Re: HOW FAST are horses getting faster (536 Views)
Posted by:
jimbo66 (IP Logged)
Date: May 31, 2005 04:31PM
Jerry,
The cockroaches in your apartment aside, selective breeding for speed in the U.S. is a given. However, this is at the expense of stamina. As such, isn't much more plausible and likely that the figures for sprints should be increasing faster than the figures for distance races? i think Michael D brought this up a while back, saying that there was a possibility that the distance races on T-Graph are too fast, but the sprints more accurate, caused by tying the shorter figures to the longer figures when projecting, not considering the likely bias that today's breed is quicker but not likely to be as fast going a distance of ground.
I think that argument was left at "prove it", which he didn't and I can't.
It is just that the numbers are increasing at a rate which is hard to justify, even with all of the contributing factors you named. The Derby results are only 1 race and you can't build a case around 1 race, but damn all those extremely fast horses and a plodder wins.
How many people can actually accept that Northern Stag at equal weights, beats Smarty Jones by 3 lengths, if they each run their best race? Not to mention trouncing Cigar, Skip Away and that generation by 10+ lengths.