Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: A ‘Good’ Race Record, Part III

This week focuses on the horses that ran 15 – 30 races. Read on to learn more about what to look for and which questions to ask.

Welcome to the next installment of Thoroughbred Logic. In this weekly series, Anthropologist and trainer Aubrey Graham, of Kivu Sport Horses, offers insight and training experience when it comes to working with Thoroughbreds (although much will apply to all breeds). This week ride along as Aubrey shares her logic on what constitutes a good race record for an off-track Thoroughbred.

Carrying on from the last two weeks, today I tackle the bracket of horses who aren’t quite Warhorses (50+ races — that’s next week), but definitely had a significant racing career. It has also come to my attention that my love for probing records and gathering all the tiny shreds of data I can on a horse should be no surprise. I’m an Anthropologist. The goal in cultural anthropology is to understand things that may be foreign to us in the first place, but also to try to craft an understanding and a narrative that ties together all of the tiny bits and pieces, often leaving one with more questions than answers. Reading race records and trying to reconstruct the history of a horse is really not that different… 

Fifteen to 30 races

“What types of races were they running?” “Why did they keep running them?” “How did they run?” and “Why did they stop running them?”

Ranger (Cowboy Night, owned by Amanda Boomer) ran 17 times and brought in $102,000 with a pretty consistent one-racea-month record. He left the track in 2019 and has since made a stellar sporthorse with both the brain and soundness for the mid-levels. Oh and yes, he still makes that face when riding too. Photo by Nikki Sherman courtesy of Turning For Home.

As we start getting into the double digits number of races, horses are often four to seven years old (though they may be older). Their records can be more varied and can take a bit more skill/time to read. Once a horse has run more than the “are you able to be a racehorse?” number of races, they have proven that they enjoy (or at very least are willing to successfully do) their job. Thus, the questions I pose when looking at the data shift away from topics surrounding what kept them from being excellent racehorses. Hell, this category has proven that they are fast (or at least can and will run). Rather, now the questions focus more on how they ran, the people involved, why they continued to run, and what twists and turns their careers took in the process.

Often horses who ran more than 15 races (give or take) fall into two categories (and yes, often, a career can span both): A horse that someone (or some people) are invested in and is doing well, or a horse who folks feel they can eek a little more money out of. I find myself thinking about these two lines of thought as narrative undercurrents when trying to assess the record and the potential for soundness and the care they may need in their second careers.

Ramen (Plamen) ran 29 times and came off the track looking no worse for ware — hoof angles aside. Here he is in May of this year. Photo by the Kivu Team.

But getting back to the nuts and bolts of the race record for these horses, I’m curious about how  they ran. When I think through this question, I look at the type of races, the speed figures, and the notes in the charts. Again, as I mentioned last week, I’m hoping to find consistency and the ability to watch a career move through highs and plateaus with some expected lows. I expect to see races reduce from Stakes or Allowances to higher dollar Claiming races, eventually maybe heading to lower dollar claimers.

I also expect to see horses move from what I would call top tier tracks to mid-range establishments, to perhaps less well-known or lower tier running spaces. While I expect a career to peak and then wane, I love to see a horse that is run in quality races where they do well and they are retired from racing before being burned out at lower level tracks and repeated runs in low-figure claimers.

Jockeys mount up in the paddock before the race at Finger Lakes Racetrack and Casino earlier this season. Photo by author.

The fun part of these longer-running horses is that you can also follow their shifts and changes along the way. Where they may have declined on one track or with one trainer, they might rise back up in the class of the races the following year, prompting the question: what changed? What worked well for them? Was it a new trainer/owner? Some time off? A new wellness and training plan?

If I get to be choosy, I also love seeing horses who remained with the same trainer and the same owners for a long period of time. I love working with Winchester Place Thoroughbreds for this reason, as nearly all of the horses they breed remain in their ownership and within a range of three or so quality trainers.

Often when that is the case, one can start making assumptions about the care for the horse as well as the knowledge of their history. Yes, yes, assumptions are dangerous, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and assume that a horse that runs 27 times for a trainer is looked after carefully. I can’t assume that one way or another for a horse who runs twice for one person and is claimed – they simply may or may not be afforded the same care. A lot of information gets muddled around when horses change hands. Scars lose their explanatory stories, bumps and thickenings become non-issues unless they impact the horse’s race ability.

Inevitably, due to the number of races and the years that they span, there will be some gaps in these well-run horses’ racing records. And, like any gap, these ought to be probed for potential medical issues and vet list visits. As one approaches this higher number of races, something is bound to have happened at some point, whether on the human front or the horse front, that breaks up a consistent race record. The great thing with the gaps for these horses is that there is a lot of data to help flesh out a narrative that either provides confidence in purchasing a horse or makes me wonder what happened and might provoke some additional thought.

Ramen (Plamen) ran 29 times but had a gap in his record near the second half of his career. Screenshot from Equibase.com

For instance, if I see a six-plus-month break in racing in a good runner’s record, I can assume sure, something needed to be fixed. The great part about this category of horses, though, is that if I look at their return to racing, I will be able to see how they came back from whatever it was that sidelined them. If they are running similar races with the same trainer to before the break and manage to get back in a rhythm of racing every couple weeks successfully, I’m ok with it and I’m going to assume whatever happened was properly managed. Yes, yes, lots of assumptions – but we’re constructing a narrative and a history from bits and bobs of data, so … that’s what we have.

Ramen (Plamen) is one of my RRP Makeover hopefuls for this year who has also begun a successful fox hunting career. He has a sizable gap in his record from April of 2022 to December of 2022. OK. I noted the gap, but then looked at his return to the track. At that race before the break in his record, he ran third with a speed figure of 86 at Laurel Park. He returned eight months later to a similar level claiming race at the same track with a speed figure of 89. From there, he ran monthly for another 13 races, all with mostly similar stats.

Ramen got a chance to chase along behind the hounds last month with the Genesee Valley Hunt. Photo by author.

Ramen’s race record break doesn’t bother me – there’s nothing in the sport horse world that will match the stress of racing on a body, and if they hold up for another 13 races, they’re likely good to go. On the flip side, if they come back from a big race, run twice more with minimal success and then retire, I might have more questions about what that gap-related issue might have been and might assume that they precipitated retirement and perhaps may continue to cause issues in a second career.

Another data-driven narrative I look at is a return to running after a gap with a new owner/trainer and a significant decrease in the class of races or the quality of the tracks. This might make me squint a bit and try to dig further into the “what happened there?” question — and make sure I get good jog video of the horse or encourage a buyer to PPE before sticking them on a trailer.

Monk (Sydster) is now happily retired with the Stephanie Finnell, but I perhaps should have looked harder at the number of times he was claimed and the associated record. Unfortunately, his stifle was beyond medical intervention in a second career, but he remains happily pasture sound and lucky enough to have the field he needs. Photo by the Kivu Team.

Similarly, if a horse is claimed and is not run soon after being claimed — within a few weeks — I raise questions about what the trainer needs to fix. The nice thing about racing is that it is an income-driven industry. Horses usually are there to make people money. Keep in mind that horses cost money daily (don’t we know this all too well?), and trainers often pay a stall rate, so the longer that claiming horse waits to run, the less ideal the situation. So  if a horse is claimed and runs a week or two later, I don’t make much of a fuss. But if they are claimed and each time there is a gap in their record (maybe even two to three months), I am going to assume that the trainers are trying to get them sound enough in brain and body to be successful. Thus, I have more questions to ask.

Monk is now happily retired with Stephanie Finnell and her herd in Georgia. Photo by author.

And to close up this week’s litany of questions which often lack proper answers, one thing I want to know about these horses is why they were retired when they were. There’s always one more race these guys can run, so the choice to retire them is not arbitrary. There is usually a good answer here – they simply slowed down, they told the trainer it was time, their heart was just not in it anymore, the owner just didn’t want to risk running them at a lower level where they would still be competitive, or they decided to retire them before having to winter them again and have to bring them back for a few more races in the spring. There are lots of reasons here and keeping with the undertones I mentioned above, I always hope that these horses are retired for the right reasons, with good timing, while in the hands of people who want to do right by the horse. That is not always the case, but sometimes the record can point out when it is.

Go ride folks and enjoy the narrative reconstruction from a race record. I’ll be back around next week with some Warhorse stories and questions about the seriously committed, long-running (time wise, not furlongs) racehorses.

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