As I have written earlier, I'm no expert at this pedigree stuff but always have and continue to find it fascinating. Lookin' forward to reading some of your work on this crop of Derby contenders.
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Thanks and I did read the articles you linked. I believe the X Factor (XF) information is relatively straight forward, but correct me if I'm wrong. The XF is a large heart genetic trait transmitted through the mtDNA.
A few questions:
How many Derby winners with the XF?
See the article regarding
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum...acing&tid=21658
" Isn't the XF a genetic trait and not not an indicator of ability . . . aren't there a bunch of large heart horses that haven' won a race?"
Yes, my boss and mentor always told me that a horse is born with inherent abilities and it is up to the trainer to find those and use them to best suit the horse. Class distance and the like. I think of the Xfactor as a turbo charger if the horse has ability If you have two horses that look equal on ability the large heart is the extra umph to allow the horse to finish stronger than those without. I feel sometimes when a horse really goes all out for the win, they can really fatigue themselves sometimes to the point of figuring out "if I run my ass off and come back feeling this shitty why would I do that again". A large heart allows for better oxygen delivery to tissues but also allows for the waste products of metabolism to be cleared easier reducing fatigue and cramping from lactic acid accumulation.
We know the scientists at Equinome discovered the speed allele, the C and the endurance allele, the T. What have scientists discovered regarding the XF?
When looking for Scientific research regarding this an other subjects, I feel the Irish are so far ahead of us, mostly because the horse is more of agricultural commodity there than here. This may sound cold, but if we used horse as foodstuff in the US we would have way more research from the public sector.
Thanks for reading. My main goal of this thread is not to pick winners, although I will take em when I can. I feel through this info maybe those that read this that are breeders can make better decisions, which in turn makes all horseracing fans better off in the long run. My info is always free to the players and fans.