Understanding Thoroughbred Morning Workouts

Understanding Thoroughbred Morning Workouts: In all sports, athletes need to prepare for their upcoming game or match. In horse racing it’s the same, the horses need to train to stays sharp for the demanding challenges of a race. The morning workouts are a very useful tool for handicappers and for horse racing fans, if they learn to read them appropriately. There are some types of workouts that the beginners at the tracks must understand to enhance his abilities to handicap races.

The basic types of thoroughbred workouts are “Breezing” (B) and “Handily” (H). Breezing means the horse works entirely without urging at a moderate speed. Handily means the rider, giving the horse a hand ride, rolling his knuckles in the horse’s neck, is urging the horse. This work is usually faster than breezing. For example, if two horses work 5 Furlongs in 1:00, but one of them does it just breezing, that horse did a better job. A one-second difference is allowed between breezes and handily workouts of 5 furlongs or less.

Most of the workouts are not made from a standing point; usually the horse is galloping when he reaches the point the work starts to be timed, but sometimes the horse works starting from the gate. A workout handily from the gate (Hg), is usually times around a second slower than a Handily (H) work.

The baby horses usually record workouts from the starting gate as a requirement, but if you see too many works from the gate, that horse probably has some troubles at the starting gate. Another good point to take into account is the track where the horse is training. In the past performances, the workout lines shows if the horse works in the training track (tr.t.) or in the main track. The training tracks are slower, to help the horses to stamina.

In turf workouts, it’s really important to notice that sometimes the abbreviation (d) appears in the workout lines. This means “dogs” or rubber cones are positioned on the ground to keep horses away from the rail to allow the inside sector to recover from the effects of rain. Those works are slower than the regular works because the horse must cover more ground going wide.

Finally, it’s really important to know that the faster work is not always the best work. Not only is the workout time important, we must also check the workout pattern. The key is to try to figure out the successful pattern of the trainer. If the trainer’s strategy worked in the past, it can be successful again. It takes time to understand the workouts, but once the horseplayer is familiar with them, they can take advantage and have a more profitable day at the track.