How racing has changed

[chadk66]

So the other night I was looking through lifetime racing histories on some horses I trained over the years. The thing that really amazed me is how frequently horses were run back then. My horses generally ran every two weeks. Sometimes 10-12 days. Occasionally three weeks if races didn’t fill. And as a general rule I had sound horses all the time. I can’t honestly recall a vet scratch in all those years. We entered two days out for races then. It was pretty rare that I had to postpone an entry due to a physical ailment. I used no illegal meds ever. I never had a single bad test or so much as a bute overage. And I often hauled horses 500 miles to run and brought back. It just amazes me how much it’s changed. Granted the purses are far far higher now then they were then. But day rate is only 10-20% higher now at the tracks I ran at.

[Dave Schwartz]

Chad,

Where did you race?

Last I heard the day rate in California was right at $200!

[chadk66]

Chad,

Where did you race?

Last I heard the day rate in California was right at $200!
MN six months a year. Then different places in the fall. Rates were $40-50 then. Now about $60-70 I think

[chadk66]

I should add that’s MN rates

[Hambletonian]

So the other night I was looking through lifetime racing histories on some horses I trained over the years. The thing that really amazed me is how frequently horses were run back then. My horses generally ran every two weeks. Sometimes 10-12 days. Occasionally three weeks if races didn’t fill. And as a general rule I had sound horses all the time. I can’t honestly recall a vet scratch in all those years. We entered two days out for races then. It was pretty rare that I had to postpone an entry due to a physical ailment. I used no illegal meds ever. I never had a single bad test or so much as a bute overage. And I often hauled horses 500 miles to run and brought back. It just amazes me how much it’s changed. Granted the purses are far far higher now then they were then. But day rate is only 10-20% higher now at the tracks I ran at.

My experience being a minor partner in some cheap claimers a decade ago is that most try to race every 10-14 days, mainly since that is the typical interval for the same race condition to come up. If you missed that race, you either had to move up in class, switch distance, or surface, or a combination of all three. Or wait until the next 10-14 cycle came up. If you couldn't keep up to that schedule it was usually due to injuries.

I was looking through some old DRFs from my misspent youth and was checking out the PPs of some of the hardknocking claimers that ran in NY. They races every 10 days to 2 weeks, and there were no form reversals. Horses would show gradual form curves, up and down, and most raced 20-25 times a year. I was a partner in only one horse that could have managed that, and she was bred by the trainer and had not been mucked with vet wise. She was dumb and slow, but sound until the day she retired. The others were so mucked up before we claimed them that the day rate ended up being overtaken by the vet work.

[jimmy m]

I bought a whole bunch of Santa Anita,Del Mar and Hollywood Programs on Ebay from the 70s. A little different Subject.The Entries had a Substitute race listed.Im guessing in case a race came off the Turf.

[biggestal99]

Prolly need to revise title


"how North American racing has changed."


look at todays winner in the 7th at Happy Valley (HK)


raced 5 times to get into winning race shape in basically 10 weeks.


Today was go day and Happy Dragon delivered an easy win to his connections and chalk players around the world. (going away at the finish)


Thats the way they still race in drug free jurisdictions.


Allan

[Dave Schwartz]

MN six months a year. Then different places in the fall. Rates were $40-50 then. Now about $60-70 I think

Wow! Quite a difference from California.

[chadk66]

Yea costs on both coasts is much higher. I look back at the purses then and what they are now and I'm just blown away. Based on my experience dealing with my brother whom has owned horses for the past fifteen or twenty years, horses are as much or more dealing with lameness issues now then when I trained. He has a heart attack if the trainer wants to run his horse back sooner than three weeks. The mindset is totally different. And your run of the mill horses doesn't have any better win/in money percentage today than they did when I trained. I'm having a really hard time figuring out what caused this mentality and why they think it's beneficial to them to wait three weeks. If your race doesn't go or something your looking at four plus weeks between races. This way of thinking makes no sense to me unless your horse has health issues that require that much time. When looking back over my horses PP's I found several instances where my horses actually ran some of their best races on short rest. I had one horse that I tried on the grass and he hated it so much he pulled himself up in the second turn. Jock said he is perfectly fine just hated the grass. I ran him back a week later and he won for fun lol. They are weird animals that you have to find a way to listen to what they are telling you they need/want. I had one mare that ran 2nd in an allowance at Pimlico on April 19th. We put her on a van two days later and hauled her 48 hours to MN. My intention was to walk her for a few days then start galloping her back and see where she was a play it by ear. She had started running in late June the previous summer and ran steady until getting on that van. I was thinking she had to be getting pretty tired. Was even contemplating turning her out for awhile. Well two days walking her in the barn and she was about tearing the damn place down. Couldn't even walk her. So I took her to the track so she didn't kill somebody lol. She was so full of herself and you could tell she was flat glad to be home. So I said piss on it and entered her and she ran on May 3rd in an allowance race. Won for fun. That was 14 days between races with a 48 hour van ride. She ended up running until Nov. Had a win, couple seconds and several thirds. Ran in MN, Canada and Arlington during that time. She was then given the winter off. The next spring we brought her back and She won a stakes race in her third or fourth out. If we did that now days we would be locked up lol. She flat loved to run.


I should add she ran five years. Seven outs as a two year old, Three wins, a second and a third. Ten starts as a three year old, A wind, three seconds and a third. At four she had 22 starts, three winds, four seconds and seven thirds. At five she ran four times. One win and a third. At six she ran seven times with two seconds. She had a mild bow after the four races at five. She was fixing to have a hell of a good summer the way she was running. Just getting better all the time. Never really was the same after.

[Thomas Roulston]

But the biggest change from my perspective is how much shorter the races have become, at least on the dirt anyway.

The second biggest change I have noticed is that turf sprints, which were essentially nonexistent when I became old enough to go to the track, are now a staple (referring to NYRA specifically here - and indeed this is why they converted the inner dirt track at Aqueduct back to a turf course, so that 6-furlong turf races could be run there).