Re: Derby Talk - Number of Preps (443 Views)
Date: March 01, 2005 05:04PM
JB,
I have no view on this issue. However, if you put a gun to my head and forced me to pick between 2 identical horses I'd take the one with 3 preps. As long as we have this stat, we can't be sure it doesn't mean something. I don't see any stats that argue for 2 preps. Either 3 preps is better or it doesn't matter. So I would go with 3 preps if I was the owner/trainer.
I think there have been some studies on route races that suggested that without a certain amount of preparation horses WILL go backwards off the layoff in their routes. If I recall, 1 sprint to a route off a layoff wasn't nearly as good as 2 sprints as a prep for routing.