BILL PRESSEY Q&A

[albrookes]

Many thanks to Bill for his detailed answers. I hope you all enjoyed it.

He has very kindly asked me to add the following:

Specifically:

Recommendation 2: Catastrophic Injuries
• Promotion of standardized pre-race exam protocol
1. Develop a standardized protocol and procedures for pre-race examinations

Recommendation 4: Education
• Develop continuing education programs for trainers

There exists a precedent for using a heart rate monitor in conjunction with equine racing. Many endurance races of 30 miles and over require the checking of an exercising horse’s heart rate during several checkpoints throughout the course. Should the heart rate fall outside of the normal ranges, the horse is disqualified from the competition and immediately examined by trained personnel.

Through the use of a heart rate monitor/GPS unit, one can outfit a horse in under 30seconds with the equipment required to measure and record equine heart rate, speed, and distance during any gallop, breeze, or race.

The resulting info serves much as an exercise stress test does in a human, observing and quantifying the horse’s heart rate response before, during, and after an exercise bout will indicate the presence of abnormalities. The equine heart is the best vital sign of lameness, illness, or injury – often weeks before any visual cues are apparent to the trainer.

For the derby length of 10 furlongs, I would recommend the following:

-Test to encompass 12s/furlong pace at 60-70% of race distance for these elite horses

-1.25 mile race requires 6 furlongs breeze in 1min12sec

-Taken and passed, no less than 3 days before race, no more than 10 – ideal would be 7 days out.

-Recovery heart rate must fall to 120bpm within 2 minutes, and 80bpm within 10 minutes of peak work speed. (2min period reflective of horse being cooled down properly, 10min period reflects fitness level/conditioning of horse for the effort.)

In my opinion we must strive to prove that a horse is conditioned appropriately for a 6 furlong effort the week before being asked to race 10 furlongs. Horses that have undiagnosed problems with bone remodeling, tendon or ligament stability, or systemic illness or infection will not pass such a test.

Continuing Education for Trainers

With my background in exercise physiology I can structure an education program for trainers counseling them on a variety of topics directly responsible for the health and well-being of their animals.

Some topics to include:

-Proper warm up prior to race to decrease chance of injury
-Minimum training threshold necessary to ensure appropriate fitness
-How to spot the signs of overtraining syndrome
-Use of correct nutrition/diet practices to ensure proper recovery from exercise
-Establishing baseline resting heart rate data for each horse as a vital sign

[Cav]

Many thanks to Bill. Very interesting set of answers, although the paddock watchers might not agree.

[Cav]

Many thanks to Bill. Very interesting set of answers, although the paddock watchers might not agree. You’d imagine some top trainers like Aidan O Brien are already using the technology and methods outlined by Bill in his final post, which probably plays a large part in their overall success. Isn’t it amazing how much data is available from equipment that can be fitted in 30 seconds.

[Prufrock]

A tremendous response: I wish I had thought of more/better questions now!

At the risk of being accused of spamming, Jeremy Gask uses most/all of the scientific approaches mentioned.

[albrookes]

Thanks for your questions guys. Bill’s extremely knowledgeable/helpful so it was good to put some informed Qs to him.

We did a little 5-To-Follow with Jeremy the other week (One Way Or Another was one of them!) and I did notice when browsing his website the quality of his set-up and his use of technology. I thought the tilting floor in one of the boxes was very intriguing.

[Drone]

Thank you Bill, impressive and thought-provoking answers

A little tale regarding paddock watching:

Prior to the Yorkshire Oaks in 2004 I was by the pre-parade ring and casting my much-less-than-expert eye over the hot favourite Punctilious, who I noted to be "over-fit, too much ribcage showing"

Gerald Delamere was nearby and a glance over his shoulder revealed a "very fit" scrawled over Punctilious’ name; and these were the words he committed to print in the subsequent Weekender

Timeform meanwhile reported that "she didn’t take the eye at all beforehand"

So two revered sources seemingly at loggerheads with me stuck in the middle somewhere

Punctilious finished fourth at 6/4 fav

Make of that what you will

[Author]

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