Discovering your horse
Every new horse from the Sales Ring is born as a 2yo or 3yo with the minimum possible fitness of 50% and with no Tack. Untacked horses are commonly referred to as 'nude' or 'naked'. It is up to you the owner and trainer to discover the maximum potential from each of your horses. To do this you need to train the horse over a variety of distances and goings and interpret the results of each Time Trial.
Each trainer will have their own method of training, personally I first concentrate on finding which distance(s) the horse prefers and only then will I look at finding its preferred going.
Time Trials always take place with your horse racing against a site-owned horse (the Barrier horse) and results are always expressed as a number of lengths either ahead or behind this Barrier horse. When training each horse the trainer has the ability to choose the age and sex of the Barrier horse, it is recommended that the age and sex of this horse be set to the same as the horse you are training. Time Trials also involve a random element (good day, bad day) so it is recommended averages over distances/goings are calculated to negate this factor as much as possible.
A generally accepted rule of thumb when trying to determine preferred distance(s) is to take any Time Trial as a benchmark and to add/subtract 0.50l per 200m when comparing other Time Trials at equal fitness to this. There are 3 specialist distances (1000, 1800 and 3200) which in my opinion do not conform to this rule and so I use a slightly different gauge. The more horses you train and Time Trials you analyse the better you will be able to determine your own gauge for comparing Time Trials between distances.
Some horses prefer a single distance, others prefer a single going and others still are able to perform equally well over a number of distances and/or goings.
On the first calendar day (and only the first calendar day) a horse is purchased from the Sales Ring it is able to be trained as many times as needed until it reaches a fitness level above 95%. On subsequent days any horse may only be trained a maximum of 3 times.
Training runs are also useful for determining the different effects of tack items on each horse. Running identical time trials (same course/distance/going) with various tack options can give valuable information as to how a particular horse reacts to each tack item. This is especially useful in the case of blinkers where it is possible for the horse to take a dislike to them and they would therefore be detrimental if fitted on race days.
At the end of each of the first two seasons for each horse the system generates what is known as an 'Age Change'. These Age Changes always generate improvements in each horse and you should therefore see their Time Trials improve in subsequent training. After your horse reaches the age of four it will not receive any further improvement. It is important to understand that these Age Changes are applied to every 2yo and 3yo at the end of the season and that each individual horse receives a different level of improvement. As such, horses which receive a below average improvement are commonly referred to as having a 'bad' or 'negative' Age Change and those that receive better than average are commonly referred to as having a 'good' or 'positive' Age Change.
Once again different trainers will have their own opinions as to what constitutes a 'good' or 'bad' Age Change, some work on the basis of percentage improvement and some work on the improvement in terms of lengths. Personally I calculate both.
Measuring Age Changes is something that requires experience and I feel that even the worst horses can teach you something in this regard. If any horse is not going to cost money (does not require payment of Stabling Fees) to experience an Age Change then I will train it through that period and analyse the results even though the horse may never see a racetrack.