I Agree 1,000 %

[Pell Mell]

Excerpt from interview with trainer Allen Jerkins:

Q: How has racing changed over the decades?
Jerkens: Everybody hollers about it changing, but it probably hasn’t changed as much as the rest of the world. Look at sports – a pitcher can’t go nine innings and all this baloney. The game really hasn’t that much.

Perhaps the biggest change is how we used to run the horses two or three times more they do now. I think they get that impression because there are a lot of trainers who have 100 or 150 horses and they have to keep them away from each other, so naturally they don’t run as often. It hurts the game because it’s harder to fill the races because people don’t run as often as they used to.

Horses don’t need to have that much time between races. They can run, and rest up, and run. They don’t need to run and rest up a long time. If you run a horse every six weeks, he has to be training pretty well to be ready for the race. He’s just not going to stand around for six weeks and run.

They don’t do things to get them durable. You’ve seen the workouts for the Belmont. One horse worked six furlongs, and that’s as long as far as any of them went. One horse worked a mile, but he worked 10 days before the race. They don’t work them anywhere near the distance of the race, and I don’t know where that one came from.:ThmbUp:

[sammy the sage]

He talks a good game...but then...just does the SAME as the rest...what good is that? :rolleyes:

[the little guy]

He talks a good game...but then...just does the SAME as the rest...what good is that? :rolleyes:

This is dead wrong. Allen Jerkens runs his horses.

I guess everyone is fair game in the wonderful world of the internet.

[slewis]

This is dead wrong. Allen Jerkens runs his horses.

I guess everyone is fair game in the wonderful world of the internet.


I'm not having a go at you Andy, but that is NOT what Allen meant....

I happened to be sitting next to him last week and he was talking to a friend about this very subject... He said something to the effect that "in the good ole days, we used to run a horse every two weeks or so...even good horses" (I assume he, of course didn't mean stakes horses which you would point toward a stake race)

Then he made reference to his buddy how his son worked Afleet Express a one mile workout prior to the race at Monmouth... (I think he said 1 mile, although I haven't checked the pp's)... then he said "no one works horses like that anymore. How could a trainer expect a horse to race a mile and one sixtheenth when you give him four three-eights mile works"?


But the bottom line is, all the old timers have been fizzled out of the sport and he's the only one that can still compete at a high level (and he doesn't get the best stock, either)... So regardless...

Anything even remotely disrespectful sent his way on the internet or anywhere is shameful.... at is age, the guys amazing.:ThmbUp:

[chickenhead]

sounds like a Database Showcase Showdown challenge...

Avg days between starts, Jerkins v NYRA avg, Pletcher, Asmussen, and Baffert, stat.

Somebody settle this up, yo.

[Rook]

sounds like a Database Showcase Showdown challenge...

Avg days between starts, Jerkins v NYRA avg, Pletcher, Asmussen, and Baffert, stat.

Somebody settle this up, yo.

DSR Average over last year and a half:
AQU: 37.4
BEL: 43.4
Sar: 45.0
Jerkens: 34.5
Pletcher: 50.8
Assmussen: 40.7
Baffert: 53.1

Jerkens runs them more frequently than NYRA average and clearly more than the others you mentioned.

[chickenhead]

nothing like settling an argument before it goes 20 pages, excellent.

TLG: 1
STS: 0

[Seabiscuit@AR]

34 days is still an awful long time between runs

Pittsburgh Phil did some training and said his general time between runs was 7 days. That was just over 100 years ago

[sammy the sage]

Let's concentrate on the MEANINGFUL part of the Mr. J.'s statement and my subsequent comment...

""They don’t do things to get them durable. You’ve seen the workouts for the Belmont. One horse worked six furlongs, and that’s as long as far as any of them went. One horse worked a mile, but he worked 10 days before the race. They don’t work them anywhere near the distance of the race, and I don’t know where that one came from""

He RACES them into shape....ie...as pointed out so elaquently by another poster...more frequent races...

BUT...and here's the IMPORTANT point...his training methods PRIOR to that 1st race or 1st race BACK after a lay-off are DIFFERENT how???

Why don't you post/compare THAT % back to those SAME SAID trainer's...perhaps then you'll UNDERSTAND what I meant..AND THEN you'll realize something else as well....MAYBE :p

[Horseplayersbet.com]

Horses today aren't bred to be durable for the most part, although this may change as Canadian breeders for example start to breed horses for the polytrack.

There is also the issue of lasix which is said to drain a horse more, and this requires more recovery time than in the good ole days.

[Robert Goren]

Horses today aren't bred to be durable for the most part, although this may change as Canadian breeders for example start to breed horses for the polytrack.

There is also the issue of lasix which is said to drain a horse more, and this requires more recovery time than in the good ole days.It takes most horses 3 week or more to come back from Lasix. There are some horse it doesn't effect, but not very many. The sad thing is most horses these days need Lasix. They have breed a generation of bleeders.

[Spalding No!]

BUT...and here's the IMPORTANT point...his training methods PRIOR to that 1st race or 1st race BACK after a lay-off are DIFFERENT how???
The Jerkens quote was referring to the training of horses already racing fit. He didn't mention how to prepare a horse off a layoff.

If that is your sly way of pointing out that, based on his comments, Jerkens somehow shouldn't have ever have to lay-off one of his horses, well, then you're just being unreasonable.