The theoretical Strat-o-Matic game...

[JohnTChance]

GRINDSTONE won the 1996 Kentucky Derby with a ThoroGraph 5.
ALYSHEBA won the 1987 Kentucky Derby with a ThoroGraph 6.
FERDINAND won the 1986 Kentucky Derby with a ThoroGraph 7.

So in the theoretical Strat-o-Matic game of handicapping between generations, BARBARO, who ran a -2.5, destroys the 1996 Derby winner and the rest of the field that year by a whopping 15 lengths!!? BARBARO beats ALYSHEBA by 16 lengths!!? And BARBARO beats FERDINAND by 19 lenghts!!? NINETEEN LENGTHS!!!

It brings us back to the entire \"Are Horses Getting Faster?\" discussion. And WHY they\'re getting faster. Different training methods and shoeing equipment? Over-nutrition? Super-nutrition? Could legal steroids have played a part in BARBARO\'s best-ever Derby ThoroGraph and subsequent breakdown? Everyone has their own conclusion.

[TGJB]

Oh no, not again...

Anybody who wants to know my position, read \"Are Racehorses Getting Faster\", in the archive section of this site.

Anybody who wants to take the other side better say something new or I\'m deleting it. We\'ve done this too many times, and I\'m neither going to waste more time on it nor let stuff stand unanswered.

[imallin]

Harness horses have improved about 5 seconds in the last 25 years.

Great harness horses from 1980 were pacing miles in 153 and that was smoking.

Now, 10k claimers go 153.

The best horses are going 148 or thereabouts.

A 153 mile in 1980 is equivalent to a 148 today.

[alm]

Don\'t misunderstand the following.  I am not claiming to be the poster boy for this subject, however....

I began breeding horses over 20 years ago.  I have been small time, but serious throughout.  I have had a limited number of mares.

About five years ago I became a follower of Equix Biomechanics and the folks who have evolved from that group.  Of ALL the nonsense that is out there in terms of breeding, Equix\'s approach is the most commonsense of all.

Prior to using their approach with my small band, I could only follow Olin Gentry\'s wisdom in learning from my mistakes and breeding to stallions that best matched my mares.  Things improved for me, but following Equix all of my foals started performing at a MUCH higher level.  My mares had always gottenn winners, but now I am getting stakes level horses.

Is the breed improving?  Without a doubt.  The people with real money (not me) who can breed superior mares (not mine) with stallions who match their phenotypes are producing the Funny Cides and Smarty Jones of our time.  And these horses are running faster than their mares\' predecessor foals, just as mine are.

What is the Equix connection to the two mentioned above?  Simple, Equix identified Distorted Humor and Elusive Quality as potentially great stallions before any of their foals began running.  

Although I have no rational reason for saying so, I also think the breed is getting tougher, genetic breathing or airflow issues aside (that will be reserved for another post.)

[asfufh]

http://www.equixbio.com/index.htm