Articles from the European Trainer Magazine archive - available to read online.
The TRM Trainer of the Quarter goes to Francois Cottin with more than €4 million in winnings and €600,000 advantage over Guillaume Macaire, the Chantilly handler is almost certain to be champion French jumps trainer this year.
Katherine Ford (European Trainer - Issue 24 / Winter 2008)
Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella is not in his tack room office between sets at Del Mar this morning. Instead, the son of a blacksmith is at the end of the long indoor barn, artfully sweeping a rasp across a back hoof of a two-year-old Storm Cat filly. When prompted, he says, simply, “The basics are what make this game work. Believe me, basic horsemanship will hold you in good stead. It's the most important thing. Knowing that a horse is shod as correct as he can be, that the blacksmith's doing a good job You? Embarrassed, he downplays his handiwork. No, I tinker around, that's all. I don't do it every day. And it doesn't make me any better than anybody else.
Frances J Karon (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
Bill Heller (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
Losing an under-achieving horse is a reality trainers live with daily. But how do you lose a horse who performs spectacularly in his debut? How do you lose a horse you’ve waited your whole lifetime to train?
Bill Heller (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
On Blue Grass Day in 2008, roughly 26,000 people in the stands went crazy as Visionaire, the last to load into the starting gate, took his place in the lineup. When the doors shut behind him, it was the signal that the feature race of Keeneland’s spring meet was only seconds away, and the crowd cheered, wild with anticipation. Everything fell perfectly into place, and head starter Robert “Spec” Alexander released the field: the shrill clang and sharp burst of the metal gate springing open gets the blood flowing like no other thrill associated with horseracing.
Frances J Karon (14 October 2008 - Issue Number 10)
Poor appetite in horses in training is not uncommon, whether this is a transient problem following racing, or, more regularly, during training in particular horses. In some situations, ‘failure to clean up’ may simply be explained by horses being offered more feed than they require and so they are being overfed, whilst in other instances, where it is accompanied with poor condition, the causes may be more complicated. Certainly, physiological mechanisms exist in horses to match energy and nutrient intake to daily requirements and these systems form the basis for self regulation of feed intake in horses in the wild or at grass.
Catherine Dunnett (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
Vitamins are a key part of the diet for racehorses and although the clinical signs associated with an overt deficiency or excess of one vitamin or another are rare, we should not presume that the level of vitamins provided in the diet is optimized for performance. Horses are, generally speaking, quite tolerant of sub-clinical deficiency or excess with regards to vitamins, and the margin of acceptable intake to prevent health issues is therefore relatively wide in most cases. However, maintenance of health is a separate issue compared to optimal performance, which is the ultimate target for horses in training.
Catherine Dunnett (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
For all the criticism Frank Stronach has received for turning Gulfstream Park from a racetrack into a casino/concert hall/shopping mall that offers racing, he's received very little credit for developing the best training center in the country, 49 miles north of Gulfstream in Boynton Beach: Palm Meadows.
Bill Heller (14 October 2008) Issue 10
Read MoreThe Autumn 2008 issue of our sister publication European Trainer includes an article on Worldwide Rules, in which Katherine Ford examines European efforts to establish a worldwide ruling system for governing horseracing. When we looked at running the same article in this issue we realized that America had to first look at coordinating their own rules of racing at a national level before joining in the international debate.
Frances J Karon
(14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
The Background - Lameness resulting from joint degeneration or
osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most prevalent diseases affecting
horses and the most common reason that vets are called out to
competition horses. OA causes inflammation of the joint lining and
progressive destruction of articular cartilage that covers the ends of
the bones composing a joint. This destruction decreases both the natural
shock-absorbing function and the range of motion of the joint,
ultimately resulting in lameness in the affected animal.
Howard Wilder (14 October 2008 - Issue 10)
Men have been interfering with the equine larynx for centuries, but so
far with only limited success.When a horse is heard to be making a noise
for the first time, it is of serious concern. Sometimes the concern is
only short lived as the horse may be unfit, have a mild respiratory
infection or perhaps a sore throat. However, on other occasions the
equine athlete in question is on the verge of being diagnosed with a
problem that will limit its performance for the rest of its life.
James Tate BVMS MRCVS (14 October 2008 - Issue 10)
The 2008 yearling sales have begun! Thousands of blue-blooded Thoroughbreds will have their conformation analyzed by trainers, owners and those conformation experts – bloodstock agents. Each catalogue is promoted with photographs of the current superstars sold at last year’s sale. However, does examining a horse’s conformation really give you a better idea as to whether you are looking at next year’s superstar?
James Tate BVMS MRCVS (European Trainer - issue 23 - Autumn 2008)
How do commercial cooling systems compare with the more traditional cooling methods? In recent years there has been an introduction of therapeutic cooling systems combining cold therapy with compression to produce a rapid reduction of soft tissue swelling in new injuries and therefore faster recovery times for many types of leg injuries.
Nicole Rossa PG Dip. (European Trainer - issue 23 - Autumn 2008)
This summer of 2008 has been great for Spanish sporting achievement. The national football team had a historic win in the Euro 2008 tournament, 44 years on from its previous international championship success, and Rafael Nadal was crowned with his fourth consecutive French Open, the title at Wimbledon, and Olympic Gold.
Katherine Ford (European Trainer- issue 23 - Autumn 2008)
Michael Dickinson is welcoming and instantly likeable, suffused with energy as he bounces around Tapeta Farm on the Chesapeake Bay in North East, Maryland. “I don’t say I’m good or great but I’m not boring”, he promises. Along that vein, the burning question is, why do people call him “The Mad Genius”, as coined by an American turf writer?
Frances J Karon (European Trainer - issue 23 - Autumn 2008)
Standing in the Hastings Park winner,s circle after her three-year-old
Krazy Koffee had captured the 83rd running of the $330,000-added British
Columbia Derby Sept. 21, trainer Cindy Krasner was a bit stunned. This
was the 51-year-old trainer's first BC Derby.
Bill Heller - (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
The number of champion jockeys who went on to become champion trainers afterwards can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In German racing history, only the great Hein Bollow scaled the heights in both professions, winning more than 1,000 races both as trainer and jockey. However, he will shortly be joined by Peter Schiergen, who was German champion jockey for five successive years in the 1990s, setting a European record of 273 winners in his best season of 1995, and retiring at the end of 1997 with 1451 winners to his credit.
David Conolly-Smith (European Trainer - issue 23 - Autumn 2008)
Vitamins are a key part of the diet for racehorses and although the clinical signs associated with an overt deficiency or excess of one vitamin or another are rare, we should not presume that the level of vitamins provided in the diet is optimised for performance.
Catherine Dunnett (Trainer Magazine - issue 23 - Autumn 2008)
Most body systems of the horse have some capacity to respond to physical training of the type used to improve fitness and performance in Thoroughbred racehorses. The art of training is of course assessing what each horse needs, when to start, when to back off and when to accept that you have reached a suitable level of fitness which should result in a horse being able to get close to achieving a performance consistent with its genetic potential. However, the one body system that training cannot improve on is the respiratory system and this article will highlight some of the implications of this.
Dr David Marlin (17 September 2008 - Issue number 9)
Are any of us old enough to remember a time when the training of
Thoroughbreds was about providing enough care and enough exercise to
obtain optimal performance? I suppose such a time existed, but not in
recent memory. Hands on therapy and horsemanship have been replaced by
fast acting and less labor intensive drugs and medications. By way of
example, in the last decade we have seen the elimination of equipment
such as the whirlpool tub.
Edward I. Halpern, CTT Exec - (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
