How Tired is Tired?

One of the greatest debates to be had in the game is the one over REST. This is a subject close to my heart as there is nothing more saddening than seeing a good horse over run and turn sour. Its a personal choice which means that if I speak to several trainers I will probably get several different answers. One the one hand thats a good thing as different types of horse respond in different ways to more rest, less racing or more racing, less rest. On the other hand a trainer who rests their horses for long spells can find it frustrating to see another trainer running his (or her!) horses week in week out.

Whilst I dont claim to be an expert, and am just a simple journalist, I thought it wouldnt hurt to express how I interpret the rest/run theory.

Lets start with ARs. Depending on when your horse was born it will have a line in its AR referring to its powers of recovery. Some will say "machine", others "fairly quickly" or "average" or some the dreaded "slow". (The newer ARs dont refer to rest so it will be interesting to see how the training fraternity use them).

I will use three horses as examples as to how I see rest periods.

1. RECOVERS LIKE A MACHINE! Yes, this is the one that we all want if we are honest, a horse that can race week in week out and bring the stable lots of money! But we still have to balance the health of the horse with the health of the stable bank balance. So you enter this horse in a race on 1st November 2006. It wins and has no injuries. So you look for another race and see one on 13th November but thats only 12 days rest. Do you enter? That depends entirely on the trainer. Some will say sure the horse had an easy race and is raring to go and enter a horse within 7days of their last run, whilst others would be looking for a race on or after 15th November, ie following the recommended rest period of 14 days.

2. RECOVERS AT AVERAGE RATE. OK not so good but average isnt a disaster. This horse also ran on 1st November, placing and returned sore for 2 days. When do you start to look for a race? Simple math: 14 days rest + 2 days sore = 16days, therefore earliest race should be at or after 17th November. But as this horse only recovers "at average rate", you should be looking at adding at least another 5 - 7 days to the rest period so the equation now reads: 20 days rest + 2 days sore = 22 days, so a race on or after 23rd November.

3. SLOW TO RECOVER. Oh dear what to do with a horse that is fragile? The simple answer is to run sparingly. So you run this "glass" horse on 1st November, it wins but returns with 10days injured. Now the Advanced math course kicks in. 14 days rest + 10 days injured = 24 days, so next race wouldnt be until at least 25th November. But the horse is injured not sore so it would make sense to DOUBLE the extra rest periods, right? Lets try the math again - 14 days rest + 10 days injured + 10 days recuperation = 34 days. Now the calendar flips over into December and you are looking at races from 5th December onwards.

So to simplify, if you horse come back sore, just add the sore days to the 14 days rest. If it comes back injured, double the days and add them to the 14 days. The Racing Steward recommends a minimum of 14 days rest so LISTEN TO HER! The sore/injured list isnt there for bedtime reading either its a serious part of the game.

OK - a lot of you wont agree with any of this, some will agree with some of this and others will put this in as your racing bible! As I stated at the start of this post, the subject of REST is highly flammable and this post could become incendary! But a very very simple equation is that an injured horse cant earn any money so why risk your livelihood by running a horse with little or no rest. So a good rule of thumb for new trainers is run little and rest often - try to place your horse in a race that has a good chance of earning a purse rather than in as many big races as possible in the hope that maybe they will get something.

I know there are several horses out there who are exceptions to the rule and run well week in week out and never get sore, injured and earn a fortune BUT these are few and far between. This may be Fantasy and Simulation but a little bit of Realisim in some parts works wonders!