Last year someone suggested to me that about once a year I should give my horse a month or 2 rest (at home). Does anyone else do this? I was just wondering because my horses have raced around 8 times this year and I was wondering if I should give them a break. My two horses I’m trying to decide if I should give them a rest is Goodnightandgoodluck and Screamingtothemax. They still seem to be running well though. Should I wait until they have raced about 12 races and then give them a long rest? What do you think?
And one more question… how do you make a link saying the horse’s name so when you click on it, you go to the horses page (I tried using the insert hyperlink button, but I didn’t do it right).
I tend to watch their race time and workout times. Also the jockey comments like “So and so seems tired” means they get a break but the bolting comments means their still probably fine. If they are consistently slowing down or not placing well when they usually do I send them home for a while. Usually this means a rhythm of three or four races, two weeks off, three or four races, two weeks off but it depends on the horse. I’ve had one guy run about 20 fantastic, consistent times this year with few breaks and he’s only recently got a bit grumpy and trailing behind so he got a long stretch. But then I have this mare that if I give her too long off she doesn’t want to come back and it takes a while for her to get back into the groove. At the same time if she doesn’t get her break she refuses to run. It seems to work for me but it means I have to keep detailed notes on each horse.
I generally ship mine home after 2 or 3 races. It might be a little over kill but many of mine just seem to go down hill after their 2nd or 3rd race and don’t do better until they’ve been sent home.
I usually give them two weeks off after about four-five races, but right now they’ve been on the road for a while and only one of them seems to be slowing down. One of my horses hasn’t been home since July but the longer he’s on the road the more consistent he seems to become (that, and I shortened him up to sprints). My star horse hates shipping, though, so I try not to move him too much. He gets ultra grumpy and needs a race to get into running again which I found out too late.
Also, you should seriously consider the shipping costs. Since I’m based in California, I can’t ship my horses home from the East Coast as often as I would like.
I like to go 2 to 3 races and ship home for 2 wks or so.
I have one that I send home after every race( I keep her races at Belmont, Aqueduct & maybe Woodbine). Since I started this with her this yr, she has earned over 300 pts and over $1 mil in earnings. BUT, the others don’t require the special pampering.
Remember, each horse is different and each require different things. Play with them and see what works.
unless they are o/s for a campaign I have mapped out 