2yo - Decoding The Trip & The Start Of The Race

Welcome to my latest blog. In many ways it could be considered the second part of my Decoding The Going For An Unraced 2yo blog. Although I would hope this blog should be entertaining and informative by itself it may be worth reading that one first if you haven’t already. 

Along with many other devotees of the sport I love to watch the 2yo horses run. There is something magic about watching a group of unraced babies break from the stalls, none of which have any clue about what is going on. 

We need to know if an unraced 2yo can handle the distance that she will have to run.  We can assume the trainer thinks she will and it is a losing strategy to try to outguess the trainer in these matters.  His job, is after all, to recognise and release the potential of any given animal. The better the trainer, the more likely they are to have made the correct decision.   

In the same way that we looked at the going stats for the parents and the grandsire of the 2yo we need to do the same for the distance. The most useful stats are the form of the sire and the dam (the mother) in this regard. Look at not only the distance's they raced, but how old they were when they performed well at the distance that we are looking for. It’s also a good idea to look at the form of any brothers or sisters by the same dam. Progeny which share the same sire are the most relevant. 

The progeny stats can be a little misleading but will give a good guide. The reason they can be a little misleading is that these are the stats for all age groups.  A good example of why this is an issue without trying to make things too complicated is that the stats are likely to show a % of winning horses that has run 1m 6f. Try running a 2yo at 1m6f and you will have a very unhappy and tired baby horse. 

You can generally tell your fortunes quite quickly in the early stages of the race. The installation and the break are really important.  The trainers can only do so much to prepare a horse for competition.   

Even the calmest of horses can start to get upset being installed.  They have to deal with the new surroundings, the noise of the crowd and the commentary, the parade and the nerves of riding down to the start. When they arrive, they have to deal with the surprise of what happens next.  

All flat horses have stalls training and some react to it better than others. Problems can include claustrophobia, a fear of the unknown through to the horse not liking the feel of the stall touching his sides. The latter problem is reasonably easily solved by providing a horse with a blanket to protect her sides from touching the stalls. Nervous horses are sometimes blindfolded at the start.  I have seen the blindfold removed too late on more than a few occasions.  The phrase headless chicken takes on a whole new meaning. 

The draw is likely to be specific to 2yo with variances compared to an older field. For example, a young inexperienced horse may do better when starting near a corner if she can see through the turn.  A more experienced horse would be happy to trust the jockey and take the rail. 

I hope you enjoyed the read. If you did why not have a look at some of the other blogs on the website. I always appreciate it if my blog is retweeted on Twitter. It encourages me to write and allows more people to read my work.