good one all the better :)

Z

[v j stauffer]

I've come to believe without a service that grades all the workouts. At least as many as they can.

Factoring in workouts is futile as best. Dangerous at worst.

The work Andy Harrington as his crew do in Southern California is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC.

Highly recommend you adding them as a tool to your overall process.

[outofthebox]

As a clocker for Finger Lakes for a few seasons a couple years back, i can tell you first hand how hard it is to be 100% accurate. There would be times after the break on a saturday when there would be 10-15 horses breaking off around the same time from different poles. Problem was i was the only clocker, and i would have at least five watches going at the same time. During the "crush" i often had multiple horses on the same watch. Mistakes were unavoidable.
The bigger circuits have a team of clockers. But i'm sure mistakes are often made. Not an easy job. So i would say the frequency of the works are a bit more important than the actual time.

[lamboguy]

works are only a small part of the package. when dealing with 2 year olds, the first work that the horse goes fast is the most important one. how the horse comes back the next day is even more important than the work itself. if they come back with shins that sting them, the fast work don't mean a thing. that is just one of the reason's why clocker's often scratch their heads after the horse runs and if you know what you are doing you can bet good horses and get great prices.