>1-- They went to the modified sulky back in the late 70's,<

Now I feel a bit older. :-)

I understand your point about net improvement.

I thought you might also want distinguish between improvements in the breed, improvements in equipment, and improvements in training/nutrition. Seattle Slew is Seattle Slew genetically and trained as he was. Can't do anything about that. But if we had him right now we might be able to give him better equipment in 5 minutes that would make him run faster. So his former speed figures wouldn't be telling us his exact ability relative to today's horses unless we isolated the value of equipment.

I would guess that more has been done on the equipment side for standardbreds - even post modified sulky. That's probably at least one thing that accounts for their greater relative improvement. I just don't follow the sport any more so I don't know for sure.



Post Edited (11-19-03 10:50)