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How to Train Horses By JULIUS BAUER. I 4 ARTICLE VHI. Training horses for distance races every- thing over one mile being considered a distance is not much different from training them for sprints. Let me relate an experience of my own back in 1903 with Igniter. I did something with him in the way of training work which earned me the temporary title of "crazy man." Later events, however, proved my method to be correct, for the proof was in the pudding, in this case victory in the annual Champion Stakes at Sheeps-head Bay. Incidentally, Igniter holds the time record for this race today, the stake having been discontinued. The track long since has passed out of existence. Igniter was a four-year-old irr 1903. I started him first on May 7, 1903, and spaced his appearances under colors to give him plenty of rest in between. Seven times the son of Lamplighter faced the barrier and seven times he came back to the stable a beaten horse. I had given him the usual work I have described in previous articles and he seemed to respond for the first month, then he began to lose weight. From May 7 to July 4 he started seven times as stated above, but could not win. I decided to "stop" him, which means that I gave him no gallops or breezes whatsoever, walking him for one hour morning and evening. I gave him all he would eat, but no more. That amounted to twelve quarts of oats, split into three meals of four quarts each. I gave him a mash about three times a week, the mash taking the place of the evening meal. THRIVES ON TREATMENT. Igniter seemed to thrive on this treatment, having had most of July in which to come back to himself. He got the walking exercise during July and then my usual hard-ening-up routine during the first half of August and was breezed the last two weeks of the same month. On September 7 I started him in the Twin City Handicap, at one mile and a quarter, at Sheepshead Bay. I thought he had a good chance, but as he was also in the Annual Champion Stakes at the same track five days later, I gave my rider, Hicks, orders to work him out after the race over an extra mile. The race being a mile and a quarter, this made his work two miles and a quarter, the same route as the Annual Champion. The reason I did this was because the time was so short between the two races. McChesney, one of the great stars of the turf, affectionately called "Big Mac," was the winner of that twentieth renewal of the Twin City Handicap, with Hermes second and His Eminence third. Those were names to conjure with in the heyday of the American turf. Caughnawaga was also a starter in the race, yet I though Igniter had a good chance. Hicks, however, had some bad luck, but he carried out my instructions, and instead of pulling Igniter up at the finish went on an extra mile. WALKS IGNITER. I walked Igniter the next day and on the following three days merely cantered him to keep him limbered up. In the Annual Champion Stakes he was in peak form, winning from Douro by two lengths, with Major Daingerfield, winner of the race in the previous year, eight lengths behind my horse. The net value of the stake was 9,650. Igniter set the time record for the race, 3:53, which stands to this day. Igniter did some real running that day at Sheepshead Bay as you can see if you will scan the history of the race as shown in the American Racing Manual. Susbequent winners were Stalwart, the great Sysonby, whose bones are preserved today in a New York Museum as an ideal skeletal structure of a thoroughbred; Accountant, Salvidere and King James. Other great horses which tried and failed in the Annual Champion were Ethelbert, Broomstick, Ballot, Oiseau and Ironsides. Readers will pardon me from digressing from the real matter at hand that of training horses. However, I cite Igniters case merely to illustrate that hard and fast rules in training are a fallacy. They dont work out. You can get a basic system, however, which will apply in the majority of cases. The following schedule is for a ,000 plater which likes a route. In Article VII we had brought both sprinters and stayers up to their third fast work, or breeze. The routers had had two three-eighths breezes and one over three-quarters. If I had such, a horse and knew that a one mile and a quarter race for "hides of his class" was to appear in the condition book one month away, his fourth work would be over one mile. TRAINING SCHEDULE. The schedule, brought down to detail, follows: Saturday Three-eighths of a mile, well within himself. Tuesday Three-eighths of a mile, on own courage. , Friday Three-quarters of a mile, on his own courage. Monday One mile, on his own courage. Thursday Three-quarters of a mile, under a hand ride. He should shade 1:15 for a satisfactory performance. Monday One mile, on his own courage. 1:50 or better for satisfaction. Thursday One mile and a quarter, without urging. 2:12 or better required. Monday Three-quarters of a mile. Make him run without driving him out. He should improve one second or more over previous three-quarters. 1:14 or better. Thursday One Mile. Last work before starting. I consider 1:44 or better, but not much faster, a satisfactory training performance. Sunday Final "blow-out." Three-eighths for speed and make him run. Sundays are always a day of rest, both for myself and the fibrses where the exigencies of the occasion do not demand otherwise. Our stayer started Monday, otherwise 1 1 would not have blown him out on Sunday. REGULAR EXERCISE. Dont forget that on the days other than specified by the above schedule, the horses get their usual three-quarters jog and one mile and a quarter condition gallops. On the day after one of my horses race, I always walk him. I do the same on Sundays when none of my charges is entered on Monday. I never burden my riders with a lot of instructions. The only information I give them is the peculiarities of their mounts, if they have any. If I have a horse with great early speed and he is inclined to stop I merely tell them to restrain him early without choking him to death and save his speed for the latter stages of the race, where the real racing begins. A horse has only one real burst of speed. If he lets loose too soon with this one real effort he. probably will not have anything left if challenged in the stretch. Earl Sande, one of the greatest riders ever developed in this country, has said that he listened to hours of instructions from owners and trainers, then promptly forgot all of it when the race began. Some horses will bear out, others bear in. Some like to run on the rail and some cannot be pulled off the pole position. You can acquaint your jockey with these idiosyncra-cies, and if he is a good boy hell remember them and profit from the information. Some horses will get to the front and having obtained that position are inclined to loaf. A good jockey will guard against this if he knows the horse is so inclined. To Be Continued.
