The point I was trying to make on the message board about 2yo's. I tried to make the statement; that just because you have 2yo's, doesn't mean they all should be raced. Most of them are a year away from being mature enough to win a race, their physical qualities have not been developed yet.
I also tried to state; since I have been playing this game (which is not quite 3 months yet) I have noticed many, too many 3yo's that have raced 15 - 25 times already. Many with only one win to account for this onslaught of racing. Not are they over raceed, but their sires are notorious for progeny that don't develop physically until they reach the age of 3.5 years, some even later than that. Racing them at 2 years of age is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.
I claimed this horse a few races ago, as you can see she has been way over raced as a 2yo and young 3yo. Rainbow Quest was a champion turf horse bred to run all day. His progeny usually don't reach a racing maturity until the age of 3.5 to 4.0 years old. I plan to give her a well needed 4-6 month rest in hopes of salvaging a few good races from her. Will I succeed? I don't know, but at least I'm going to do what lies in the best interest of the horse.
I was hoping somebody would ask that question. There are many ways
Two very good periodicals:
These are two excellent weekly publications that cover all aspects of the thoroughbred industry. One if not both can be found at your local news-stand. For other locations and subscription information, contact them through their web-sites.
Each magazine has their own Leading Sire charts:
www.chef-de-race.com This site has an abbundance of information. One site usually leads you to more sites. Surf them.
A book that I highly recommend, that also gives you information of when it might be good to run your horse:
If you came into this game thinking all you had to do was put your hand in a bag and pull out a bunch of 2yo's and race them (rev-em-up-and-go), your're in for a shock.
But the good part is that now you have your feet wet, they weren't before. Now you can learn, as the rest of us are learning.
July 2, 1999
