{"id":8465,"date":"2010-09-19T23:00:54","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T23:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=8465"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"oldbtb_99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/?p=8465","title":{"rendered":"2 Year Olds"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was asked the other day how do I take care of a 2 year old horse that I think could turn out to be special. Here are a few key things I have found over the years. I will tell you this I do feel qualified to talk on this as I had some of the top two year olds, most were sprinters but I did have many #1 and #2 ranked baby horses for many years.<\/p>\n

Why worry about baby horses\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

After all those baby horses, I learned lots of rest is key. You see horses out there with many starts running once a month. That is fine if you do not want your horse to survive past two. I have seen only a handful of horses where that talent continues beyond 2 if they are over-raced. I had tons of great two year olds but the second they turned three they never ran a lick. For example, White Graeme was my star baby. He ran third in the Breeders Bowl Juvenile and won several graded races. He maybe won 2 allowances in the following two years and they were severely restricted. Also, note that he was a bargain breed and bargains are generally good for only one season. <\/p>\n

Weeks between races<\/i><\/p>\n

What is over-racing for a 2 year old? Well if I debut a horse in February, I try to give 6-7 weeks in between races. Initially I give them all 7, then around May if they come back little groggy they get 6 weeks, and needs rest 7 if they come back ready to go (fairly uncommon) you can run them at 5 weeks. Around October, I start treating them like I would my three year olds. 5 weeks rest for little groggy and 6 or 7 for needs rest. If you have babies coming back ready to go you can do 5 weeks also at this point or start stepping them up to 4. I find this schedule I planned is in coordination with how the horse comes back. In February, almost all babies come back needs rest if you run them at all out. In May, some horses start to come home a little groggy. In October, most come home little groggy and some start coming home ready to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0
One thing I have noted is babies that get 8 weeks rest show slower improvement. This can be good if you know your horse is bred for long races. But I find this is like running a horse off a lay off every time. Some horses just don\u2019t run well off layoffs and that can be a problem for a horse that is only running on long rests.<\/p>\n

Good at 3 or only at 2?<\/i><\/p>\n

This plan is based on what I find keeps my horses sound and running. The next step is hard. If the baby is outstanding and can win big races at two you have a decision to make. Keep the babies running all year on the schedule and aim for big races? This decision for me has a lot to do with breeding. If I breed a cheaper horse and it starts running amazing at two, I push it, maybe less rest, harder races. If that doesn\u2019t pay off with a few wins, I go back to the schedule. If it runs well then you have to weigh the risk of it only being good at two, or you push it and it gets so worn out it cannot run at three. <\/p>\n

Test, if your baby breaks a maiden and wins it easy, I try to go to an allowance. Especially this time of the year I covered 7 baby graded races in the last two weeks, the horses with only 1 start or only a maiden win did not win the graded races. My advice is early in the year when everyone only has one win go for it. But as the year moves on do not push your horse so hard. Enter a stake and try to find one that is light. I put a Henny Hughes colt in a stakes last week off a maiden win, got my first stakes placing of the year for a two year old. He didn\u2019t win as most don\u2019t but I think he will be able to do so with longer distance. I use this example to show you it can work. But here I think is the key. I picked a small field race, he ran a 77 in that race to finish second, that shows you how slow it was. Allowance races are running faster than that. In most cases I pick a small allowance field for a 2nd start. I think pushing a baby two fast to graded tends to ruin them or at least their 2 year old career if you follow my schedule.<\/p><\/div>\n

That\u2019s why I think the rest is key, if a baby is pushed too hard races as a baby, then at 5 starts gets 10 weeks off. They can come back at three and be their best; it\u2019s a way to re-energize your horse. <\/p>\n

The secret…<\/i><\/p>\n

My biggest secret in changing my sim operation from lots of two year olds to having sharp three year old and up horses is this. At 5 starts they get 10 weeks rest. Obviously this can be hard if you\u2019re aiming for the Breeders Bowl or something. I might go as far as 6 starts with some long rests in between. But if you think your horse will be better at 3 or older, it works. At 5 starts give that baby 8-10 weeks rest and I like to do 10. This allows the baby some time off and generally they come back super fresh and can be tough early in the year. I have talked to a lot of trainers and they do this.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another thing I have tried and discovered is when a baby debuts can make a difference. I tracked when my two year olds started last year and how they did at 3. The babies I started really early were good but the ones I started in April on were much better. I breed horses similar and tested them starting one early and one late. I found those two year olds that started later one, they had less starts at 2 and that 8-10 week rest had them starting the first week of the New Year. Two, the ones that started early ran and then got the break then started back up in December. Despite some excellent breeding they just did not have that explosion of improvement. They got there but it was very slow. I like 5-6 starts at two, this includes after the break in December. Lots of trainers I have mentioned scoffed at this and I don\u2019t blame them I can\u2019t find any reason for my data to be this way other than less starts equals a 3 year old with more fire.<\/div>\n
I tried this theory out this year, my first horses started mid April, and they have done well and are not as fast as some of the other horses this year. However, LOTS of potential for good three year olds. About start number 3-4 for most of them and there some monsters in progress. We will see how they turn out at three, for now the jury is out.<\/p>\n

A summary<\/i>
Follow a rest schedule:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • February to May- 7 weeks rest for all starts<\/li>\n
  • May to \u2013August \u2013 6 weeks for little groggy or ready to go, 7 for needs rest.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  • August +- 5 weeks little groggy, 4 for ready to go, 6 -7 for needs rest.<\/li>\n
  • At 5-6 starts 8-10 weeks rest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Maybe a trick, the later the start the better you\u2019re two year old will handle turning three.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What to do with a hopefully good 2 year old<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}